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I like deer... but they really can do a LOT of damage to the garden. We live in the woods and have learned what they won't eat, so that's what we've planted. (Daffodils. Lots of daffodils!)

My sympathies! That sounds even worse than our vole problem. ;)

It was highly frustrating at first, when we had grand visions of fancy gardens filled with plants that we discovered deer considered the greatest salad mix EVER, but we learned to co-exist and go with nature instead of fighting it. We plant the "salad bar" items like hostas up close to the house where the deer don't venture because of the dog, and everything else we "share" with them and the other critters in the woods.

LOL, well, in our case, because of the dogs, we have our nicer plantings in the front yard. Which is only protected when I throw open the front door and scream at them (or throw snowballs if they think I don't really mean it.) And there, they walk right up to the house to eat. Although things are a little safer in the summer because they have more other stuff to eat. We have so many deer here that the woods are also suffering serious abuse. I don't know where all the new trees are going to come from, because the deer have eaten all the underbrush.

Darn, my bad - that comment was meant for the picture, though it goes for your problem, of course, too! ;o) Slaymesoftly, I hope you're reading this, too?

It depends with the cohabitation for me. If it were moles, I wouldn't mind at all, even if the little lawn we have turns slowly into a place dangerous to walk, because often enough some tunnels break down and you're stumbling or falling. But the voles are not only doing Moria-like digging work, they're also a danger to some of our trees. We accepted them, hoping the cats would keep them in check (but even with four cats catching them the population didn't diminuish), but when they started to come close to some tree roots we started to put up traps. That seems to help a bit, but I'm continuously afraid for the trees. They can damage the roots of a tree so fast and thoroughly the tree will fall or die, and the few we have are kind of sacrosanct.

Oh my gosh! I had no idea they were that bad. I think ours are moles and a few chipmunks which also build "towns" like prairie dogs do.

We were finding out that they were nearing my young quince tree when some of my herbs and shrubs growing very close were just falling over from one day to the next. You could just lift them out, the roots had all been completely eaten off.
Moles don't eat plant roots and aren't dangerous to your shrubs and trees, though I don't know about Chipmunks. I'm glad that the voles aren't protected as the moles are hereabouts. We would need to use live traps then, and to install those, you need to dig out one square metre of garden for one trap - and for a garden of our size, we would need 20-30 traps to get rid of them. *faints* Typical case of the cure is worse than the illness...

No, moles don't eat plants, the make feeding tunnels and eat the worms and bugs that fall into them. However, the tunnels cut the grass off at the roots and raise it out of the earth, so you end up with long, curving brown areas where the grass has died. I stomp down on the tunnels whenever I can, but it's too big a pice of land for that to work. And you have to get them as soon as they're dug before the grass has died. *sigh* The chipmunks do much the same thing, but they do eat roots and bulbs. I had no idea they even lived in the ground until I went online to try to figure out what I was looking at in the yard.

We used to have a cat or cats, and rarely saw chipmunks and usually only dead moles that had been brought to us as "gifts". But our last cat died many years ago and since then the population of annoying little critters has exploded. The snakes do a fair job on the mice, but they are falling down on the job when it comes to moles and chipmunks!

Oh we have that too! Or chipmunks or moles. It's hard to say which little tunneling creatures they are, but there are a bunch of 'em. :)

LOL - yes, so far the daffodils are safe. From the deer.... the underground critters, not so much. :)

I looooove squirrels and put out feeders for them, and then the birds share. Deer, on the other hand, are incredibly destructive and are now so numerous - far beyond what they should be - that they cause all kinds of problems. If the population were held in check they'd be no problem.

It's very difficult to hold the populations in check when people freak out at the idea of a natural predator in the area, but don't want people hunting them either. I don't hate them, but I hate what they do. I find the squirrels very destructive - it's a good thing they're sometimes cute.... as it is, I'm constantly threatening to sit on the porch with a shotgun in my lap....

Ooooh, you get to see lots of lovely livestock.

LOL - trust me, the deer and squirrels just THINK they're livestock. I did not take them to raise! I'm thinking about raising bears, or wolves, or cougars...

Wow, it's strange to read this and think of deer and squirrels as problem animals -- living in the middle of the city, the worst we might get are feral cats, and we all pretty much feed them. (There are pocket gophers in the park, and the odd ground squirrel, but not too much in the way of deer in Central Phoenix.)

It's a shame that deer have become that much of a problem. But that's what happens when you eliminate all their predators (we do have a couple of coyotes, but I think they're falling down on the job) and clear land and build houses everywhere. Nothing to thin the herd (except cars) and plenty of landscaping to eat means they just keep having babies.

And out this way, ranchers never seem to understand how important large predators are...

They don't get it here, either. On one FB thread you can see people bemoaning all the deer-related automobile accidents (several a day) and people panicking because someone saw a coyote or a bear. *sigh*

Your least favorite mammals are beautiful. Great photos!

Thank you. LOL They'd be adorable if they weren't so freaking destructive. On purpose sometimes in the case of squirrels.

Ah, now - as we have neither deer nor squirrels I still tend to think of them as cute!

LOL As they are... from a distance... and not in your yard... or jumping in front of your car...

Ooh, venison;-)

I feel for your plants, though

What plants? ROFL