Do deer eat zucchini?

Do deer eat zucchini? They are well known for their love affair with twigs, buds, shoots, and many kinds of vegetables. But, what about zucchini? This article will talk about deer and zucchini.

Watching your gorgeous vegetable garden trampled, moved, and devoured is a heart-wrenching experience. It is diligent to ensure deer will not nibble on your vegetables or at least put up the right barriers. You may have heard that deer will eat melon, Brussels sprouts, watermelons, winter squash, summer squash, and kale. But what about zucchini – do deer eat zucchini?

Deer and vegetables

Deer do not like zucchini. But, they will eat all parts of the plant to the ground if the circumstances are right.

Suppose you wish to grow deer resistant vegetables. In that case, you can also add fennel, garlic, cucumber, rhubarb, and hairy varieties of squash. Deer do not like vegetables with powerful smells, thorny or prickly foliage. In sharp contrast, deer love other vegetables like lettuce, strawberries, plums, pears, turnip, spinach, carrot tops, peas, etc. If you must grow them, plant them closer to your home and cultivate deer-resistant varieties like zucchinis to mask them.

Other ways to prevent deer damage

No vegetable or plant is entirely deer-proof. So it would help if you had other deer deterrents to eliminate them. One of the most popular methods is hunting. However, you need to check with your local laws and restrictions on hunting for homeowners. You might be allowed at special times in the year or may require a special permit. Other humane methods include: List of deer resistant plants

Fencing

If energy won’t be an issue, then electric fencing is reliable for keeping deer. Do make sure your fence is about 8 feet high and well-strung to the ground. Consider creating a wire fence of about 8 feet high using two 4 feet of welded wire combined one on the other for larger areas.

String fishing line

Stringing a fishing line around your garden to create an invisible fence is also a great way to prevent deer from eating your precious plants. All you need is to string a line of monofilament around your beds, at least two to three feet above the ground. The taut barrier will confuse deer and cause them to leave your plants alone.

Repellents

Repellents are excellent ways to keep deer out of your garden. Why hanging bars of fragrant soap around your garden seems like a good idea, it may not be effective for a long time. Still, having soap over vegetables, you will eat might not be a decent move. Opt for commercial repellents carefully designed to make sure that they don’t harm or alter your vegetables. We recommend rotating between two different smell repellents to keep deer away.

Scare tactics

Besides repellents, you can scare deer away using noise, motion-activated lights, and sprinklers. You can place these at strategic positions near the orchard. However, we recommend that you rotate two or three deer deterrents to prevent them from becoming familiar with the deterrent.

Concluding thoughts

Do deer eat zucchini? No, they don’t, except when hungry enough. If you have a high deer population, you should be concerned that deer might eat your zucchinis.

Therefore, you need to implement different deer deterrent methods to keep deer away from your zucchini. Also, remember that deer are very adaptive. So you need to double or triple your deer deterrents. That way, you can create a solid strategy that prevents deer damage entirely.

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