Nova Deer Shield

Let NoVa Deer Shield help you stop deer from eating your landscaping and bringing ticks onto your property.

Following up on last month’s blog about ticks, we would like to share about a local company that we recommend using for deer and tick protection. NoVa Deer Shield was created 7 years ago when Founder Judy Loose moved back to Virginia and needed deer repellent to protect her yard. Having been a customer of deer repellent in Connecticut for many years, she decided to start her own business centered around saving landscaping from hungry deer. However, her customers soon began complaining about the ever-increasing number of ticks, inspiring the company to add an organic tick treatments to their services in 2018.

The company now serves more than 200 customers offering natural deer repellent services every 2–3 weeks between March and October, a one-time winter deer repellent application (which lasts all winter long), and monthly organic tick treatments.

The company uses an integrated approach to dealing with ticks, including keeping home lots clear of brush and wood piles, maintaining short grass, and discouraging deer from feeding in the area. Though deer are not the source of tick-borne diseases, they are a large host and therefore carry a multitude of ticks that drop off on your property along with other mammals. NoVa Deer Shield treats not only the lawn, but also areas where ticks like to hide; for example, under shrubs and in woodpiles. In some areas they also use tick tubes, which is a tube with cotton balls treated with permethrin; Front-Line for mice! 

NoVa Deer Shield also treats plants with natural deer repellents that will discourage deer from eating expensive landscaping. It is estimated that deer cause more than $250 million in damages to homeowner’s landscaping annually.  With the cost of landscaping installations, that’s an investment worth saving! Deer control involves making plants undesirable as well as training the deer not to bother coming onto the property (and leaving ticks behind). Over time, with no desirable food, deer are more likely to avoid the property altogether.

NoVa Deer Shield is based in Waterford, Virginia, and is a family owned business. They hold all required certifications required by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and pride themselves on helping others come up with innovative ways to solve deer and tick problems. For the team at NoVa Deer Shield, the job is mostly about working with, and helping, others. 

“Most days, it hardly seems like work.”