Updated on September 7, 2026. Ratings below are university lists, not a guarantee for your street. Confirm current lists on the linked extension pages before you tear out a row.
Yes. Deer eat garden beans — foliage, flowers, and pods — and they rank the crop with the worst vegetables, not the safest. Iowa State’s fruit-and-vegetable list, compiled from Rutgers, Cornell, and Michigan State surveys and last reviewed July 2022, puts beans (Phaseolus spp.) in the frequently severely damaged column with lettuce, peas, carrots, sweet corn, and strawberries. UConn’s home-garden sheet files beans with the deer favorites, not with tomatoes or cucumbers. Cornell’s vegetable program is blunter: deer prefer snap beans, dry beans, and soybeans, and some farms plant those as a buffer so the herd stays out of the rest of the bed. An unfenced kitchen-garden row is that buffer, whether you meant it or not.
This page is the garden-bean answer — snap, pole, bush, lima, and the soybean field next door. Shade-bed candy is hostas. The other frequently damaged vegetables already on this site are carrots and strawberries. For the rest of the yard, start at the deer-proof garden hub and the wild-diet page what do deer eat.
| Plant | Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) as snap, shell, or dry; lima (P. lunatus). Soybean (Glycine max) is a different species and a farm crop. UGA Circular 1006 (full review August 19, 2026): bush, pole, and half-runner habits. |
|---|---|
| Verdict | Yes. Frequently severely damaged. Leaves, flowers, and pods. Not a “maybe.” |
| University rating | Iowa State: frequently severely damaged (Rutgers / Cornell / Michigan State; July 2022). UConn: deer favorite. Cornell Vegetable Program: snap, dry, and soybeans are preferred crops. |
| What they eat, when | Seedlings the night they come up; tender leaves and tips; flowers; then pods. Peak is May–August in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic, longer in the South with a fall planting. Raids match deer feeding times. |
| Where it is worst | Unfenced suburban plots next to woods, and farm-edge soybeans. Bush beans sit entirely in the browse zone. Pole beans to 6 feet are still at mouth height. |
| Official sheets | Iowa State deer-susceptibility list · UGA Circular 1006 · Cornell Vegetable Program deer notes |
Bush, pole, lima, soybean — same browse
UGA horticulturist Bob Westerfield’s Circular 1006 splits green beans the way seed racks do. Bush beans stay compact and need no trellis — they also sit about 1–2 feet tall, muzzle height for a standing white-tailed deer. Pole beans vine and can reach 6 feet or more. That is harvest convenience, not safety. Georgia DNR’s deer-damage circular is the browse-height rule: deer are the only native animals that routinely feed 4 to 5 feet off the ground. A 6-foot teepee is still in the zone. Half-runners spread wider than bush types and still occupy the bed the herd already walks.
Minnesota Extension’s home-garden bean page is the northern calendar: common bean is grown as snap, shell, or dry beans; plant once the soil has warmed, which in much of Minnesota is late May or even early June, because cold soil rots the seed. Pick snap beans before the seeds inside bulge. Limas want warmer soil and a longer season than P. vulgaris. Soybeans are not a kitchen-garden snap bean. They are Glycine max, and in farm country Minnesota says crops such as corn, soybeans, alfalfa, or grain can make up as much as 78 percent of a deer’s diet. The backyard row is the same idea at garden scale: mild, wet foliage with no thorn and no onion smell.
UGA: green beans are a warm-season crop. Air 65–85 °F is the sweet spot; soil should be at least 55 °F to germinate; air above 85 °F drops flowers. Harvest is 45 to 60 days after planting, while pods are still immature. That calendar is why a May planting and a July pick both get hit — seedlings first, then the pods you waited for. USDA FoodData Central (FDC 169961, beans, snap, green, raw) lists about 90 g water per 100 g. A drought week makes that row look like a drink.
Garden peas (Pisum sativum) sit on the same Iowa “frequently damaged” line, but they are a cool-season plant with no WorldDeer child page yet — treat the Iowa State list as the source, not a slug we have not published. Wild browse still lives on what a white-tailed deer eats.
