“Do Deer Like Milkweed”?
Do Deer Like Milkweed?
This is a query received from a Weedpatch reader named Patti S. I LOVE questions from readers because finding answers is my way of avoiding working on any essential tasks (like earning money or calling the health insurance company). Very oddly, the question reminded me that I had recently bought a used book, The Hidden Life of Deer, by naturalist/anthropologist, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, but had not yet read it. So, now’s the time, right? Honest to God, I randomly opened the book to page 186 and immediately saw the word, “Monarch”. Could I really have an answer so quickly? Well, no, but I did read four riveting pages of Thomas’ observations of a Monarch caterpillar on a Milkweed leaf. Which left me with the question, “Do caterpillars shit only on leaves they don’t nibble”?
But I digress. Next, I googled. Whereupon I came upon a lot of other people looking to answer the same question, but also found my new favorite website, homesteadingtoday.com, which appears to be about as blue state/red state in its opinions as Americans can be. There I read comments claiming that Milkweed is “a noxious weed, just like kudzu” and how best to eradicate it with 2-4D but followed by polite suggestions from obvious blue staters like, “couldn’t you leave just a little bit for the butterflies?”. I also read how Grandpa considered Milkweed to be his cash crop during WWII cuz he sold the waterproof and buoyant floss for stuffing in life jackets and flight suits (methinks Grandpa did not get rich but this CSM article about its WWII uses is REALLY interesting). Then I read that Milkweed “never bothered the cattle”. And that Milkweed should be planted by the front door because it draws bees but the bees “keep the door knockers away”. The same commentator, “Alleyyooper”, answered Patti’s question this way: “Deer like it like a horse eats oats”. H’mmm…
But methinks that Alleyyooper is wrong about the grazing deer. “Milkweed” is MILKweed for a reason (actually, let’s rename it “Silkweed”, much more attractive name). Milkweed refers to its “white juice, which is a kind of rubber”. (Recall that Thomas Edison tried to use it to replace rubber in making car tires. True.). Here’s more from a 1911 book, Handbook of Nature Study, (buy it!) recommended to me by botanist Jerry Wilhelm:
“The most striking peculiarity of the milkweed plant is its white juice. Let a drop of it dry on the back of the hand, and when we try to remove it we find it quite elastic and possessed of all the qualities of crude rubber. We can see that the hollow of the center of the stem has around it a dark green ring, and that outside this is a light green ring. It is from the dark green ring that the milk exudes. The juice will soon fill and heal the wound we made. This milk is not the sap of the pine; it is a special secretion, and is very acrid to the taste. Milkweed is seldom eaten by grazing animals…”.
I tested the Milkweed myself, including trying to sniff for its “strong odor” which I thought might deter the deer. I couldn’t smell any odor, although I thought I detected a soft vanilla scent. Deer cookies? Anyhoo, this is what I think. If you were a deer grazing in a salad bowl of vegetation, you might bite off a Milkweed occasionally, but if you got a mouthful of white sticky latex on your tongue every time you would definitely prefer to eat something else. Like a hosta. So, dear Patti, plant the milkweed and watch to see what the deer do to it. Get back to us, okay?
And to alleyyooper–if a horse eats too many oats, a horse gets sick. Same with Milkweed and deer. Please plant milkweed. Make a butterfly come alive.##
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I will seek out some milkweed plants or seeds today for my yard. Entertaining piece. Thanks. MD
My experience in southern Indiana is, that the deer pay no mind to the milky substance in ascelpias. They do graze it, all varieties. This has not stopped me from planting it in our gardens. We do, however, spray with Deer Stopper, which has been a consistent deterent. I think it is well worth planting for the ecological benefits even if the deer graze it.
So glad I found this amusing and opinion-rich page. Can’t wait to plant my seeds this fall.
Anita, I am glad you’re having good luck with deer stopper. I find it only works if I use it every other night. I also find that spraying every other night with innocuous stinky things in spray cans I find at the dollar store (perfumes, scented laundry starch, etc.) works just about as well, doesn’t involve getting the sprayer out, and is a heck of a lot cheaper than Deer Stopper. One of my favorites is a room freshener that has little pearls that stink a lot like lavender. I have them stashed outside where they emit a noticeable waft when I am down on my knees pulling weeds.
Every now and then, I shake a bunch of the pearls around the areas that I notice would make a good place to lie down and digest. The are like ancient Romans in that the ideal situation for the is to be able to eat as they lie down, but just having a nicely mulched spot nearby will do.
I tell my neighbors that the patio-size fountain of youth you get free with the purchase of Deer Stopper doesn’t work all that well, either.
Likewise, I find that half a jug of milk that’s gone bad can sit in the sun all day and get really stinky. If you shake it up it turn s into a foamy stuff that doesn’t stink too bad unless you get a lot of it on you.
It seems to me that switching out the stink du jour (or every other jour) is the key to making stink work for you. What I like about the stinky things from the dollar store and garage sales is that a very little goes a log way.
I am beginning to think deer are a preview of Artificial Intelligence. They become more adaptive with each season.
You mentioned “…just like hostas.” I beg to differ. This spring the deer gobbled down my beautiful green and white hosta. I’ve lived here for 22 years, and this is the first time they have eaten the hostas. All I have now are stems.
Same with us, only it was lavender!!
The deer that live nearby our grassy knoll eat every hosta plant to the stem, especially the variegated ones.
So, I feed them ripe apples and dried corn every other day to keep them happy and go no further into my garden.
It works!
Same thing happened to me! We bought a new house with a beautiful row of hosta under pine trees all along the back border. One morning I woke up to what looked like celery stalks where the hosta used to be! Stinkin’ deer!
curious about planting..>I have ordered some seeds, live in Washington state. We will be gone several months, thought I would start seeds in mid march in my semi-greenhouse shed..will they be ready for monarch food this year? Still not sure what month I am shooting for…thanks for any info.
Deer will browse on just about anything, especially at the end of our dry summers in northern California, when they eat my succulents for water. Then they eat what tastes best.
Very entertaining article. The monarchs come July-September and I cut the milkweed down in October to keep them from breeding in the winter months.
Rommy, Thanks for your articles. Please put commas and periods inside the quotes: “He said, she said.”
What a fun article I came across while researching milkweed planting in Va. Deer are plentiful in my area so I spray my plants with eco friendly egg water. It has worked for years on my plants and even the tender shoots on a cherry tree. Will be planting milkweed soon and hoping for the best. The butterflies need us!
can you be more specific @ “egg water” please? rampant with deer, here…
My deer ate all the leaves off my 15 or so milkweed plants!!! That’s more than browsing!
Same here
https://gardenclubofcamaswashougal.org/2014/08/01/deer-repellent-recipe-eggs-water/
Crack 1 Raw Egg into bowl. Remove the “filament” from egg or it will clog up your sprayer.
Add 1 cup water to bowl.
Mix vigorously until thoroughly combined
Pour mix into spray bottle.
Spray on all plant surfaces you wish to protect from deer browsing
Allow to dry. Will last until next rain storm
Has anyone asked the Monarchs what they think about all these repellant methods? Seems like some of these could deter them too.
I was wondering the same thing. The deer here at all the leaves off our milkweed plants around our butterfly bush. Will spraying deer fence or other similar products discourage the monarchs from laying their eggs and/or will the caterpillars still eat the leaves with that stinky stuff on them?