There are many reasons why you would want to learn how to attract deer to your yard, am I right? Maybe because you live in the woods with a pretty big backyard, or you simply love the idea of deer hanging out in your yard. It could be either one of these reasons or maybe both or some hunting-related purpose, right?
While there are some people who look for ways to get rid of deer from their yards and here we are learning to do the exact opposite. There are several ways that show you how to attract deer to your land and I have discussed each one of them at length below.
But before I begin I just want you to know that there are only a handful of food items, plants, and scents that deer get attracted to or that are safe and advisable to use in order to attract deer to your yard. Many people fail to stick to this list, due to which they end up achieving the exact opposite of what they actually want.
So let’s keep that in mind and begin, shall we?
Supplies you’ll need to attract deer to your yard:
- Plants such as chicory, red clover, and orchard grass.
- Food crops such as soybeans, sorghum, peas, kale, turnips, corn, and alfalfa.
- Nutritious nuts like chestnuts and acorns.
- Deer lures such as deer urine.
- Sweet-smelling apples or crab apples.
- Salt blocks.
How to attract deer to your land?
1.Food Tricks
What to feed deer in my yard? Here’s the answer.
While it’s true that animals like deer eat plants, but that doesn’t mean they eat all kinds of plants. You should grow plants that are full of forage species so the deer can quite easily graze upon them. Chicory, red clover, and orchard grass are some of the most common types of plants grown when you’re learning how to attract deer.
- Now if you want to know the different types of food that we humans and they deer eat in common, then they are the ones that are high in protein. Food such as soybeans, sorghum, peas, kale, turnips, corn, and alfalfa are considered to be the most effective deer attractants that you could lay in your yard. Growing these crops in your backyard is regarded as one of the cheap ways to attract deer.
- The thing about deer is that they choose to get out of their comfort zone, quite literally, and come to your backyard only when the surrounding vegetation is declining. And this usually happens during the winter season. So how to attract deer in winter? Have a sufficient supply of nutritious nuts such as acorns and chestnuts in your yard. It is important to keep these two pointers in mind when growing plants and other types of food crops in your backyard. These two conditions must be met if you truly want to learn how to attract deer to your feeder.
- While you’re preparing your backyard with food supplies to attract deer, remember to first ensure that the surrounding area doesn’t have the kind of plants and food that you’re planning to grow in your yard. Otherwise, what’s the point? Why should the deer come to your backyard to eat something that he or she is already getting in abundance elsewhere?
- If the spot where you’re planting all this food is located near a road, then chances are that cars and trucks might scare away the deer. So it’s always a better idea to keep the food plot at a safe distance from the road.
2.Deer Scents
One of the most powerful ways to attract deer to your yard is to use deer lures. Deer scents have the ability to significantly increase deer interest and drive them to your backyard.
Mostly hunters adopt this particular method during the hunting or rutting season. But that doesn’t matter because many homeowners who are fond of having deer in their yards also make use of several deer lures.
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Deer scents such as pheromones, deer urine, and appetizing food are popularly used by many hunters as well as homeowners.
Deer urine is the most powerful scent used when learning how to attract deer to your land. Spread it on certain parts of your backyard. Once this powerful smell spreads across the neighborhood, many deer will undoubtedly pay a visit to your yard to find out more about the smell.
You can also apply some deer urine on the leaves and trees in your backyard. The smell works the best around 2 months before the breeding season. And while handling this particular deer scent, make sure that it doesn’t come in contact with your skin.
Because that tends to make the deer urine scentless effective as your human scent gets mixed up with it.
Remember that deer are smarter than you think they are. So as soon as they get the slightest whiff of human scent from a particular region, they will immediately run away from that place. Deer are very smart when it comes to spotting seemingly potential traps.
3.Sweet-Smelling Apples
One of the cheap ways to attract deer is to grow sweet-smelling apples in your backyard. Deer don’t have the ability to resist the sweet scent of apples so why not take advantage of this particular fruit?
You can grow as many apples or crab apples as you like in your yard. By doing so, you will not only learn how to attract deer to your yard but also have a pretty backyard blooming with tender leaves right from the mid or end of summer up until the fall.
At times, growing crab apples or even apples in your yard is not possible due to lack of sufficient space or unsuitable weather conditions. So in this case, the other best option is to know how to attract deer to your land by simply picking a spot in your backyard and filling it with full-grown apples or crab apples.
The correct way to do this is to place a bucket or trough from which the deer will eat the apples. Add some deer feed or an adequate amount of grain into the bucket. Slice a couple of apples; don’t forget to keep the cores intact. Cut up the apples into quarters and drop them all in the bucket.
Mix the deer feed or grain with the apples and you have the answer to the most commonly asked question, what to feed deer in my yard?
4.Salt Blocks
Many hunters are well aware of this method. And if you’re not, then let me tell you that mineral and salt blocks have the maximum ability to attract deer. If a deer is wandering close to your backyard, then using cider and apple salt blocks can quite effectively bring the deer closer to your yard.
Cider and apple salt blocks are easily available at hunting shops and even some local feed shops around your neighborhood. All you have to do is place the salt block either close to your food plot or towards the end of your backyard.
There is a popular and most effective way of attracting deer with salt blocks. You simply bury the salt block in the ground of your yard. Just make sure that it’s placed not more than 3 to 4 inches deep. After placing it into the ground, cover it back up with soil and scatter some salt over it.
You need to have patience with this method as it might take some days for the smell to reach the deer. But it inevitably does reach the deer, especially the one that is wandering close to your backyard.
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5.Deer-Friendly Environment
Do you know how to attract deer to your yard by creating a deer-friendly environment? If not, then I have listed all the effective ways to do so below.
- Taller grass can really go a long way in making deer feel safe and protected. So make sure that your backyard has tall-sized grass. In fact, this not only provides cover to the deer but also enables you to store abundant food in your yard. So keeping this mind, remember that you don’t need to have taller grass all over your backyard but just along the perimeter.
- How to attract deer by creating a deer-friendly environment? Simple, just remove the fences. The reason is quite obvious but I’m going to state it anyway. Fences will block the access of deer into your backyard. I mean, the chances of spotting a deer in your yard are already so high, why make them worse by restricting access to your yard with fences? So take them down at once.
And if that’s something you’re not willing to do, then don’t worry because I have another way. Build some sort of opening in the fence so that deer can easily walk through it to get to your backyard. Deer are smart animals so I’m sure they’ll be able to figure it out.
In order to learn how to attract deer to your feeder, it’s important for you to ensure that most human activity around the region is minimized. Lights shouldn’t be too bright, and sounds shouldn’t be too loud.
Otherwise, the deer might get frightened and run away. And let me tell you that deer scare pretty easy so you have to do whatever it takes to not startle them in any way.
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Wrapping it up
So it doesn’t matter if your purpose of attracting deer is for wildlife viewing or deer hunting, knowing how to attract deer to your yard can really help you get closer to the environment. And this is something that every outdoor and wildlife enthusiast or hunter wants to experience, right?
Acquiring a better understanding of how deer react to certain changes in the environment can help you with laying the trap in a more organized and logical manner. What you need to know is that deer are mostly found near regions where there is an abundant supply of food, water, and shelter. So keep this in mind the next time you want to attract deer to your stand.
Have you ever tried any one of the above methods to attract deer to your yard? What kind of food, scent, or deer-friendly environment trick worked the best for you?
Please share your thoughts with us. Also please don’t forget to share this article with your fellow hunters or wildlife enthusiasts.
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