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Deer Repellent
Updated 7/10/00

We all know that deer will damage and feed on a wide variety of fruits and vegetables such as crops, lettuce, grapes, corn, pumpkins, berries, tomatoes, fruit trees and other plants. Because white-tailed deer lack upper incisor teeth, deer damage leaves a jagged edge on twigs or stems, compared with a clean-cut surface left by rodents and rabbit feeding. Vegetables are readily eaten and entire gardens may be destroyed. Sweet corn tips are eaten, including the silk and one to two inches of the ear, but occasionally plants are grazed to the ground. In addition, deer trample many crops as they move about the field.

Deer are active in Connecticut year round. They breed from October to December. Fawns are born in May and June. They usually weigh about eight pounds at birth and their weight increases over the next seven or eight years. Early morning and late evening is usually when deer like to feed. However, they seem to do it without being seen. Damage by deer in Connecticut in increasing as residential development forces deer into smaller and smaller habitats and wild food sources decrease.

Most of the year, deer are protected. However, during hunting season they are not safe. Many methods of destroying deer are illegal and unsafe to domestic animals and humans.