Hi y’all – Just moved into a new house with a row of, what I assume are, some variety of arborvitae. They seem fairly healthy on the top 60%, but for some reason the bottom 40% is sparse and brown, straight across in a line.
The tallest is maybe 20’ or so, the lowest about 10’.
We’ve got very healthy green grass around them, but it does seem like it got very wet during the heavy rainfall of the spring. Water flows into a nearby creek (maybe 100’ feet away).
Any ideas specifically what these are, and why just the bottoms are struggling? I actually saw a neighbor with almost the exact same situation, so I don’t think the previous owners did something to cause it.
Thanks for any info!
by Old-Primary-3662
13 Comments
Do animals feed on them?
That is damage from deer eating the them. Arborvitae is like candy for a deer!
Deer, rabbits, goats? I had lots looking just like this. Animals love them.
Winter hungry deer
Deer
Ok so the consensus is clearly deer lol.. Thanks everyone. I don’t know how I didn’t think of that first. While I haven’t caught a ton of them roaming around on the Nest cam yet, I know this neighborhood certainly has its fair share.
Thanks everyone! I’ll probably grab some Deer Out, but I know you can only do so much when they’re hungry.
I went with the Thuja Green giants but I wanted these. the landscaper said the deer will rip these apart.
Fence line
salt from the plow trucks. cover them in winter
Have a Great Dane? My Boston Terrier destroyed the bottom layer of mine over the winter by peeing on them.
😂
Shred some Irish spring soap and sprinkle it around them, and maybe hang some like shitty Christmas ornaments in the trees. That’s what I’m doing to save my apple trees from deer anyway
Has anyone mentioned deer? 🤪
I spent a few winters living at a lake – I’d watch deer stand on their hind legs to eat the cedars all around the lakes – to the point of creating a “hard line” around the bottoms of the trees for miles.
I know a couple of black labs that do that to the trees in their yard.