What they eat, and when
Deer have no upper incisors. They grab and tear. After a raid you get ragged petioles, missing growing tips, crushed or swallowed pods, split-heart hoof prints, and pellet piles. Minnesota Extension calls that browse rough or shredded, not a clean clip. Seedlings vanish overnight. Flowers taken in heat are a double loss: UGA already warns that temperatures above 85 °F drop blooms; browse on top of that ends the set. Once a doe teaches fawns the garden, the circuit holds. That is a suburban pest problem: deer as pests.
Deer vs rabbit vs groundhog vs Mexican bean beetle
Four animals wreck bean rows. The fix is different for each.
- Deer. Ragged tears a couple of feet off the ground, pods missing or crushed, split-hoof prints, pellet piles. Pole beans browsed well above rabbit height are almost always deer. Damage shows up between dusk and dawn.
- Rabbit. Clean 45-degree clips close to the soil, usually within about 18 inches. Hardware cloth at the soil line stops rabbits. It does not stop a deer that can reach over it. Low-crop defense: how to keep rabbits out of the garden.
- Groundhog. Sits and eats in place — half-chewed plants, a burrow nearby, damage at midday. Buried wire under a real deer fence is the stack if you have both.
- Mexican bean beetle. NC State’s vegetable-pest sheet calls it the most injurious insect pest of snap, lima, pole, kidney, pinto, navy, and bush beans. Adults and larvae feed on the undersides of leaves and leave a lace-like, skeletonized leaf with veins still attached. That is not a hoof print. Do not fence for a beetle.
Where it is worst
This is a suburban and farm-edge problem wherever deer density is high — New Jersey through the Upper Midwest, then Southern gardens that plant a spring and a fall crop. In soybean country the herd already thinks legumes are a ration. A 20-foot snap-bean row next to that field is not a surprise.
Iowa’s frequently-damaged vegetables include lettuce, peas, sweet corn, carrots, and strawberries. Plant those beside unprotected beans and you have trained the herd to stand in the plot. Tomatoes in the same garden are seldom damaged. Cucumbers sit in rarely damaged because of coarse, prickly vines. Pumpkins take the fall shift.
Cornell’s farm tactic is the sentence most garden blogs skip: a buffer strip of snap beans, dry beans, or soybeans can soak pressure that would otherwise hit other vegetables. That is a field-scale sacrifice crop, not a suburban lure. Planting extra beans “so they leave the tomatoes alone” on a 30-by-40 lot trains the dusk circuit to your yard. Farm-scale honesty lives on how farmers keep deer away.
What actually works
Fence the garden, or cage the row. Once a deer has tasted the bed, it is harder to keep them out. Minnesota’s woven-wire minimum for larger areas is 8 feet. Deer clear a 4-foot picket without thinking. Layout and cost: how to keep deer out of garden beds and how to keep deer from eating plants.
- Fence the whole vegetable plot at 8 feet if you also grow greens or berries. Electric polytape and peanut-butter foil flags for a portable summer fence: Cornell Vegetable Program uses that design on vegetable acres.
- A closed hoop over bush beans. Floating row cover or a hardware-cloth box with the bottom tight to the soil stops deer, rabbits, and Mexican bean beetles at once. Common bean is largely self-pollinating, so you can leave row cover on Phaseolus vulgaris for the season and lift it to harvest — a bean-specific trick cucumbers do not get. Pole beans still need height; a cattle-panel cage taller than the vine is the home-scale version of Minnesota’s 8-by-16-foot micro-exclosures about 50 inches high.
- Pick every other day. UGA wants pods cut while immature anyway. A full-size bean left overnight is the invitation. Put the bed next to the house, not against the woodlot.
- Food-safe repellents only, on foliage you are not about to eat. Cornell: most deer sprays are not labeled for edibles. Start before the first browse and reapply after rain. Formulas: organic deer repellent.
