Caladiums are beautiful natural home décor that you can plant and keep inside or outside of your house. These plants have a mixture of red and green color leaves, and they can grow in large numbers. Here, you will get to know whether deer eat caladiums or not.
Do deer eat caladiums?
Deer don’t eat caladiums. They don’t even come closer to caladium plants. Deer generally avoid daffodils, poppies, and foxgloves plants. Also, deer avoid anything with a strong smell. Such a strong smell can be peppermint, blood meal, and red chili flakes. Along with all these, deer avoid caladiums.
Stick with us through this section to learn more about caladiums and if deer eat the plant or its leaves –
Caladium leaves and plants:
Caladiums have heart-shaped leaves and have a pinkish-red texture in the middle of the plant. These plants can be white and green as well. In tropical places, they grow more, because they love hot and humid weather.
The best thing about caladium is they can be planted in shady places. You can plant these trees under the tree or between other plants. You can plant these trees on the border of your garden.
Because animals such as deer will never taste these plants as these plants are poisonous to them.
These leaves contain calcium oxalate that disrupts the wellness of the stomach of the deer, or any herbivore animal. Regardless of calcium oxalate, these plants contain a toxic protein called asparagine. Both elements make caladium not worthy for the tummy.
These plants are only good as home ornaments. As you can plant them inside of a jar and need a minimal level of care for these plants. This plant can grow fast. These plants need only 12 weeks to grow fully.
Even these plants are poisonous to humans as well. If chewed or swallowed, any human stomach will face great irritation as well as gastric pain. Moreover, these plant leaves can be a reason for strong irritation and itching.
So, it is recommended for people who have children in their house, to keep these plants away. Or keeping your children, who can swallow the leaves, out of these plants. Or else you face a huge problem.
Is caladium deer resistant?
Caladium is a deer-proof plant. The chemical compound this plant carries is not pleasant to any herbivore or any mammals. There is calcium oxalate and asparagine in this plant. If swallowed and touched, these elements can harm obnoxiously.
Also, not only the leaves are poisonous, the bulb, and the whole plant is poisonous. Deer try to avoid these plants. Deer will eat any other plants, but they will keep themselves away from them. You can name these plants deer-resistant or deer deterrent plants.
If you plant these plants on every side of your garden, deer might face a hard time coming across these plants. Most of the time, any wild plant with color can be poisonous. These plants are not only deer-proof, but also herbivores don’t take them as proper food.
Do deer like caladiums?
Deer don’t like caladiums. They try not to eat them accidentally as well. The chemical compound it has is harsh for deer to take. Deer try to keep themselves away from these plants. Deer rather eat acorns, pine cones, grass, and other non-toxic foods.
Caladiums have poisonous elements throughout their body. So, whether the deer eat the bulb, the roots, or the leaves, it will face a great problem for that reason. And it surely will never try to eat these plants in future.
Because the whole stomach will face a severe problem after the deer eats the caladiums.
Are caladiums poisonous to deer?
Caladiums are poisonous to deer. Caladiums are not only poisonous to deer, but also to humans. The sap of the plant has an immediate action to it. If somehow you touch the sap of the plants, your skin will start itching and it can cause some severe to normal medical issues.
As deer eat these types of food, when they cannot find their regular food sources. They may not know the impact on their stomach. If deer eat these plants in large numbers, it will just create irritation to their stomach.
It will refrain them from any other foods. They might not eat anything or have some strong irritation to their mouth and all over the digestive channel.
How to keep deer from eating my caladiums?
Generally deer will not eat caladiums as it is poisonous for them, but young ones can stomp and ruin your caladiums while playing. To prevent any scenario like this, you should keep deer away from your plants. The following tips will help you in this –
Blood Meal:
The blood meal is a mixture of different animal blood. The smell of blood warns deer to come. Deer are herbivore animals. They don’t eat meat or blood. Only harmful animals to deer eat meat. Predators have the smell of blood with them.
So, when deer get the smell, they will not have the guts to go there.
Fencing:
Fencing will ensure the top level of safety. And it will provide a long-term benefit to the garden. Deer cannot get inside of the fence, as they are not aggressive. You can get other animals out of your garden by fencing.
Peppermint:
Though it is not scientifically proven, peppermint deters deer. Deer have a strong sense of smell. Some people have got the benefit of using peppermint as a deer deterrent. Peppermint can repel deer with its strong smell.
Red Chili Flakes:
Using chili flakes will not provide a hundred percent protection for a long time. But it will ensure some protection for a small amount of time. When you get to see some deer in your neighborhood, you can use chili flakes as a shortcut technique to keep the deer away instantly.
The strongness of red chili flakes only stays for a few days and then the smell becomes stale. And stale chili flakes will not stop deer from coming to your garden.
Garlic:
Garlic is another natural deterrent. The smell of the garlic is not pleasant. If you cut half of the garlic and spread these pieces of garlic throughout the garden. You can have rodents and deer away from your garden. Any animal with a sensitive nose will be deterred by garlic.
Marigolds:
Marigolds are small yellowish flowers. The pungent strong smell is not pleasant to deer’s nose. Interestingly, marigolds are one of the plants that need less care, and they can grow faster. In the cold region, you can plant marigolds easily as well.
It will increase the beauty of the garden and deter deer.
Wolf Urine:
Like blood meal, wolf urine is available in the supermarket. Wolves use their urine to mark their territory. Wolf urine is used to deter herbivores such as deer, rabbits, squirrels, and chipmunks. The smell of wolf urine is a warning sign for these animals.
These animals think that if they get inside of the territory, they will get approached by a predator. That’s a good tip for you to keep deer away from your garden.
Deer ate my caladiums. What to do?
If any deer ate your caladiums from your garden, it would never come to eat them again. Because caladiums are excessively poisonous to deer. Your garden needs to have proper protection from deer invasion. The most useful way to keep deer away is a fence.
You can put a fence around the garden. Or there is a deer deterrent, and you can use nature-friendly deer deterrents. You can buy blood meal from a supermarket and spread the blood meal all around the garden.
Remember, you must prevent them from coming. And if they invade, you must not harm them, but you have to replant the caladium and nourish the new plants perfectly. Protect your garden using natural ingredients and keep the deer away.
Also, caladiums are not the food deer want to eat. So, the best way of protecting these plants is fencing. Prevent deer and keep your caladium and garden safe.
Final thoughts
Deer don’t like caladiums. Caladiums are not a pleasant food for deer. But if somehow deer invade caladium plants, that is because they have shortages of food. Or they were running to-and-fro and they didn’t see the caladiums. You can use different natural goods to keep your garden deer free.