Walked through my elder thicket today. I had thought I wouldn't get anymore deer damage once the leaves fell. Ha! With a whole world of trees around them they had to rub their antlers on these poor little bushes.
    I've got about a half dozen like that, bark stripped off and branches broken. I'm having to do some serious thinking about when and where I put figs in ground.

I'm sure glad I went over this learning curve with elder cuttings I gathered from the wild. It would have been a lot worse if all this had happened to the figs.

I have problems with deer eating my young walnut, hazelnut and chestnut trees.  I have the shortest 10year old nut trees in the world in the section where the dear come around..LOL 

I can't see deer eating the fig softwood or the fig leaves filled with that milky sap.  The fig smell would probably drive them away. 
Hanging some Irish spring soap on the tree is known to deter deer.

I was spraying them with pepper when the deer were eating the leaves. When the leaves dropped I thought they'd leave them alone.

I'm a landscaper in NJ. We have a LOT of deer. These are what I will be using next year for my landscape plants.

http://www.plantprotec.com/index.htm

Two weekends ago I saw two deer walking down my street. In freak'n Fair Lawn! It's pretty urban here. 50x100 lots, sidewalks, bus stops, busy streets.. You get the picture. We are about a half mile from the Passaic River but there is not much room for them there since one side borders 21.

Time to learn archery.

Hi greysmith,
Time for some fencing around each tree. Just 4 posts and some chicken wire.
Male deers are now preparing to fight for them ladies and they will do that to just every small tree that wants to fight with them - after all the trees stand in their way instead of moving to the side :) ... Who's the strongest ?!?
I had the same problem with 2 plum trees and 2 peach trees and the old lady did not want to fence them - bad WW2 memories for her ... So the trees are gone...
Here normally the local hunters are responsible for such damages but the old lady was not either wanting to mess up with hunters ... That was before the deers started destroying her fence because
the deers started jumping over the fence . I don't know if the deers are still at her property as I've been visiting her less because due to health issues she's less at that property.
Are those some elder ? The bark sure looks like elder's bark.

I've always heard that deer don't bother much with fig trees.  So far, so good.  I, too, am in an urban area but with a good sized lot and a creek.  The deer are always in my yard.

It's not that they eat the figs, they scrape the bark. Just as bad, or sometimes worse.

It's hard to figure why they scrape a particular tree, shrub. They will nibble on anything that looks attractive. Yes, Irish Spring soap works.  I make a solution and spray it on around my yard. Not practical for larger tracts. Pino, you really concern me, as I have a hundred chestnuts seedlings planted (with a hundred to go). Am I going to have to camp out among the whitetails?

Dale,  The whitetails around here also will nibble on most plant buds and young branches grapes, apple...

They seem to have a special attraction to nut tree buds and young branches.  The nut trees I planted in the deer area 6 years ago keep getting chewed back to a few feet high.  Compared to the nut trees in another area that deer can't get to those trees are 15-20' and starting to produce.

It is mostly my fault for not getting out there in time to protect the trees.  In late fall I am very busy winterizing fig trees and other chores by the time I get out to the nut trees the deer have already done their damage. 

I see very little scraping damage that may be that there may be very few bucks.  Although a few years ago I saw 3 or 4 large bucks with huge antlers. 

Right! When they were eating the leaves they weren't doing that much damage to the plant, Just aggressive tip pruning. But, this destroys the stems. And, pepper spray doesn't help. I don't know about the Irish Spring, yet. There seems to be a limit on how big a tree they'll attack. There are other tree saplings among the elder that aren't being bothered. Somewhere over an inch in diameter and they're left alone.

The good news is that they have only been doing it to the leggier plants, The ones that they ate back earlier are to short and bushy for them to attack this way. I'll cut these off below the damage and they should come back from the root. Next year all my second year plants will start at first year size. They are fast growers. Hopefully, they'll have enough root established that I'll be able to get them tall and thick enough in a year to be past this next fall. If I can protect them through the summer without being eaten.

The deer scraped the bark off a HC tree in Winter 2014 and a number of walnut trees.I taped up the damage on the tree with electrical tape, but the 5F low killed the HC to the ground anyways.

