With deer eating fresh flowers, cemetery turns to fake plants

The peacefulness at sprawling All Saints Cemetery has been shattered by hungry herds of white-tailed deer who leap over fences at dusk to forage for fresh flowers left on loved ones' graves.

The situation has prompted cemetery officials to erect signs on the property at 6001 Kirkwood Highway in Milltown alerting visitors not to leave fresh flowers or plants on the graves or they will be eaten overnight by deer.

"Unless they put up a 12-foot fence, they're not going to keep the deer out," said Sgt. Tim Pritchett, of the state Fish and Wildlife Enforcement. "The deer have no natural predators in Delaware, just man and cars, except in hunting season."

Mark Christian, executive director of Catholic Cemeteries for the Diocese of Wilmington, has suggested that families wishing to honor their deceased relatives turn to artificial flowers.

"Artificial arrangements are just as pretty and don't end up on the menu for the wildlife," he said.

And, apparently, deer steer clear of fake flowers, Pritchett said.

Beginning Thursday, artificial arrangements will be available for purchase from the All Saints Cemetery office as a courtesy to families.

Damage from the foraging deer could be seen this week on several arborvitae trees in the rear of the 105-acre property, near the mausoleum. Vegetation was gnawed off the bottom half of the trees.

Ron Merritt, assistant superintendent at All Saints, said the cemetery enlisted the help of a commercial service last year to spray the trees.

"It did help, but it's expensive and the situation has gotten worse this year," Merritt said. "We did have it under control. Some of the deer left the area. But if you have a funeral, the deer eat all the funeral arrangements."

It's gotten so bad, that groundskeepers have to spray the funeral flowers with a deer deterrent and cover them up with a tarp overnight so the deer can't feast on them, Merritt said.

The next two weekends, with Palm Sunday and Easter, are a peak visitation time when families flock to the cemetery to pay respects to the departed, Christian said.

Next month brings more visitors for Mother's Day and Memorial Day, followed in June by Father's Day.

"If you came out on your mother's anniversary and put roses on the grave, then come back the next day and they are gone, it's upsetting to the families," Christian said.

Deer are having more of an impact at All Saints than some other local cemeteries. Cathedral Cemetery, also operated by the non-profit Catholic Cemeteries Inc., only sees a sporadic deer or two on the property.

At Gracelawn Memorial Park near New Castle, executive director Lee Hagenbach said he's never even seen a deer on the property in all the years he's been there.

"It's amazing," he said. "I've been here since 1951 and have never seen any deer. Rabbits and ground hogs, but no deer."

With the development of Milltown Village, a 55+ retirement community off Pike Creek Road in the rear of All Saints Cemetery, the deer have less land to call their own and are looking for new sources of food, Merritt said.

"It was a bad winter," he said. "That's why they've been coming in to get the flowers and vegetation from the trees to eat, they're hungry."

Wayne Erne, who goes for a daily run on the property behind the cemetery, where St. Mark's High School is located, said he has spotted a herd on his runs in the wooded thicket up by the school.

"I've only seen one deer in the cemetery," Erne said. "And that was in the winter and the deer was trying to get out."

The cemetery uses hunters during the archery season between Sept. 1 and Jan. 31 to thin the herd, donating the meat to the Delaware Food Bank, Christian said.

In addition to commercial deer repellent, Pritchett suggested setting out human hair, from a barber shop, along the fence perimeter to deter the deer or use a bar of soap in a stocking set out around the perimeter, which deer also do not like.

Christian said he expects there will be some grumbling from local florists about the cemetery's new policy as well as from families.

"What I would tell the families is to give your Easter flowers to the living," Christian said. "Visit a nursing home and give them to someone there. Then, the love you have for your family member is shared with someone who has no family."

Contact Terri Sanginiti at (302) 324-2771 or tsanginiti@delawareonline.com