The Real Christmas Tree Board

Deer repellents of the past have involved products that are toxic, malodorous, or must be reapplied too frequently to be practical. An exceptional alternative for Christmas tree growers has been the Trico Pro product, manufactured by Kwizda, a company in Austria that uses the body fat of sheep as the active ingredient. This product has been demonstrated to provide winter-long protection against deer browsing in Christmas trees. At a cost of $90 – $180 per acre to apply this product, Trico Pro is expensive. Alternatives to Trico Pro, based upon sprayable emulsions of animal fats and related molecules, have been developed and tested to determine whether they can provide the same level and duration of protection as Trico Pro. A lanolin emulsion in a product that will be marketed as No-Does was found to be equivalent to or superior to Trico Pro when tested during the summer to protect soybeans from deer browsing. The recipe allowing Christmas tree growers to make an equivalent lanolin-based product for use on their own farms has been freely shared at meetings and through state Christmas tree growers’ newsletters (CT and VT/NH). The deer repellent using this recipe costs no more than $10 per acre for the ingredients. An alternative deer repellent based upon milkfat was found to be equivalent to Trico Pro and the No-Does. Its advantage is that the ingredient is available at grocery stores and the sprayer is easily cleaned after application. All three repellents provided protection from feeding by deer through the winter.