As a component of its hybrid approach to deer management, the Deer Management Program, as well as other County entities, will employ repellents to protect priority landscapes and individual plants.
Repellents are homemade or commercially available products that are applied to plants that make them unpalatable to deer.
Repellents can be effective at protecting individual plants or small areas from deer but are cost and labor prohibitive to apply to entire forests.
They have to be reapplied periodically and after every rain.
Arlington County currently uses repellents at a small scale in certain areas, such as its rose garden at Bon Air Park.
Repellent safety varies with the product used, but is generally considered safe if applied responsibly with adequate notification.
Because repellents are more expensive and less effective than fencing, repellents will be reserved for areas where fencing is impractical, or where fencing conflicts with access or aesthetic priorities for the site.