You can make a homemade deer repellent with just eggs and water from your kitchen. The best formula uses 3 eggs per gallon of water. Mix them together, let the batch sit for 24 hours, and spray it on your plants. This simple recipe matches the results of products that cost ten times as much.
I made my first homemade deer repellent two summers ago after spending over $60 on store-bought spray in a single month. My DIY deer repellent recipe cost me about 50 cents per gallon using eggs from the fridge. I sprayed it on the same beds where the commercial product had been working well. The results looked the same to me after four weeks of tracking deer damage on both sides of my garden.
Here's the full DIY deer repellent recipe broken down step by step. Crack 3 whole eggs into a blender with about a cup of water. Blend on high for 30 seconds until smooth. Pour this into a gallon jug and fill the rest with cold water. Now comes the important part. You need to let this mixture sit in a shady spot for 24 hours before you use it. During that rest time, the egg proteins break down into sulfur compounds that smell like predator urine to deer. A fresh mix won't have that strong scent yet.
Colorado State rates egg spray at a 20% egg to 80% water ratio as a strong performer against deer. You can also make a garlic-cayenne version for extra punch. Crush 5 cloves of garlic and add 2 tablespoons of cayenne pepper to your egg mixture before the rest period. This combo adds a burning taste on top of the sulfur smell. Deer that push through the scent barrier get a nasty surprise when they bite a treated leaf.
Straining Your Mixture
- Why it matters: Egg chunks will clog your sprayer nozzle in seconds, turning a quick job into a messy headache you don't need.
- Best method: Pour your rested mix through cheesecloth or an old t-shirt into a clean jug to catch every solid bit.
- Pro tip: Strain twice if you used the garlic-cayenne recipe since those extra bits love to jam up cheap pump sprayers.
Best Time To Spray
- Evening wins: Spray in the late afternoon or evening so the mixture dries on leaves overnight without sun burning it off too fast.
- Weather check: Pick a day with no rain in the forecast for at least 12 hours so the coating has time to bond to your plants.
- Coverage approach: Spray until you see a thin wet coat on each leaf but stop before it starts dripping onto the ground below.
Storing Unused Spray
- Shelf life: Your strained mix keeps for about 2 weeks in a sealed jug stored in a cool garage or shed away from heat.
- Fridge storage: You can store it in the fridge for up to 4 weeks but label it well so nobody opens it by mistake.
- Smell warning: The mixture will smell worse over time and that's a good thing since it means the sulfur compounds are getting stronger.
Reapply your spray every 2-3 weeks and always respray after heavy rain washes the coating off your plants. I mark my spray days on the kitchen calendar so I don't forget. You'll smell the rotten egg scent while spraying, but it fades for human noses within an hour. Deer still smell it for weeks after each coat.
Anyone can make deer repellent at home with a few eggs and ten minutes of work. The cost stays under a dollar per batch and the results match what you'd pay $15-25 for at the garden center. Your plants get the same protection without the extra expense. Start with the basic egg recipe this weekend and your garden will look better by the end of the month.
Read the full article: Best Deer Repellent Options for Gardens
