If you've ever walked out to your yard in February to find the lower third of your arborvitae completely stripped bare, you already know how devastating deer damage can be. What most homeowners don't realize is that by the time they see the damage, it's too late — and arborvitae, unlike many other plants, rarely recover from significant deer browsing.
The good news is that preventing deer damage to arborvitae is straightforward. The key is acting before fall grazing season begins.
Why Deer Target Arborvitae
Arborvitae (Thuja species) are evergreen, which means they hold their foliage through the winter months when deer food sources are at their lowest. From November through March, a deer's natural diet of grasses, wildflowers, and deciduous plant buds largely disappears. Your arborvitae hedge, full of green, fragrant foliage, becomes an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Deer also prefer the softer interior branches of arborvitae over the outer tips, meaning damage often appears as hollowed-out bare patches deep in the tree — not just surface browsing. This interior damage is particularly hard to hide and extremely slow to recover, if it recovers at all.
The Three Most Common Approaches — and Why Two of Them Fall Short
Deer repellent sprays: These work by making plants smell or taste unpleasant to deer. The problem is they need to be reapplied every 3–4 weeks, and especially after rain. During a busy New Jersey winter, that means climbing over snow and ice every month. Deer also adapt to sprays over time — a scent that worked one winter may be ignored the next.
Wire cages and fencing: Metal wire cages do physically block deer access, but they're labor-intensive to install, visually intrusive, and can damage branches if not installed with enough clearance. A row of wire-caged arborvitae is not the elegant landscape statement anyone is going for.
Netting wraps: A properly installed polypropylene netting wrap creates a physical barrier that's nearly invisible from a distance, lightweight enough not to harm the tree, and easy to put on and take off in minutes. This is the approach we recommend — and the one we built our product line around.
How to Install Arborvitae Netting
Installation takes about 5–10 minutes per tree. Here's the basic process:
- Unroll the netting wrap around the base of the tree and begin wrapping upward, spiraling the fabric around the trunk and branches.
- Overlap the netting by a few inches to eliminate gaps where a deer could push through.
- Secure the wrap with the included cords and snap hooks — one near the base, one in the middle, one near the top.
- Check the base to ensure there are no openings deer can access from below.
The wrap should feel snug but not compressing. Arborvitae branches need to be able to move with wind and snow load. If the wrap is too tight, loosen it slightly.
When to Install and Remove
Install your netting wraps in October, before deer shift to winter feeding patterns. In the Northeast, deer grazing pressure typically increases dramatically between Thanksgiving and March. Removing the wraps in April — when spring food sources return and deer pressure drops — gives your trees a full growing season with no netting.
Protecting Multiple Trees
If you have a row of arborvitae, consider our bulk netting rolls for a more cost-effective option. Our 60" × 330' roll can protect a full row of trees 120–150 feet long in a single installation. Many landscaping companies in New Jersey and the surrounding region use these rolls for their clients' seasonal protection programs.
Don't wait until you see damage to take action. A single winter without protection can set your arborvitae back years — and in severe cases, the damage is permanent. A netting wrap costs a fraction of what you'd spend replacing even one mature tree.