Author Topic: Does vanilla extract attract deer?  (Read 8095 times)

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Offline bigbore442001

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Does vanilla extract attract deer?
« on: October 13, 2006, 04:17:17 AM »
This is a question that was posted by someone on another board and many people reported that it works to an extent.

I myself tend to be suspicious of anything that will stand out in the woods. Anything that is a foriegn scent, and vanilla would be in New England, may alarm deer.

But some swear by it. I do have a big bottle of Mexican vanilla I had purchased the last time I was in the Land of Manana.

So. What is your opinion on this topic? Will it help? Will it hurt? Will the effect be negligible? Thanks

Offline Graybeard

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Re: Does vanilla extract attract deer?
« Reply #1 on: October 13, 2006, 05:07:14 AM »
I've heard it does and that licorce does as well. I've tried both and several other contoctions said to attract deer. Todate I've NEVER seen a deer period when I had any of them out near me. Now I'm not saying it actually had a negative effect for certain but I've come to think of them all in a negative sense. I refuse to put out any type of scent when I hunt.


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Offline Don Fischer

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Re: Does vanilla extract attract deer?
« Reply #2 on: October 13, 2006, 05:38:04 AM »
I bought some of those apple things from the sporting goods store to attract deer. I hung them where I could get a good shot with a camera. The weather finally took its toll and they disapeared. Never saw a deer! That Mexican stuff just might work tho. Just don't open the bottle! ;D
:wink: Even a blind squrrel find's an acorn sometime's![/quote]

Offline †·ĦÙŃŦÈŔ·†

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Re: Does vanilla extract attract deer?
« Reply #3 on: October 13, 2006, 12:42:25 PM »
I shot my first deer ever w/ vanilla extract , a 135 lb Doe dressed out ...


        http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c278/Scotia_Hunter/jeffhunting.jpg

Offline Land_Owner

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Re: Does vanilla extract attract deer?
« Reply #4 on: October 13, 2006, 08:24:00 PM »
Deer, like all animals, will be curious when encountering the super sweet smell of the vanilla as enhanced and carried by the evaporating alcohol.  How the deer react, attracted or repelled, only God knows. Lots of pressure, maybe they repel.  No pressure, maybe they are attracted.  Could be vice versa too.  Sometimes it works, other times it does not.  Who can definitively say that if vanilla was used that you would or would not see a deer?  The natural and random wandering of deer is as predictable as the stock market.  There is no sure thing - thank goodness.

Offline single action

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Re: Does vanilla extract attract deer?
« Reply #5 on: October 14, 2006, 02:43:07 PM »
Several years ago I lived in arkansas and at the time it was legal to bait deer. I had a feeder out for about a month and the only thing that came into it was squirrells and coons. The feeder was only about 5 yards off the (heavily used) trail. I read about vanilla and put some on a tampon (dont laugh, they absorb ALOT of scent And already have a string to tie them to a branch!) and tied it in the tree above the feeder. The next day when I checked it the feeder was knocked to the ground and the scent wick (tampon was gone. there were deer tracks all over the place! could just be a coincidence but.......?
By the way I never did shoot a deer around a feeder, just used them to keep them in the area for late season muzzleoading .( dec/jan)

Offline S.S.

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Re: Does vanilla extract attract deer?
« Reply #6 on: October 23, 2006, 09:03:03 AM »
I mix The vanilla with Molasses this makes it stick to stuff.
I hunt from ground blinds and I will take sticks and rub them around
in the mix and toss them all out in front of me.
Does seem to love it but I have never seen a single buck
while using it? This is something I use very late in the season
when there is not much around for them to eat. I have heard that Cinnamon
mixed with sugar and disolved into hot water will also work but I have not tried that one!
Some of thes things sound crazy, but when it is late in the season with unfilled tags,
Why not !
After last deer season I poured all of my Vanilla molasses concoction out in front of my blind.
I want back two days later and there was a hole dug into the ground there. It was deer that did it
as there were tracks everywhere. I can assure you that does like it, Not so sure about bucks!
Vir prudens non contra ventum mingit
"A wise man does not pee against the wind".

Offline lewdogg21

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Re: Does vanilla extract attract deer?
« Reply #7 on: October 25, 2006, 11:46:38 AM »
My elk guide uses it as a cover scent for elk.  He stands by that once applied well it smells like elk.  Yeah it sounds like he pulled a fast one on us but my dad and I have hunted with Jim for 4-5 years and he does everything he can possibly do to put us on animals.

