Updated on September 7, 2026. Ratings below are university browse lists, not a nursery tag. Confirm the linked extension pages before you plant a wall of ivy — or before you decide it is worth defending.
Yes. Deer eat ivy. English ivy (Hedera helix) is the plant most people mean, and it is a winter food, not a summer favorite. Iowa State Extension, compiling Rutgers, Cornell, and Michigan State surveys (last reviewed July 2022), files English ivy with vines occasionally damaged in its “occasionally severely damaged” section. That is one step better than hostas (frequently damaged) and the same bucket as climbing hydrangea. UConn Extension (EXT020, March 2022) still lists English ivy with arborvitae, azalea, rose, and yew as plants highly susceptible to deer damage. The lists disagree because a shady groundcover in July is not the same meal as an evergreen wall in January. Boston ivy is a different genus. Poison ivy is a different family. Deer eat those too.
This is a garden-plant page. Wild browse lives on what deer eat. For the rest of the yard, start at the deer-proof garden hub.
| Plant | English ivy (Hedera helix), the evergreen vine. Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata) is a grape-family climber. Poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) is a native sumac, not an ivy. |
|---|---|
| Verdict | Will eat. English ivy is a winter fallback, not hosta-level candy. Protect it in high-density suburbs, or replace it — it is invasive in much of the East and the Pacific Northwest. |
| University rating | Iowa State (Rutgers / Cornell / MSU): English ivy, vines occasionally damaged. Virginia creeper (Boston ivy’s cousin) in the same vine column. UConn EXT020: English ivy highly susceptible, with yew and arborvitae. |
| What they eat, when | English ivy: evergreen leaves at 1–5 ft, November–April, plus new runners. Boston ivy: tender spring and summer growth; it drops its leaves, so it is not a winter salad. Poison ivy: new growth (Penn State); Illinois Extension says deer eat the leaves. |
| Where it is worst | Mid-Atlantic and Midwest suburbs with a browse line already on arborvitae. Michigan Ask Extension (Clinton County) called English ivy a winter favorite. Pacific Northwest yards have the same evergreen problem plus a worse invasive one. |
| Official plant sheets | Iowa State deer-damage list · Rutgers deer-resistance list · Maryland Extension — English ivy |
Which “ivy” are you asking about?
Three plants share the name. Mixing them up is how gardeners end up with a “deer-proof ivy” that is either a rash or a winter buffet.
- English ivy (Hedera helix). Eurasian evergreen. Maryland Extension (updated February 22, 2023): ground monoculture, climbs until ice and wind drop trees, stores bacterial leaf scorch (Xylella) that hits maple, oak, and elm, resprouts from any rooted piece, toxic berries. Clemson HGIC: aerial rootlets cement to stucco, wood, and brick mortar. This is the winter plant deer strip to a browse line.
- Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata). Same genus as native Virginia creeper, not Hedera. Deciduous; adhesive disks, not aerial roots. Iowa State rates Virginia creeper as a vine occasionally damaged. I did not find a separate Rutgers line for Boston ivy. Spring and summer new growth get browsed; January deer ignore the sticks.
- Poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans). Native. Three leaflets. Urushiol gives people the rash; it does not stop deer. Illinois Extension (September 8, 2025) writes that deer enjoy the leaves and more than sixty bird species eat the white berries. Penn State (updated July 19, 2026): white-tailed deer nibble the new growth; goats eat foliage, not roots. Do not yank it without gloves — dead vines still carry oil.
Two more names that are not this page: ground ivy / creeping Charlie is Glechoma hederacea, a mint. Swedish ivy is Plectranthus, a bedding plant UGA Colquitt County files as deer-tolerant. Neither is Hedera.
What they eat, and when
English ivy earns its reputation after frost. Minnesota Extension: winter food is scarce, and deer eat whatever vegetation is left, including evergreen foliage. A wall that looked “deer resistant” from May through October is one of the only green meals at nose height. Michigan Ask Extension, answering a Clinton County homeowner whose English ivy was stripped to bare stems, called it a winter favorite and said established plants grow back. Pattern: browse line from the ground to four or five feet, leaves gone, petioles hanging, the top of the wall untouched.
They take thinner new leaves at the edge of a patch first, then climbing foliage on fences and trunks. Adult ivy in a tree canopy is out of reach; the problem is everything below a standing deer’s chin. Raids match when deer feed. In snow country, Minnesota says treat from about six feet above maximum snow depth down.
Boston ivy is the opposite calendar. It drops its leaves, so January deer hit English ivy, evergreen azaleas, and arborvitae instead. Soft May shoots sit in the same browse zone as a young hydrangea. If English ivy shares a shade bed with hostas, the hostas go first. If it shares the bed with ferns, the ferns usually survive the traffic and the ivy takes the winter shift.
Deer vs rabbits
Minnesota’s field test: deer have no upper incisors, so they grasp and tear. Damage looks rough or shredded, not a clean clip, and on a wall it sits well above rabbit height. Split-heart hoof prints and pellet piles in the mulch close the case. A whole fence face stripped overnight is deer.
Rabbits leave a neat 45-degree cut within a foot of the ground or at snow line. Hardware cloth at the soil line stops rabbits; a deer steps over it. If only the lowest six inches are gone and the wall is intact, start at how to keep rabbits out of the garden. Yellow patches with intact leaves are drought, scale, or fungus. Maryland’s leaf-scorch warning is about nearby trees, not browse.