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What does not work
No university list splits Blue Lake, Provider, Kentucky Wonder, Roma, or a lima as “deer-resistant.” UGA recommends those cultivars for habit and disease, not palatability. A sacrificial bean row to draw them off the flowers is Cornell’s farm buffer, not a suburban lure — it trains the herd to your yard, then the hostas go too. A 4-foot decorative picket around a big open garden is a step; Minnesota notes deer will also crawl a gap as small as 7½ inches. Companion herbs and marigolds do not hide a bean row. Do not hand-feed leftover pods; Minnesota Extension: do not feed deer. Why not: what to feed backyard deer.
Grow these instead — or beside
- Tomatoes — Iowa State: seldom damaged. They still sample ripe fruit. They prefer a bean leaf to a hairy tomato vine.
- Cucumbers — Iowa and UConn put them in the rarely-damaged column because of coarse, prickly vines. Better neighbor than beans; still fence the fruit in a high-density suburb.
- Lavender — a sun-edge herb deer skip for scent. It does not replace a mess of snaps. It does replace the ornamental strip that funnels the herd into the bed.
UConn’s rarely-damaged list also names peppers, onions, garlic, and eggplant. We do not have plant pages for those yet, so treat the UConn sheet as the source. Flower swaps: peonies, the perennial list, and deer-resistant annuals.
Common questions
Will bean plants grow back after deer eat them?
Sometimes this season, never as a perennial. If laterals and enough leaf remain, a snap bean can set more pods. Seedlings eaten to the soil line are done; replant, then cage. This is not a hosta. There is no crown waiting underground.
Do deer eat pole beans less than bush beans?
No. Pole beans put some pods higher. Westerfield’s 6-foot vine is still inside standing browse height, and a deer that can clear eight feet is not stopped by a teepee. Bush beans are simply easier to wreck because the whole plant sits in the first two feet. Cage both.
Do deer eat soybeans the same way they eat green beans?
Yes on the browse, different on the species. Soybean is Glycine max, a farm crop. Cornell lists soybeans with snap and dry beans as preferred. Minnesota’s 78-percent crop-diet figure is farm country, not a raised bed. A backyard edamame row is still candy. Do not use a soybean field as proof that your Blue Lake is safe.
Can I spray deer repellent on beans I will eat?
Only if the label says you can, and only on the parts it names. Cornell: most deer sprays are not labeled for edibles. A cage has no pre-harvest interval. If you spray, keep it off pods you will pick that week and wash what you harvest.
Sources
- Iowa State Extension — Susceptibility of Plants to Deer Damage (beans, Phaseolus spp.: frequently severely damaged; sources Rutgers, Cornell, Michigan State; last reviewed July 2022)
- UConn Home & Garden Education Center — Deer Resistant Vegetables and Herbs (beans: deer favorite)
- Cornell Vegetable Program — Minimizing Deer Damage in Vegetable Crops (Julie Kikkert; snap, dry, and soybeans as preferred crops; buffer strips; electric polytape)
- UGA Extension Circular 1006 — Home Garden Green Beans (Bob Westerfield; full review August 19, 2026; bush / pole / half-runner; 65–85 °F; soil 55 °F; harvest 45–60 days)
- University of Minnesota Extension — Growing beans in home gardens (snap / shell / dry; late-May planting; lima vs common bean)
- University of Minnesota Extension — White-tailed deer damage (torn browse; 8-foot fence; 50-inch micro-exclosures; 78 percent crop diet; do not feed; 7½-inch crawl gap)
- Georgia DNR — Controlling Deer Damage in Georgia (browse 4–5 feet; ragged tear vs rabbit clip)
- NC State Extension — Pests of Beans and Peas (Mexican bean beetle: skeletonized leaves)
- USDA FoodData Central 169961 — beans, snap, green, raw (~90 g water / 100 g)
- Rutgers NJAES — Landscape Plants Rated by Deer Resistance
- Cornell IPM — Deer (4–10 lb daily intake; small-enclosure vs 8-foot fence)
Part of the Deer-Proof Garden Guide. Wild diet lives on what deer eat.
