Deer Country: Putting Our Hostas on the ‘Pill’

Will these tablets keep
deer away from our hostas?

I started my 2012 deer repellent test yesterday by putting our hostas on the “pill,” the new Repellex Systemic tablet for plants that claims to repel all sorts of critters—deer, rabbits, moles, voles, gophers, groundhogs, feral hogs, cats, and dogs.

The directions on the label seem simple enough: For a small plant, use one tablet for every foot of the plant’s height and width.  I used two tablets for each of two large clumps of hostas and one tablet for each of two small clumps of hostas.  A large clump of hostas about 12 feet away will be my untreated control.  As directed, I pushed each dime-size tablet an inch or more below the soil surface “2-3 inches away from the root crown.”  I then watered the plants to activate the tablets.

You may recall that last year I experimented with mint-based Deer Out repellent spray, and our local bambits ignored our hostas all summer.  When I used the spray, I could easily see that I had hit all major parts of each hosta and had no question about whether I had applied it correctly.

Will a dime-size tablet work the whole summer?

I didn’t get that same feeling of certainty when I “positioned” the Repellex Systemic tablets.  Just where is the “crown” of a clump of hostas?  To measure a hosta clump’s height, do I measure just leaves—or do you include the towering flower stalk?  Will two tablets be enough for the tangled mass of roots of a hosta clump to take up and infuse all the leaves sufficiently to make them deer repellent?

Questions, questions, questions.

I’ll report back occasionally with, hopefully, some answers, answers, answers.

If you missed my earlier posting about the new Repellex Systemic tablets and how they work, CLICK HERE.

If you want to see my final posting about Deer Out, the mint-based repellent spray, CLICK HERE.