Home-made Deer Repellant!

I've been trying to put some hardy shrubs on a barren hillside on the side of my house, but the deer have been eating and killing almost everything. I've only been putting plants that are supposed to be deer resistant, but the hooved rats around my house didn't get the memo, and eat even highly poisonous plants like Lantana. A few months ago I found a dead deer next to my driveway, and I think it was one of the ones that ate my poisonous plants every week (I think that because after it died, the plants were left alone for a while). But even if these foolish deer die, the damage to the plants is still done, so I'd like to prevent them from eating the plants in the first place. I've tried commercial repellents with no luck, so I decided today to whip up a batch of something meaner. The ingredients are as follows:

Eggs, chicken livers, habanero peppers, garlic, green onions, oleander leaves, euphorbia leaves, and dishwashing detergent.

I blended all these ingredients in a blender for several minutes, then mixed it with a gallon of water to give me a sprayable mixture. However, the spray bottle was still getting clogged with what little particulate matter remained, so I'm having to strain it before I use it. So far I've sprayed some new plants I'm going to put in the ground tomorrow, and hopefully it will work! I am especially mad with the deer today, since they pulled up and ate a HUGE, beautiful Dudleya farinosa I had just planted down there yesterday. Not just the leaves, but the entire thing including the woody stem! I don't think it has a chance of growing back, but I put the roots back in the ground and sprayed the stump with repellent just in case.

I'll keep this thread updated as to whether my mixture succeeds or fails.

Let us know how it works. I'm posting a new thread right now on my problem

If it works for me, it should work for you too! :) The deer seem to have regional preferences on what they'll avoid... For example, I read online that deer won't eat tobacco, so I bought several tobacco plants. One night, they were just gone. The deer ate the plants down to the roots! Lantana is another one that's supposed to be highly toxic, and I bought it specifically because I read about how it can kill livestock and dogs who ingest it - the deer ate that one too! Not just once, but repeatedly. On the other hand though, I've read tons of reports from around the country of deer eating hellebores (which are supposed to be resistant), but the ones in my yard have not been touched. But if they avoid the plants I sprayed with the repellent, it should (in theory) work for you too since the deer are the same subspecies and everything.

The rain last night had me worried that all the repellent was going to be washed off, but I went out this morning and smelled the plants, and they reeked even stronger than when I sprayed them. It's the chicken livers, they're surprisingly pungent. Note that I would not put this repellent on plants you are eating, since oleander and euphorbia leaves are both toxic, and the habanero pepper residue might be difficult to clean off. Also, it's possible to smell the plants from a few feet away (they smell gross), so it might not be something you'll want to use right next to the front door either. I think that was the problem with the commercial repellents I was trying, is that they are all marketed as having a scent undetectable to humans (which probably just means less powerful) and are non-toxic, which means the deer (at least around my house) just learned to tolerate them. If this batch of repellent doesn't work, I'll make something even worse (I put five habaneros in this one, but I could have put many more).

Day three and my plants are still unharmed! Nothing else has worked this long. Although I won't be able to call it a success unless it's able to save the plants next summer when the deer are at their most diabolical, it seems to be working pretty well so far. :)

Here's a Coreopsis gigantea the deer pulled up, tossed around, and ate almost down to the roots maybe four or five weeks ago? I had little hope for the plant when I put it back in the ground, but surprisingly, the wounds have been scarring over and the stump has remained green. I have my fingers crossed the plant will send out a side shoot and pull through!

For now, here is how I'm trying to keep the creature out!

Yikes! Hopefully that will work until you can find a permanent solution. There are countless recipes for deer repellents online - you could try to mix one up that doesn't have such dangerous ingredients as mine (I just have to use those things because the deer in my yard are much more vicious than most). For example, you might try blending up some jalapeños (instead of habaneros, which are 10-15 times hotter) with garlic or onion and spray it on the plants, and see if that helps. It looks like you are in a neighborhood with lots of well-watered plants, so it might take less effort to convince the deer to eat your neighbor's plants instead of yours, hahaha.