Choot him. Same problem here, but in the winter when it gets tough for them to find grub. Bunnies do the same. I've had 'em girdle several apple trees, so we planted more in the fenced garden. Now, my wife leaves the garden gate open. I must be missing something, 'cause that doesn't seem right.
That seems like a weird way to forage. But I've had them pull day lilies right out of the ground and it seems every year I find them eating something I didn't think they would. Not just a testing nibble like they do, but a downright stand there and have lunch deal. This morning I noticed my pots of spinach got a trimming. Cold weather spinach is supposed to be pretty good. I won't know.
I had deer eat back a lot of the growth I had on my azalea. It's was doing so great this year, tons of new growth this year, then they ate a bunch of it. Grr.
I can't tell how big the sapling is but the damage looks like a rub from a buck's antlers. On my land, about 95% of the time, it's a cedar tree that they rub on. It's a miracle any cedars survive. It's this time of year, they rub the velvet off their antlers. I saw one yesterday with an obvious scrape right below it.
From what I understand, there's an issue with them in our part of Southern VT. I believe the population is up quite a bit; I think they measure it by the number of dear per x square miles? In VT, they do a number on the maple saplings. That worries folks given how syrup is quite an industry in VT; both as a product and tourism.
The bucks love to rub on my little pines and firs. These are right by the house, too. I didn't get woven wire fence up soon enough. Sent from my SM-G930VL using Tapatalk
I haven't kept up with it for a couple of years, but last I checked, whitetail deer populations continue to increase in the USA. When I was young, bag limit was one, then two and it slowly crept up to the now six. Some states, the limit is ten and I think there are states with no bag limit. They've become a nuisance in some areas.
I had a white pine that I had planted from just a tiny seedling. Went out one day and a deer had rubbed the bark completely off it; killed it quick. You can get the Liquid Fence deer and rabbit repellent; I buy the concentrate and mix up my own. It works. Just spray it on the trunk on all sides. I use it to keep them off of my daylilies when they are blooming
Some hunt with bow, some hunt with riffle; I hunt with Buick. I have killed four I think. Three with the old Buick and one with my current Buick. The last one was just standing in the middle of the lane starring off into the woods. Didn't have time to avoid it due to oncoming vehicle.
The Mule deer bucks scrape the bajeezus out of my young trees here. If you don’t fix them right away the trees will die. I spray a good coat of this stuff on the rub marks right away. Then I come back a few hours later and apply a second coat. Been doing that for a few years. The trees typically bounce right back.
