Teaching deer to eat invasives?

catscratch

catscratch

Well-Known Member
Cattlemen for a long time have been teaching cattle to eat weeds such as Thistles and Sericea Lespedeza by either spraying a thinned down solution of molasses on them or mob type grazing. Once they try it they find that it's good and then they target it.

A few weeks ago I sprayed my throw-n-mow summer plots with gly and immediately (the same night) noticed that deer use increased. Use stayed heavy for several days. I don't know what gly tastes like but the deer certainly liked it.

My dense head didn't put 1+1 together until a few days ago when I was spraying thistles and I thought; "the deer should be doing this for me".

So, this brings me to this question; anyone trying to teach deer to eat their invasives?
 
catscratch said:
Cattlemen for a long time have been teaching cattle to eat weeds such as Thistles and Sericea Lespedeza by either spraying a thinned down solution of molasses on them or mob type grazing. Once they try it they find that it's good and then they target it.

A few weeks ago I sprayed my throw-n-mow summer plots with gly and immediately (the same night) noticed that deer use increased. Use stayed heavy for several days. I don't know what gly tastes like but the deer certainly liked it.

My dense head didn't put 1+1 together until a few days ago when I was spraying thistles and I thought; "the deer should be doing this for me".

So, this brings me to this question; anyone trying to teach deer to eat their invasives?
Click to expand...
interesting thought, but not sure how one would really go about it in a wild setting
 
I see them eat multiflora rose like candy. Jap honeysuckle is also sucked up all winter. Never thought I would see it but saw one on camera eating a dried up Perilla plant early this spring.

I'm getting ready to try the mineral stump trick on some sweetgums, but I will bet they won't touch the sprouts. If they do I can create a massive mineral site in no time.
 
I have a bottle of Tink's Salad Dressing. It's supposed to draw deer in and get them to eat whatever you spray it on. Honeysuckle flavored. I always forget that I have it. If i remember I'll spray some of the weeds in my clover plot on monday and report back later on.
 
catscratch said:
Cattlemen for a long time have been teaching cattle to eat weeds such as Thistles and Sericea Lespedeza by either spraying a thinned down solution of molasses on them or mob type grazing. Once they try it they find that it's good and then they target it.

A few weeks ago I sprayed my throw-n-mow summer plots with gly and immediately (the same night) noticed that deer use increased. Use stayed heavy for several days. I don't know what gly tastes like but the deer certainly liked it.

My dense head didn't put 1+1 together until a few days ago when I was spraying thistles and I thought; "the deer should be doing this for me".

So, this brings me to this question; anyone trying to teach deer to eat their invasives?
Click to expand...
If you can train them to eat thistle, I will kiss you Cat. Figuratively speaking of course.
 
dogghr said:
If you can train them to eat thistle, I will kiss you Cat. Figuratively speaking of course.
Click to expand...
I'm going to give it a go, you can hold off on the kisses for now. :)
Unfortunately I just spent the last couple of weeks spraying every single thistle I could find. How much you want to bet that at least one more will pop up that I missed... I'll need two that are side by side. One that gets molasses and one that doesn't. Won't do any good if you have to bait each thistle!

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
 
I have noticed here in our yard that whenever I spray for weeds and grass in certain areas that the rabbits like to eat right there for days...
 
You never know,I just saw a article the other day that the first confirmed case a deer eating human flesh was documented.I couldn't bring myself to read it though
 
buckdeer1 said:
You never know,I just saw a article the other day that the first confirmed case a deer eating human flesh was documented.I couldn't bring myself to read it though
Click to expand...
My parent's had a horse that you couldn't leave game around. Come home from a hunt and leave the truck for a few minutes and it would have eaten any quail, ducks, prairie chickens, that you left out. It would even lick all the blood off of dead deer.
 
Good thing you aren't in California- glyphosate gives things cancer out there!

I have been trying to convince my rabbits to girdle AO for years, I don't think they get deep enough. In my part of the world if deer are eating MFR or thistles you have a browse issue and hungry deer.
 
catscratch said:
I believe gly is a salt. That doesn't necessarily mean it tastes salty, lots of things are chemically classified as salts.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Correct. In chemistry, the term "salt" is simply a type of compound comprised of anions (-) and cations(+). "Salt" as we know it is Sodium Chloride, or NaCl, in which the Na is (+) and Cl (-). I believe the salt compound in gly is an amine (Nitrogen).
 
catscratch said:
Cattlemen for a long time have been teaching cattle to eat weeds such as Thistles and Sericea Lespedeza by either spraying a thinned down solution of molasses on them or mob type grazing. Once they try it they find that it's good and then they target it.

A few weeks ago I sprayed my throw-n-mow summer plots with gly and immediately (the same night) noticed that deer use increased. Use stayed heavy for several days. I don't know what gly tastes like but the deer certainly liked it.

My dense head didn't put 1+1 together until a few days ago when I was spraying thistles and I thought; "the deer should be doing this for me".

So, this brings me to this question; anyone trying to teach deer to eat their invasives?
Click to expand...
Did you mix Ammonium Sulfate and crop oil to the Roundup? AMS is similar to a salt.
 
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