We all know how deer love to eat up your landscape, but they can also make quite a mess with their antlers. A male deer marks it scent by rubbing his antlers on a tree of shrub.

The issue is when the bark is rubbed off the trunk. This damages the layer that transports water and nutrients for the tree.

When this happens it called girdling. Girdling is when the bark has been scraped away all the way around the trunk. This is a death sentence for tree’s.

Hopefully the rubbing has been minimal. If only a small part of the trunk is affected, the tree could lose some branches which should be pruned off to prevent other issues from happening.

Some options to stop further damage to the trunk would be using a spray deterrent or to setup a small fence to protect your trees and shrubs.