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Do Deer Eat Agapanthus? (Quick Answers)

If you are searching for lily family flowers, you should consider agapanthus to grow in your garden. It will give you two different colors of flowers with overwhelming fragrance.

Agapanthus should be your first consideration when you want to have your flower fragrance from a long distance.

It will give you the best experience of flower plants since it will also help deter wild animals and attract butterflies. You will love to have a fresh breath in your garden every morning.

Deer eat agapanthus

Deer don’t eat agapanthus since it has a strong smell and can spread in the air. Also, the flower leaves’ taste would be bitter. For these two crucial reasons, deer don’t regularly eat agapanthus or its leaves. But in harsh starving conditions, deer will eat anything, including agapanthus.

Considering the smell, you will find the best answer to why deer don’t like flower trees. They mostly avoid eating any fragrance tree, including flowers and others. Here, the agapanthus will spread a strong fragrance in the air that deer mostly avoid.

Apart from that, the agapanthus will have a bitter taste, so your deer will always avoid eating its leaves. If you offer some agapanthus leaves, they will never eat them after the first bite. Deer will not take a single leaf after getting that sharp smell.

Considering these two reasons and features of agapanthus, you can use this plant as deer-resistant medicine. 

They will naturally deter deer without damaging the animals’ health. So, it would be better to plant some agapanthus around your garden to prevent wild animals safely.

Still, you might be confused about other parts of the agapanthus tree. Therefore, I will show you if deer can eat agapanthus plants, flowers, and leaves. This section will clear your thoughts about agapanthus and help you grow this plant to be more deer-resistant.

Agapanthus plants:

Deer don’t eat agapanthus plants since it’s not like a tiny flower plant. It will consume nearby areas and look like a dangerous flower tree.

That’s why the deer cannot eat the agapanthus plants, but the smell and bitter taste will also play a significant role here.

Agapanthus flowers:

Deer don’t also eat agapanthus flowers because of the bitter and smelly taste. You will get the flower fragrance from a long distance. It might be pleasant for you, but deer are unpleasant since they can’t bear that.

Agapanthus leaves:

The agapanthus leaves also contain a strong chemical and high smell that will damage the deer’s stomach. Therefore, deer don’t eat agapanthus leaves. If your deer mistakenly eats some agapanthus leaves, you must take care of it.

Do deer like agapanthus?

Deer don’t like agapanthus because of its strong smell and bitter taste. You can taste it by offering some agapanthus to your pet deer. They will refuse to eat that since it is not their ideal food. Sometimes, you may find some wild deer are eating your agapanthus.

It’s because they are too hungry to search for their desired food. They find your flower tree on their way and start eating the leaves and flowers.

There are no more reasons you will find behind this story. You may even try with some leaves and flowers once your pet deer are starving for a while.

They will quickly devour your agapanthus leaves, flowers, and other parts, although it’s not their food, or they avoid it most of the time. So, you might need to protect your agapanthus flowers and leaves fr wild deer and other animals.

In general, deer don’t like agapanthus and will keep away from that area. They don’t want to ruin their stomach and create unwanted digestion problems.

Therefore, they don’t like to eat anything from the agapanthus tree. And you should never offer your deer some agapanthus leaves.

Are agapanthus deer resistant?

Agapanthus are truly deer resistant because it has everything to deter deer from the surroundings. One of the main reasons could be its taste and smell; between these two, the fragrance or smell of the flower plays a vital role in deterring deer.

Considering the taste, smell, and digestion problems, you can expect to find the agapanthus is a deer-resistant plant. So, it will be ready to plant around your garden and deter the deer without damaging their health. But sometimes, the deer might get into your garden if it is too hungry.

That’s why the agapanthus is a deer-resistant plant, but it’s not deer-proof. So, you need to protect your agapanthus tree from wild deer and other animals since they are prey of these animals.

So, it’s better to put a fence around your agapanthus and keep them safe from wild animals, including deer.

Considering the above reasons and situation, you can easily say that the agapanthus are deer-resistant trees, but they are not deer-proof. So, you cannot rely entirely on its smell and taste; you need to protect them from deer and other animals.

When do deer eat agapanthus?

Deer eat agapanthus when starving and don’t find anything to eat. Although the smell and taste of the agapanthus are not in favor of deer, they will still try to eat some agapanthus and fill their stomach. It’s a common scenario for all wild animals.

They constantly search for their food, but sometimes they find their proper food. On that occasion, some of them will go with anything they will find on their way. If they find some agapanthus, they might go for it without considering the after-effects.

Typically, deer don’t eat any part of agapanthus because of the taste, smell, and digestion problems.

But when hungry and don’t have anything to meet their stomach needs, they will securely devour some part of your agapanthus. That’s the only reason you should protect your agapanthus from deer.

How to stop deer from eating agapanthus?

To stop deer from eating agapanthus, you can go for any of the solutions below:

Fence:

Creating a fence around the perimeter of your yard is a method to stop deer from eating agapanthus. But remember, the fence must be very tall. Deer can quickly jump a significant height with their long legs.

So that means you need to build a very high fence so that deer cannot get over it. Before you decide on fencing, a gentle reminder is that it can be costlier and take much space.

Lights:

Deer might prove to be dangerous later in the day when there is no light or movement of humans.

As deer get frightened very quickly, you can arrange something to stop deer from eating agapanthus, which can make deer afraid as well as let you sound peaceful. In this case, motion-sensitive lights can be the best choice for you.

They will only turn on when there is deer in your agapanthus garden. All you can do is put them in appropriate places, so they can quickly come to the notice of deer and scare them.  

Net:

If you want to restrict access to some parts of the plant in your garden to stop deer from eating agapanthus, you can quickly go for netting. You can secure your agapanthus plants with a net.

Mesh is highly effective on which you can rely and will also cost you the least amount of money.

What animal eats agapanthus?

A large number of animals love eating agapanthus. Here are a few of them:

Aphids:

At the primary signs of something eating your agapanthus, the primary thought that can come to your thought is aphids. This little creepy crawlies can cause significant harm as they swarm plants in a vast number.

In general, aphids aren’t visible with bare eyes until you notice very carefully and have a closer look. You’ll see how they get separated from spiders using their lots of limbs.

They don’t damage the agapanthus plants the way you think. Aphids utilize their mouthparts to cut and suck sap from the agapanthus plant. As time goes by, aphids can damage your plant to the extent that it can no longer thrive.

Snails & Slugs:

These spineless creatures are dynamic in the late hours of the night. Snails and slugs dribble with the plant and eat up the cleats.

They cover up beneath the agapanthus plants’ leaves or overlying mulch in the daytime. You can pick a torch light and then use it to identify.

Deer:

Deer don’t eat just agapanthus plants; it is one of their favorite foods. If you suddenly notice that a significant portion of agapanthus is damaged in your garden, deer may have done it. The taste and scent of agapanthus are lovely to deer.

Final Thoughts

Because of its strong fragrance, bitter taste, and health problems, deer don’t eat agapanthus regularly. They try to avoid this plant until they are too hungry and don’t have anything to eat. In that case, deer might eat part of the agapanthus and become a prey.