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If you’re looking to bring in the bucks, you need to learn how to attract deer. Luckily, we’ve got all the tips and tricks you need to know! Deer are creatures of habit, so if you can get them used to your scent or presence, they’ll keep coming back for more. In this blog post, we’ll discuss how to use food, scents, and other strategies on how to get deer to come out during the day and make them feel at home on your property.
Table of Contents
How To Attract Deer To Your Yard
1. Know The Local Laws
The first thing you want to do is check your local laws concerning creating a feeding area. In some states, building a feeding area during certain times of the year is not legal. Make sure it is legal to build a feeding area before you start. Attracting deer to your yard can be easily implemented but you want to be sure what you do isn’t illegal.
2. Plant A Food Plot
Deer are attracted to protein-rich crops like alfalfa, peas, soybeans, turnips, kale, etc. Plant a food plot to attract them to your area. You can also plant clover, and grasses like wheat, oats, and rye. Deer also like nuts such as acorns and chestnuts.
Apples, pears, and persimmons are also fruits that deer love and will attract them to your yard. Deer also love corn. Take note of what is not in your area that deer love and plant those to attract deer to your plot.
Visit your local hunting store and ask for seed mixes for deer plots. Some stores sell bulk seeds that will allow you to create your own blends with winter peas, fescue, vetch, and sun hemp.
How to attract deer in the daytime involves implementing a number of strategies that appeal to deer.
3. Away From Roads
Don’t plant your food plot close to roads and busy areas that have a lot of human traffic. Deer will be hesitant to come to your food plot if there is a lot of human traffic.
4. Water Source
Deer get thirsty and need water to drink. Create a water source or improve one by planting trees around a water source to create more cover for deer when they drink. If it is possible creating a water source or using one close to your area is one way how to attract deer to your yard.
5. Provide A Salt Or Mineral Block
Deer are attracted to salt and mineral blocks. They are also drawn to cider and apple salt blocks. Set up a salt block near your food plot or bury it in the ground. Sprinkle salt on top of the ground after burying the salt block. You can find salt blocks at feed stores and hunting goods stores. How to attract deer to your yard can be accomplished with a salt or mineral block.
6. Plant Trees
Plant trees whose leaves deer eat. Not only the leaves will serve as food but the trees will provide cover that deer love. You can plant apple trees, willow trees, oaks, hawthorn, cedar, yew, and dogwood. This is a long-term strategy. This is a long-term strategy but is another way how to attract deer to your yard.
It will take years for trees to grow and mature to become cover and provide many leaves for deer. But if you have the bigger picture and are patient, this will serve for many years as the deer will come to know the area and eat and bed there.
7. Use Deer Lure
Using a deer lure is one of the best ways how to attract deer to your yard. You can find them at sporting goods stores. Deer urine could be used as deer lures but it is illegal in some states. Check your local laws regarding using deer urine as a lure before you use it. Deer lure can be a very effective way how to get a deer to come to you but you must be sure it is legal in your state.
8. Tall Grass
Let the grass grow beyond average height in the area you want to attract deer. This will be welcoming to deer as they like to cover the areas they frequent.
9. Remove Fences
Fences and other barriers prevent deer from easy access to the land. If you have fences in the area that you want to attract deer, consider removing the fence. This will create a more welcoming plot for them to easily roam and find food.
10. Pines or Cedars
Grow a dense grove of pines or cedars that will provide thermal cover in the winter from the brutal winds.
11. Well-Drained Location
Use a location that is well-drained that doesn’t have the potential for erosion or flooding.
12. Brush Pile
Create a brush pile using leaves, branches, and other vegetation that deer can use for shelter. It will attract deer as they like to feel safe and be hidden from the open.
Don’t Lure Deer With These Foods
There are some food items that you may not be aware of that deer don’t like. They will not lure deer to your yard.
1. Hay
Deer don’t like hay as it is difficult to digest.
2. Kitchen Scraps
There may be scraps in the pile that are not digestible for deer.
3. Animal Meat
Deer don’t eat meat or animal produce.
The Bottom Line
How to attract deer to your yard involves creating an attractive environment for the deer that caters not only feeds it, but also gives it a sense of safety with a cover that includes trees, brush, leaves, and other items. In this article, we discuss how to get a deer to come to you by creating an environment that will lure deer to your yard. If you want to learn how to hunt deer with a crossbow, then you should read this article.
If you are interested in deer attractants, then read this review of the best deer attractants to find the right one for attracting deer to your hunting area, food plot, or your property. You can also read how to hunt deer at night, how to hunt whitetail deer during the rut, the best deer feeders, the best deer food plot seeds, the best tripod game hoists, and the best deer carts.
