A deer in your yard is a sight to behold. Not only are deer extremely beautiful, but there’s a special sense of peace and joy that comes from existing around nature and animals. Deer in your yard could be the magical addition to your property that you’ve been looking for.
Though not easy, it is possible to attract deer to your yard. To do this, you must focus on the specific things that attract them, such as certain types of food, water, plants, etc. In this article, we decode everything you need to know about how to attract deer to your yard, so make sure you read until the end.
How To Attract Deer To Your Yard
Attracting deer to your yard involves certain techniques, the most popular ones being:
- Encouraging the natural growth of shrubs, grasses, undergrowth, and other plants in a certain area of your yard. Tall shrubs provide deer with a cover, allowing them to enjoy time in your yard. Moreover, a plant cover will also help them relax in bad weather.
- Adding a water source to your yard will help lure deer as they will perceive it as a spot they can return to whenever they’re thirsty. You can add water to a shallow trench or pool. Alternatively, you can also let rainwater collect in your yard.
- Keep deer feed in your yard, but make sure it’s a considerable distance from your house. Deer are easily attracted to corn feed and will often visit it, but they’re timid creatures, meaning they’re easily scared, so avoid keeping the feed too close to your place.
- Deer are easily attracted to oak trees as they are a major food source for them. The twigs, leaves, acorns, etc., of oak trees are all important to deer.
- Keeping salt licks and blocks in your yard will encourage deer to come visit your yard as deer love the sodium found in salt blocks.
- Since deer love to sniff for food, you can place strong-smelling fragrant herbs in your yard to lure deer. The herbs entice their curiosity. Be generous with the herbs and scatter them all over your yard.
- As deer love the smell of apples, you can plant apple trees in your yard to entice them.
- Using deer urine and deer lures are very easy ways to attract deer. Many sports stores sell deer lures. Deer urine scattered in some areas of your yard often attracts deer to your property.
- Creating transition corridors will allow deer to come to your yard without feeling scared. These corridors often give deer daytime bedding areas. You can create deer fences, hollows, and ditches to make this transition corridor. Transition corridors are essentially made to make animals feel secure on your property.
Which Plants Attract Deer?
It’s important to plant the right kind of trees and shrubs to lure deer to your yard. Deer are attracted to specific plants, particularly those they can feed on.
Planting these trees will fetch deer to your yard easily. In colder months, deer often run out of food sources, and at that time, they can be lured with the right type of trees and plants.
Plants deer like include:
- Oak trees
- Apple trees
- Hawthorns
- Cedar trees
- Yew trees
- Dogwood trees
- Willow trees
Other plants that grow easily and attract deer are:
- Petunias
- Clematis
- Hydrangea
- Sunflowers
- Impatiens
- Blueberry
- Holly
- Rhododendron
- Arborvitae
- Azalea
- Euonymus
Deer love to eat the above plants and are easily lured by them. It’s a smart idea to keep some food for deer in your yard, like corn feed, in case your yard becomes vegetation-free during the winters. A corn pile is an excellent bait for deer who venture into your yard looking for food.
How to Attract Deer to Your Feeder
Installing a deer feeder in your yard is a breeze. However, to make it accessible for deer, you need to follow certain steps that will make sure that deer can easily find your feeder and are attracted to your yard because of it.
The steps are:
- Choosing the right area in your yard is extremely important. Make sure to choose an area that isn’t too close to your house. You can also observe and select a place that deer visit regularly.
- Make the feed accessible and place it in a way that makes it easy for the deer to enjoy the feed. The deer should not have to search for the feed too much as this will only exhaust its energy and discourage it from revisiting your yard. Thus, keep the feed in a place that can be easily found by deer.
- Install transition corridors nearby so that the deer can move and locate your feed easily without any fear. Transition corridors make deer feel secure.
- Make water available to the deer near the feed so that the deer find the place attractive and consider visiting again. You can dig a trench or create a pool and fill it with water. These can also serve as reservoirs to collect fresh rainwater and can self-replenish.
- Scattering some corn or other attractants around the feeder helps deer locate the feeder easily and also lures them quickly.
Know What Not to Feed Deer
Since you’re planning to lay out a feed for deer in your yard, it’s crucial to know what to avoid when it comes to deer feed. Having the right kind of deer feed will help lure deer to your yard, and they will keep coming back. Let’s take a look at the things you need to avoid using as deer feed:
- Hay: Deer usually cannot digest hay, so it might not be the best idea to place a hay feed for deer in your yard.
- Scraps from the kitchen: No matter if an ingredient is organic, there’s no point using it as a feed if deer hate it. You should avoid placing kitchen scraps as feed for deer. Not all animals are meant to have all kinds of kitchen waste. Deer cannot digest most of the items that are standard kitchen scraps.
- Animal meat and animal remains: Being herbivore creatures, deer cannot feed on animal remains from the kitchen. Thus, it’s best to avoid putting these as deer feed in your yard.
How to Create a Friendly Environment in Your Yard for Deer
You need to provide a safe and secure environment for the deer visiting your yard to encourage them to visit regularly. A deer-friendly environment is one where deer can relax and enjoy spending time eating, quenching their thirst, and visiting.
You can create a deer-friendly environment via the following:
- Growing tall grasses to provide a safe cover for deer in your yard. That said, the entire yard does not need to be covered in such tall grasses and shrubs. You can dedicate an area and turn it into this safe deer-friendly zone so that deer can visit your yard unhindered.
- Creating a cozy and comfortable environment for deer in your yard. You can add landscaping to include areas like these in your yard or create transition corridors for deer so that they can visit without worrying about their well-being.
- Removing fences will make it easier for deers to visit your yard. Anything that limits access to your property will hinder their visit. Go ahead and remove a part of the fence to increase deer visits.
- Shrubs and grasses added in variants that deers like will make your yard unique and encourage deers to visit. Plus, planting such shrubs and plants is fairly easy and has other benefits aside from attracting deer.
- Trenches filled with water, water pools, etc. will create a deer-friendly environment in your yard and make sure that deer keep visiting your yard.
- Creating a thermal cover of pines and cedars for the winter months will create a favorable environment for deer.
Bottom Line
So, now you know everything about how to attract deer to your yard. Remember to incorporate some or all of the techniques we’ve discussed in order to successfully lure deer to your lawn.
Sure, it might look like an uphill task to execute some of the methods mentioned above, such as patiently waiting for tall grasses and trees to grow or constructing structures like trenches and transition corridors, but once done successfully, you’ll be rewarded with the pleasant experience of deer sightings in your yard, an accomplishment enjoyed by only a select few!
Make sure to be patient, and rest assured that if you follow the techniques we’ve listed, deer will turn up in your yard and add to the natural magic and beauty of your lawn.
