Deer are eating my day lillies .ate my tulips. Can they be stopped?

A TALL fence: yes.

Stinky deer repellants: maybe, if you spray more every time it rains.

Aggressive dogs: I would THINK so.

Automated water cannons triggered by motion sensors: for a while.

Shiny flags, reflective wind chimes ... yeah, right.

However, several people have told me that things that "work", only work until the deer get hungry. Then, good luck.

Maybe try the 12 gauge deterrent, fill your freezer, and repeat as needed.

I'm in the "automated water cannon" club although my cannon is an impulse sprinkler with a motion detector attached. They're very effective as long as you have no watering restrictions. You must aim them so that the motion of leaves and tree branches won't activate the motion detector. But they do work at night as well as in daytime. Send a sudden, strong spray of water "Tsch, Tsch, Tsch" for 3 seconds and really startles everyone who sets it off - yes, I've sprayed myself several times

Available off Amazon and other places:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0001A9TDS/

This is the one I have but it was only $60 when I got it 15 years ago. There are others that are much more reasonably priced.

I know that "water cannon" overstated the case a little ...

I have some water cannon envy. All I have is a Super-Soaker, and the animals where I live are quite entertained when I try to reason with them.

That is to say, they seem to be laughing as they vanish long before i can get all the way out the door.

I thought the Super-Soaker would solve my reluctance to use a slingshot - even with just a pine cone as ammo - on animals. I'll never know, unless an animal shows up who's as slow as I am!

Rick! You're missing out on so much fun - I also have a pellet rifle that looks like an AK47 but shoots just hard enough to make a squirrel jump and pay attention. The first toy pellet pistol I had shot so slowly, even if I nailed a squirrel in the butt from 10ft away they would turn around and laugh at me "is that all you got?".

I have no wish to murder the critters, but I do really love having the ability to scare them off. I even hit a hawk on the top of a power pole once, he jumped slightly and flew away - perfect! I have a bird feeder and he was hungrily eyeing my family of cardinals.

It's not good for bigger animals though, deer wouldn't even feel it, and of course they will eat your garden at night when you can't see well enough to shoot, even with my El Cheapo night vision monocular . . . see, I have all the "weapons" (truth is my son and husband are both engineers so if I even so much as mention a toy . .. the Amazon box appears within days)

Welcome to All Things Plants, @Beru63!

I'm afraid tulips and daylilies are two favorites of deer... the very best defense is to plant things they are not interested in!

Weedwhacker said:Welcome to All Things Plants, @Beru63!

I'm afraid tulips and daylilies are two favorites of deer... the very best defense is to plant things they are not interested in!

If they are not hungry ... Last year, when my neighbor stopped watering his lawn because of the drought, all of his deer came down to my tiny patch of lawn and ate every single deer resistant plant out in front of the house to the point where some of them did not come back this year.

If they were born and raised in town, it seems like they will eat everything simply because they don't know any better.

Smiles,
Lyn

Elaine, that was my plan at first. I have several pellet rifles and agree with your evaluation of pellet pistols - better to throw frozen peas.

But, blush, I went wimpy. "Make them jump" was my goal, but you have to pull the trigger to get the effect. Then I sent away for a slingshot and found I was even MORE wimpy.

At least with the "wrist rocket", I was willing to sling pinecones at squirrels. i finally stopped because the entertainment seemed to attract them.

Yep, I have the slingshot with the wrist brace, too. It might do well against the deer - scare them off but not hurt them. We chase the gol-durned raccoon around the yard with that thing occasionally. I really need some target practice with it.

I have almost had the impression that I was entertaining the squirrels as well sometimes. I'll shoot at them, make some noise, even hit one or two (always in the back end as they turn away to run) and they scamper off, or hide in the bamboo. (safe haven for them and the birds - hawks can't get in there) Not two minutes after I go inside, they're back looking around like "where'd she go, that was fun!"

30-40 years ago, I visited the family of some friend of a girlfriend. The father of that family kept a scope-sighted 22 rifle in the upstairs bathroom.

Most people read magazines. He had target practice, "defending" his bird feeders from the tree rats (squirrels).

Philosophically, I'm with him. But emotionally, I feel bad about harassing even tree rats.