Do Deer Eat Pecans?

Are you considering cultivating pecans, then you may wonder—do deer eat pecans? In this article, we will look at deer feeding habits, especially its connections to pecans.

Deer love browsing through fields of nuts, fruits, and vegetation. They can consume up to 400 different kinds of food, and in hard times, that list expands indefinitely. Therefore, they can eat many different types of nuts, including acorns, corn, and hickory nuts. However, if you are considering cultivating pecans, you might ask—do deer eat pecans?

The short answer is yes, they do. Deer love nuts and pecans are among them. However, there are other reasons why deer may not consider pecans as the first choice.

A tough nut to crack

Deer eat pecans, but not every time. They preferably eat pecans when their green shell is not in place. So, when their shells dry up, deer can hammer and munch with ease. Nevertheless, they can also make do with the stem, buds, and leaves of the pecan, causing untold damage to it. However, in order of preference, deer prefer acorns and peanuts to pecans. They will most likely eat them during the winter when there is little else available. Pecans are excellent sources of fats and other nourishing nutrients that they might need for the winter, making them a palatable source during such periods. Surprisingly, they can also feed on pecans at different seasons, which means you must find a way to keep them out.

Deer deterrents for pecan cultivation

Fencing remains one of the best ways to keep deer from eating pecans. Install an 8-foot fence, and you can adequately stop them from jumping over. Another way to make your 8-foot fence more effective is to make them slightly slanted outward. This will prevent the deer from attempting to climb such struc-tures.

In sharp contrast, 6-foot fences are not effective as deer can jump over them. However, you can also consider parallel walls of about 6-foot with one or two inches in the middle. Noise and taste repellents can equally help as long as you alternate between methods. You can also use scare tactics such as mo-tion-activated sprinklers, noise devices, a scarecrow, and lots more.

Concluding thoughts

Do deer eat pecans? Absolutely. However, pecans are not their first choice, as far as nuts are concerned. They prefer acorns, beechnuts, and lots more. They will most likely eat pecans during the harsher months when they cannot find a more palatable food source. Besides, they don’t like eating the hard-green shells of the pecans. They most likely eat pecans after their shells dry up. Therefore, you need to look out for your pecans by implementing deer proofing methods. However, it is best to combine two or three deer proofing methods to keep deer away adequately.

Nevertheless, it would help if you were patient when dealing with deer. They are very resilient and like-ly to return from time to time to find out if they can eat from it. So, you need to be diligent in your deer deterrent method to keep them away adequately.

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