iguana hibiscus dilemma

I live in Cane Bay and every once in a while on our 4-8ft high Hybiscus, deer decide tthey are tired of the grass in our bottom and come up by the house & chomp off the buds/flowers. I bought a bottle of spray at Gallows Bay garden store to spray on these plants & other plants that the deer eat from time to time. It's basically the wolf urine in a solution &- be sure to be upwind when you spray it. Yes it works!

Jumbie

experiment update....turned off the dusk to dawn spotlight near the hibiscus garden, the cayenne pepper has remained on the leaves and have been watching the plants the past few days. Buds were getting bigger and starting to blossom........until last night. This morning almost all my hibisucs buds were chomped off. Then I started thinking about the rain last night. I think it may have washed off all my pepper and the rats were at it. Today I will spray with liquified cayenne and hot sauce as li2stx suggested and it may hold up to the rain better. Might add some chili oil as well to help stick. I will put the spotlight back on and then wait a few days and see what happens. My rat bait box is still in place but I might set a few rat traps. This might help isolate the potential culprit. I just wish CSI was here to help with the analysis.

ok, after several tests with turning off spotlights and using liqiufied cayenne pepper and chili oil, I have come to the conclusion that the early posters were correct, we have rats eating our hibiscus. Spotlights off didn't help and the liquified cayanne pepper didn't stick to the leaves, I have just been sprinkling cayenne pepper powder on the leaves the last couple of weeks, touching up about every other day for new leaves, and my hibisucus are in full bloom, in many places and getting very close in others. It had been over a month with no blossoms at all.

New dilemma is I don't know how to do this on an ongoun basis. The cayenne pepper works, but is unsightly on the leaves and washes off with a good rain. Sea Chest told me to try spraying Malathion 50. It is for bugs but has a very foul odor/taste and might keep the rats away. I have bait boxes around but they did not keep the rats off the tasty hibiscus. Anyone familiar with this chemical and will it work? Other suggestions besides the cayenne that will withstand the rain and not require daily upkeep or followup after rain?

At least I have determined it is not Iguana and know that the rats are the problem so that is helpful. Now I just need to figure out how to attack the rats. Visions of a Caddyshack solution come to mind.

Sounds like deer to me!! We live in Mississippi and they eat my hibiscus blooms all the time. Looking forward to our move to STX in May.:D

Hadn't thought about deer but yes, that could very well be it.

Pamela

pamela....i will go out side some mornings and my hib. plants look like they have been totally weed wacked, and its from the deer.

they do come back bushier then ever....i don't like that they do that but theni figure they have to eat also.

no deer by me...not where I live, I am 100% sure. But good thought anyway.

where do you live that you don't have deer? unless you are totally fenced in by a high fence you should have deer.

peterborg, been here since 2001 with fence on part of yard and never seen a deer in the neighborhood, although seen them plenty of other places. tough for them to get to the hibiscus spot.

Happens only in the evening and cayenne pepper has them blossoming again- yeah! Just don't know if Malathion 50 would be as effective cayenne pepper.

True ... no deer in Peterborg.