Demonstration of deer repellent applications for season-long control in soybean
ISSN 2158-9429
Volume 18, Issue 2 - December 2025
Editor: Bindu Poudel-Ward
Abstract
White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) damage to soybeans continues to be a significant problem for South Carolina soybean growers. Growers in SC have several options for managing deer damage including lethal removal, exclusion fencing, harassment, and repellents. Repellents, if effective, could be widely accepted by growers and citizens. Growers frequently report that single applications of deer repellents have been ineffective at protecting yields. In this demonstration, we conducted a multiple application approach of using a deer repellent to provide season-long management of deer browsing injury. Xfence® deer repellent was applied 4 times throughout the growing season. Applications were made upon observation of new feeding injury. In this demonstration we observed yield savings of approximately 94.8% of the field’s yield potential with 4 applications of Xfence® throughout the growing season. Application effective longevity ranged from 1 week – 2 months. The observations of this demonstration indicate a need to scientifically research season-long management of deer browsing injury using repellents.
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