Rodents, rabbit, deer can cause winter damage

By Stephanie Hughes

OSU Ext. master gardener volunteer

Winter is the time to protect landscape plantings — trees and shrubs — from rodents, rabbits and deer. These pests can severely damage and even kill many of our favorite plants. Rabbits love roses, raspberries, apples, cherry, plum, maples, oaks, blueberries and burning bushes, with young plants being especially favored. New plantings are also in danger of being checked out for taste.

Rodents and deer feed on bark, twigs, flower buds and foliage, injuring and sometimes killing the plants. Girdling trees signals a severe rodent problem, as well as shrubs eaten to the ground line. Deer also can strip bark from bushes and trees by rubbing antlers. Rabbits eat above the snow line. Mice tunnel in snow and feed near ground level. Rabbits make a clean cut, with height varying with the snow line. Deer damage, with fruit trees most susceptible, results in jagged edges and tears.

Voles (also called meadow mice) gnaw bark and plant crowns and love hostas. These little rodents, gray- to brown-colored, stocky-bodied with a stubby tail, eat seeds, bulbs and rhizomes, feeding from trails and runways in the snow.

Young trees can be protected with plastic tree guards, as well as hardware cloth, that can be left on all year, as long as it is larger than trunk growth. Hardware fencing (less than º inch) with the base buried in the soil, surrounding the plantings is the best defense. Its height should be 1 Ω to 2 inches above the snow line. Fencing the entire bed with chicken wire is a good protector, but check periodically for trapped animals inside.

Odor and taste deterrents can be used. Homemade spray of a mixture of 4 eggs, 2 ounces of red pepper sauce and 2 ounces of minced garlic blended with enough water to make 1 quart, strained, and sprayed works well. Other repellents include human hair, soap containing tallow, baby powder and predator urine. Though these provide some success, they do not weather well and some smell bad. Commercial repellents recommended are Hot Sauce, Tree Guard, Deer Away, Deer Off and Hinder, which have had good results. Read and follow all label instructions. Some say the most effective are those with the active ingredient thiram, a common fungicide. The products can be sprayed or painted on trees and shrubs. Details should be read here: http://go.osu.edu/repeldeer before using any of these.