The Roe Deer is the next culprit in our Wildlife Strikes Back series. Apparently the Buck’s (Males) are rutting and a response to this period is to rub their antlers (which can also be itchy) on trees or shrubs etc. This rubbing action strips the bark of young trees, and in our case, one of our Leylandi.
Fortunately, it was not one of our ‘good’ trees’ or we would have been pretty miffed. There is not a lot we can do about this, we have seen the Roe Deer a few times now, and they are pretty big! We could create deer guards on the trees, but that would be rather un-attractive and costly.
Tammy has purchase some scent which you mix with water and spray onto the trees which is meant to act as a deterrent, but we have not tried that yet.
We could go down the route of getting in a professional ‘hunter’ who could stalk and shoot them, but again, that does seem rather extreme. Mind you, venison does sound rather nice… 
Tags: Roe Deer, Venison, Wildlife
Categories: Garden Improvements, Posts with Photos, Trees, Wildlife