Across North America, deer -- whitetails, blacktails and mule deer -- commit more damage to valuable landscapes than any other animal, wild or domestic.

Deer are creatures of habit. Once they’ve found a food source, they’ll return to that food source, and when their food is your landscape, you'll need to break that pattern to get rid of them. When they browse tree and shrub buds, they reduce growth rates; nipping the tree at the base can create multiple stemmed trees; and bucks rubbing their antlers on the stems can kill the tree entirely.

Once deer adapt to your garden, one deer expert says, they adopt your garden. When deer feed on your trees, their feeding can open up holes in the bark that invites tree disease. It weakens the tree and makes it more susceptible to both disease and insect infestation.