[QUOTE=Eukofios]Deer have eaten low leaves and branches from my young fig trees.  In addition, rabbits have eaten small fig starts, chopping the entire tree off to the ground level.  Same for pawpaws and persimmons - which they are not supposed to eat, but apparently they didn't read that book  Voles chew off the bark.  My rabbits also like eating onions.  The ideal eating height for deer, here, is 3 to 4 feet high, up to 5 feet high.  Even though the deer can reach higher, I have arbor vitaes that have a poodle-trim, where the deer ate all of the lower branches, and stopped at 5 feet, so the tops are much more bushy.  In our area, at least, deer leave taller plants alone, but the other herbivores chew off shorter plants.

I had some benefit from spray-on deterrent, but not 100%.  Deer love plum leaves and branches, and I managed to salvage a plum tree by repeatedly spraying with stinky spray, until the plum height was above what the deer browse.  Our climate is rainy so repeat applications are needed, and the spray also caused leaf damage.

Our property is 2 acres - too large for an expensive deer exclusion fence all around the property.  And that would not keep out small herbivores which can be just as destructive.

Here is what I do.  It's not cheap - but not too bad, or easy - but not too hard, but it works so far.

First, for the small animals, I have a cylinder of hardware cloth surrounding the trunk  I make it large enough that I hope they accommodate several years trunk expansion, usually about 3 or 4 inches diameter.  These are about 18 inches to 2 feet tall, whatever is the height to the lowest branch.  I cut the hardware cloth with wire cutters, roll into a cylinder and fasten the edge together with a few zip ties.  I have about an inch of overlap on the edge.  After the first couple, it becomes very easy.  I use 1/4 inch hardware cloth, but I used to use 1/2 inch, and never had any animal chew through that.  I switched because I read the 1/4 inch is better, so when I bought more, it was 1/4 inch.  Each year, I check to make sure they are not too tight, and replace if the trunk has grown too close to the hardware cloth.

Then for the larger trees and shrubs, I construct a round fence using 2 steel fence poles, 5 feet tall above ground.  So I guess those are 6 foot posts. I use the cheapest steel fencing I can get, which is usually has spaces about 2 inches by 4 inches spaces, and buy 5 feet height.  I unroll it to make a very big cylinder, usually about 5 feet diameter.  I fasten one side to a fence post with zip ties, and the other side serves as a "gate", held shut with plastic clothespins.  That lets me get in to maintain the tree or shrub.  The 2nd steel fence post is opposite the first, for support.

So far the deer have not broken through these fences, even though they are not constructed super solid.  I used to make box-like fences for trees, 4 fence posts to a box, and fasten the fencing all around, but it's more money and effort.  The inside of the circles, or boxes, is mulched so I don't have to worry about mowing inside the fences.  When I used smaller cylinders, and the branches grew through the fencing deer would grab the branch end and chew like someone slurping spaghetti, leaving the branch much shorter than one would expect.  But branches growing about the fencing, they have left alone unless the branches droop below 5 feet.  I don't know why they don't try to reach higher.  It may be they can't watch for safety and eat high at the same time.

I tried chicken wire, but it is too flimsy, and I kept getting cuts and scratches from it.  The stiffer galvanized steel fencing is less hassle and safer.

I read that urine works.  We pee-cycle, and it has no effect on deer at all  I have 2 large dogs, who are indoors mostly, and use the orchard as their bathroom.  That has no effect on the deer, although if I had the dogs out there 24/7 it might.  But they like to get into trouble, and they are my best friends, so I don't leave them unattended.    Attaching shiny stuff, dog hair - and when un-bathed, they get pretty stinky, or Irish Spring soap, no effect.  Blood meal, no effect, including the blood meal with hot pepper.  Stinky sprays, which are expensive, do help, but they wash off.  I have not tried the home made egg and garlic and hot pepper spray.

The fencing is a one-time thing for each tree, so it's easier in the long run and seems to work for me.  So far.[/QUOTE]

Wow sounds like there are a lot of problems with animals..
Has any tried these?
http://niteguard.com