The deer hunters

The natives of south-east Asia will strip rose bushes of buds, chew their way through shrubs and perennials and make divots in the lawns.

A government survey asking people to record sightings of foreign invaders, including the muntjac, in a bid to control their population, may have come too late for many gardeners with already-ruined plots.

The Royal Horticultural Society now receives almost as many inquiries about deer as it does about rabbits, another prime garden pest, and while there are a number of deterrents on the market, the only one guaranteed to work long term is a 6ft fence around your garden. Only red and roe deer are native – there are also fallow, sika, muntjac and Chinese water deer.

However, fallow, roe and muntjac deer are the species most likely to be encountered across the UK. Both muntjac and roe are territorial and their numbers have spread in urban gardens because of a reduction in their own natural habitat and the steady rise in their population.

David Kenyon, of the British Deer Society, says: "The problem with muntjac is that they are fairly indiscriminate as to what they will eat in your garden. They will go for anything, while roe deer are browsers who will eat your roses first and then work down the chain. They are more selective."

Muntjac may be the smallest deer in the UK, but they can do a lot of damage.

"If you see one-inch slots (hoof marks) in the lawn, a deer may have been there digging up the lawn to get to the more nutritious roots underneath," Kenyon adds.

No-one knows exactly how many deer there are in the UK but the Deer Society estimates it could be around 1.5m – equivalent to one deer in every 10 square kilometres. They will gobble up rare orchids and do untold damage to new shoots in woodland, destroying both young trees and forest flowers such as bluebells.

Males (bucks) will rub the bark from the main stem and leave it hanging in tatters. Males whipping woody plants and low branches with their antlers cause thrashing damage.

If shoots and stems are bitten through, leaving a clean mark on one side and a ragged edge on the other – a result of their lack of incisors on the upper jaw – it's likely to be deer.

Rodents leave sharp tooth marks on both sides.

There are no plants that muntjac won't touch, although there are some they like least, Kenyon continues. They're not so keen on camellia, cistus, hellebore, hosta, hydrangea, lavender, poppies and sedum, but they like geraniums, sweet Williams, clematis and, of course, roses. But if they're starving, they'll eat anything.

If you want to preserve the balance of nature, you could grow alternative food for the deer, allowing an area at the end of your garden to be devoted to brambles, rowan, dandelion, campion and yarrow. Hopefully, the deer will prefer these to your favourite roses.

Damage is most common on new, succulent spring growth or in winter when other food sources are scarce.

There are a number of deterrents on the market. You could try scare tactics by having a motion detector attached to a sprinkler or by planting strong-smelling plants or tying old CDs on twine and stretching them across areas of the garden; when they move in the wind, they reflect light and scare the deer.

However, these options have only limited success rates.

So the sooner you get that fence up, the better.

For more information, visit the British Deer Society at www.bds.org.uk

YP MAG 20/11/10