Dee,
I'm forever amassing tips on outwitting deer so a question for you about the 8" cups...don't the deer just knock them down or chew through them? "My" (it owns me more than I own it) property looks like the setting for a Halloween party....I've strung up lines of those inflated packing pillows....great for fluttering in the wind, sheets of all colours to use as distraction and to hide anything green, fishing line, window screen, you name it, I'm using it. Despite all of this, the deer will shred the sheets and coverings if they detect the tiniest bit of food....I think they know that any object that obstructs their view is hiding food so they remove the object! So how do you secure those cups?!!