Offline .308 Win.

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Re: Does vanilla extract attract deer?
« Reply #8 on: October 26, 2006, 06:51:53 PM »
I've never tried vanilla extract but I have tried everything from the smoking sticks under a bucket to the next hyped-up urine stuff and I can say I have never had a deer of any sex come to any of it.  In this regard, I agree with Graybeard.  I just don't put any scent out at all anymore.  I believe that a lot of stuff you see overly advertised on television (Outdoor Channel, etc.), are just gimmicks, invented to fleece those of us who dream of mega-racked bucks and these folks take full advantage of that.  It's just like with fishing lures: Some lures are made to catch fish and some to catch fisherMEN.  Same thing with these, I think.  They're lures, all right.  They lure US because they know we'll try almost anything to hang the next record book buck on the wall.   One hillbilly I used to hunt with 20 years ago used his wife's bloody feminine napkin that he nailed to a tree and swore up and down it drew in deer!  I lost it when I saw him nailing that thing to his tree!!!  I'm laughing so hard now just remembering it.  So, this just goes to show what length people will go to in order to find what works.  Come to think of it, that hillbilly never did tag a big buck in the five years or so we hunted together.  So much for his theory.     

Offline Buckskin

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Re: Does vanilla extract attract deer?
« Reply #9 on: October 27, 2006, 06:58:36 AM »
I've never used vanilla, but did use a marketed scent that smelled just like it.  I put it on a stick about 20' from my trial camera.  And I can say for a fact that it does at least make them come in for a smell.  The reason that I used it is because I put it my camera on the edge of a alfalfa field and the deer were tripping the camera but were to far away to see anything.  So I put that vanilla scent out and I got literally hundreds of pics of deer sniffing it.  Bucks and does.  If I could figure out how to post a pic her I could show you. 

I have never used any scents in the field except doe in heat.  And have had mixed results.  I think your best chance of it working for you is if you hunt large forested areas where you would have a better chance of a buck crossing your scent trail and coming in.  Where I hunt there is a lot of smaller woods and crop land.  But one time in particular I had a nice 8pt follow my drag line trail with nose to the ground, grunting right up to my hanging scent pad.  I was about 14 then and sent an arrow just under its belly at 20yds.  Sould have put it at 10!!!
Buckskin

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Offline rockbilly

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Re: Does vanilla extract attract deer?
« Reply #10 on: October 29, 2006, 09:20:57 AM »
Some folks would really be surprised at what will attract a deer.  I have used peanut butter, (very effective), licorice, Red Hots (cinnamon flavored candy) and vanilla, as well as a thousand other things.

We used to get peanut butter that was disposed of by a food bank. I would find a big flat rock and spread the peanut butter on the rock; the deer would lick it off and come back several times each day checking to see if there was more.  They once gave me a five gallon tin, I spread peanut butter twice a day for weeks, and the deer loved it.  I used the Red Hots just spread on the ground under a feeder, but then got the bright idea of mixing a large bag of the candy with the corn in the feeder and letting the corn absorb the smell.  It works great as long as there is not too much candy, and too much rain. (It clogs up the feeder) As for the vanilla, it too was poured over corn and then put in a feeder, or left in a drip near the feeders.

The Mexican vanilla is almost the same as the vanilla extract that you buy at your local grocer.  It may be a little stronger, and the Mexicans have been know to lace it with different chemicals to enhance the flavor, some of these additives can be poisonous to humans (and possibly deer) so be careful where you purchase the Mexican vanilla if you use it.

And last but not least, I do feed; I run four feeders year round, mostly with a mixture of corn and Record Rack.  I do not necessarily feed to attract deer, but to help them survive the periods when there are no acorn crop, or grasses to brows on, as is the norm here in West Texas.  The medication in the Record Rack also helps eliminate internal parasites, helps the doe birth by providing a health fawn, and helping her produce milk to feed her young.  Over the past twenty years I have witnessed a major improvement in deer size, larger racks and larger numbers of deer.

Offline hillsider69

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Re: Does vanilla extract attract deer?
« Reply #11 on: March 05, 2008, 01:25:35 PM »
I've heard it does and that licorce does as well. I've tried both and several other contoctions said to attract deer. Todate I've NEVER seen a deer period when I had any of them out near me. Now I'm not saying it actually had a negative effect for certain but I've come to think of them all in a negative sense. I refuse to put out any type of scent when I hunt.

What about deer piss