Where it is worst
Suburban New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland — the Mid-Atlantic lots where Rutgers built the ratings because the white-tailed deer herd is dense and every other house already planted English ivy under a maple. Upper Midwest winters (Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota) turn the same evergreen into a salad bar when fat reserves are lowest in late winter. Georgia Extension Circular 1238 (full review August 25, 2026): no plant is deer-resistant, and in a tough winter animals browse plants sold as tolerant. Pacific Northwest yards add listed-invasive status on top of blacktail browse.
English ivy is a landscape problem even when deer leave it alone. Maryland: monoculture, rodents in the mat, trees shaded then dropped. UGA DeKalb files it as Category 1 and says not to yank vines from above chest height. Collar-county Michigan yards — the suburban herd on the Michigan hunt page — are where an unfenced ivy wall looks worst in March.
What actually works
Physical exclusion, then a winter spray schedule, then a replacement. Species choice does not make English ivy “safe.”
Minnesota’s woven-wire standard for a whole bed is at least 8 feet. A 4-foot picket around a climbing vine is a step — deer clear that without thinking (Minnesota: up to 12 feet high, 30 feet long, 7.5-inch crawl gap). Check local height rules. For one wall, black mesh netting from eaves or fence cap to the ground stops the browse line. Cage new plantings for a season so runners can root.
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Egg- or capsaicin-based sprays matter on evergreen ivy from November through April, not as a summer ritual. Start before the herd finds the wall, reapply after rain or wet snow, rotate formulas, and spray from the top of the browse zone down. Once a wall is a known dusk stop, spray alone rarely holds. Which bottles last: organic deer repellent. Fence layout: how to keep deer out of garden beds.
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What does not work
A tag that says “deer-resistant ivy.” Iowa State’s occasionally-damaged rating is not a free pass, and UConn files the same plant with yew. Surrounding ivy with lavender fails twice: lavender wants sun, ivy wants shade, and scent does not hide an evergreen salad in January. Soap bars, dryer sheets, hair, and a single motion light buy days. Feeding the herd to “distract” them trains them to the property — what to feed backyard deer is the page that says don’t. Pulling English ivy off a tree from the top strips bark and drops people; Maryland and UGA want a chest-height cut, then let the upper vine die in place.
Plant these instead
- Ferns — Iowa State: nearly all garden ferns are rarely damaged. Ostrich, Christmas, cinnamon, lady, and Japanese painted fern fill the same shade hole without the winter buffet or the tree-smothering vine.
- Pachysandra, sweet woodruff, and spotted deadnettle (Lamium) — Iowa State’s rarely-damaged groundcover column. Rutgers rates Allegheny spurge (Pachysandra procumbens) A, rarely damaged. There is no live
/do-deer-eat-pachysandra/URL; use the deer-resistant perennials list. UGA DeKalb’s native swaps are green-and-gold, foamflower, coral bells, and Allegheny spurge. - Deer-resistant hedges — if the ivy was a screen, boxwood beats a browsed vine. Zonal geraniums take summer color in pots on a deck deer will not climb.
Hostas go first in the same shade bed. Hydrangeas lose buds on the same night. Azaleas take the winter shift with the ivy. If those three are already hit, net or replace the whole strip. Layout: how to keep deer from eating plants. Flowers they usually skip: what flowers deer do not eat.
FAQ
Will English ivy grow back after deer eat it?
Usually, yes, if stems and roots are intact. Michigan Ask Extension told the Clinton County gardener not to fertilize a healthy patch just because the leaves were gone. Established ivy re-leafs over a season. Repeated winter stripping thins a vine and can kill a new planting.
Is English ivy poisonous to deer?
It is poisonous to some livestock, and Maryland flags the berries as toxic. That does not stop a hungry deer. Toxicity is why some lists used to call ivy “resistant.” The winter browse line is the field test.
Do deer eat poison ivy?
Yes. Urushiol is a human problem. Illinois Extension says deer eat the leaves. Penn State says they nibble new growth, and that goats suppress a patch by eating foliage — not roots — while also eating plants you wanted to keep. Use Penn State’s PPE if you pull it.
Should I even keep English ivy?
In a lot of eastern and Pacific Northwest counties, no. It is invasive, a disease reservoir, and a winter deer snack. Protect a small, contained patch on a house wall if you must. Do not plant it as a “set and forget” groundcover next to a woodlot. Ferns and the rarely-damaged groundcovers above do the shade job without the hangover.
Sources
- Iowa State Extension — Susceptibility of plants to deer damage (last reviewed July 2022; sources Rutgers, Cornell, Michigan State)
- Rutgers NJAES — Landscape plants rated by deer resistance
- UConn Extension — Deer management (EXT020)
- University of Maryland Extension — Invasive vine and groundcover control (updated February 22, 2023)
- Clemson HGIC — English ivy control
- University of Minnesota Extension — White-tailed deer damage
- Ask Extension #175071 — Deer damage to ivy and trees (Clinton County, Michigan)
- Illinois Extension — Poison ivy: a friend to deer and bird (September 8, 2025)
- Penn State Extension — Manage poison ivy safely (updated July 19, 2026)
- UGA Extension Circular 1238 — Ground covers for shaded landscapes in north Georgia (full review August 25, 2026)
- UGA DeKalb — Invasive plant species catalog
- UGA Colquitt County — Deer-tolerant ornamentals (Swedish ivy / Plectranthus)
This is a child of the deer-proof garden guide. Wild browse, not landscape vines, is on what deer eat.
