[gillmeister692]

Man I have cultivated some little volunteer Red Oaks & they about three yrs old now & I was so proud they were gonna make it & now them Damn *&^%$# Blankety Blank Deer are rubbing the bark offa Them!!!
Anybody else have this problem?
Would wrapping some Chicken Wire around them help any?
Grrrr...

A stag rubbed the devil out a shagbark hickory tree I've been nurturing for 13 years with his antlers. I don't think chicken wire will protect your tree bark. Purpose-made PVC or polypropylene sheathing is available via the internet. They're generally sized for trunks 4" or less in diameter. Some can be snapped together to increase their diameter. Here's an example of the many products available. Amazon.com: PATSONᵀᴹ Tree Trunk Protectors - 48 Inches - 6 Pack - Heavy-Duty Tree Trunk Protection - Resizable - Complete with Zip Ties, 6 Hanging Plant Tags : Patio, Lawn & Garden . Generally speaking, deer rubs aren't lethal for trees unless a crazed deer keeps repeating. The cambium will heal itself. The damage is more cosmetic and will fade with time. Good luck!

 

[AustinWiseguy]

Rutting is a thing here in central Texas. I drive an inexpensive 5' metal post that you'd get cheap at HD into the ground about 2 feet from the trunk and then use a length of 4" sheep and goat mesh, hooking it on itself to create a circular fence that goes around both the tree and the metal post. The post is there to keep the more inquisitive of the deer from pushing the mesh on to the tree and for some reason only one post is really needed but you can drive a 2nd one on the opposite side of the tree and then wrap the mesh around all 3, but I've never needed to. It seems as though the deer are intimidated by the post and mesh and have stayed away from my trees.

BTW, I'm on about 4 acres and have about 200 mature oaks and about 15 young trees ranging from saplings to 5 year old maples that stand about 20' tall. I've gotten careless and left the cages off a couple of the trees in the immediate back yard near the house (I have both an interior yard fence plus an exterior perimeter fence, both 3-rail country style with the 4" mesh fixed to the inside of each) thinking that the deer wouldn't come so close to the house and one youngster jumped the inner fence and rubbed a young black walnut sapling raw. That taught me a lesson.

Anyway, keep the mesh around your trees. Remove them when needed for mowing and such but put them back around the trees and just keep them there. Eventually your trees will grow big enough to withstand the rutting, but you'll never be rid of it. It's the nature we live with. Good luck to you.

 

[M1TOAD]

I have seen the DNR use four pallets in a box form to prevent deer from messing up the oaks they planted.
I did this with the apple trees I planted and they didn’t mess with them at all.

Happy hunting.

Man I have cultivated some little volunteer Red Oaks & they about three yrs old now & I was so proud they were gonna make it & now them Damn *&^%$# Blankety Blank Deer are rubbing the bark offa Them!!!
Anybody else have this problem?
Would wrapping some Chicken Wire around them help any?
Grrrr...

Man I have cultivated some little volunteer Red Oaks & they about three yrs old now & I was so proud they were gonna make it & now them Damn *&^%$# Blankety Blank Deer are rubbing the bark offa Them!!!
Anybody else have this problem?
Would wrapping some Chicken Wire around them help any?
Grrrr...

 

[vanvock]

I planted a maple sapling some years ago & just as it got well established they chewed it down to nubbins. It came back the next year but more like a shrub than a tree. Now I call it my maple bush.

 

[bandit]

I had the deer eating the leaves off of my jalapeno pepper plants as well as others. I put a makeshift fence around my garden with Tposts and put insulators on the tposts and ran electric fence wire around the fence in 4 strands about a foot apart. You take the long end of the wire from the area protected and hook it to the output or plus on a cattle fence charger {mine worked for 20 miles of fence}. Make sure the wire you use is insulated where it won't touch the ground and short out or if you use hose. Fill it full of spray foam to insulate it from moisture. Try to put the charger inside if it's a 110v. They do make solar powered ones that use a marine battery as a power source. I've never used one of these. The other side of the charger or negative side is for a ground rod to hook your wire to. Good luck, deer don't eat my bushes anymore. When you harvest if you ever use this around a garden. Don't forget to unplug it. Or like the other post said you can shoot them and save the expense of an electric fence. Hate those nuisance deer.

 

[jemo4570]

I use corrugated drain pipe from mid Sept through December on young trees. Cut to length and split end to end. Usually don't need them once the trees are 4-5".

 

[JeffG]

The rutting bucks killed a number of young trees by rubbing here too. They're nuts when they rut, unless you can chase them off, not much works.