I'm looking for a variety of bait that might draw deer but none of the usual suspects you get around corn feeders (squirrels, coons, foxes, opossums, skunks).  Has anyone had luck with any of the other stuff?  I've heard of beet sugar poured on the ground, peanut butter in a tree at a deer's height with a predator baffle to stop squirrels and coons, apples, etc.  Has anyone had any luck drawing deer without the entourage?

then it looks like you won't be baiting.

Any type of grain or pellets will bring in the others, turkeys are my biggest problem. A flock of turkeys can clean up a lot of corn in a hurry.

I have had good luck with sugar beets, carrots, cabbage, pumpkins and apples. In that order of preference.

You'll still get some unwanted visitors but they usually just pick a little and don't stay.

Acorn rage and deer cocaine, all those types of bait drawn in a lot less non deer.  Still draws animals in, just not as much as tossing straight corn

Eta.  I don't bother using attractants anymore.   Just study your herd, find their food and water and bedroom and hunt the trails in between them

How about some alfalfa hay?

I feed creep feed and set out coon traps.

Has anyone had luck with this?  That is one I was considering.  I could drop a fresh flake every couple of days.  Seems that could be pretty attractive, especially if there's snow cover.

Back when they used to feed deer in the deer yards during Midwestern winters, there'd be reports of deer starving to death with a stomach full of hay.  They said that the deer don't have the proper bacteria in their gut during the winter to digest hay.

this is true.
same way with the creep. they eat much less of it, due to the high protein content of mulch its made from. for some reason their system cannot digest it. I can see if they ate too much they would bloat and die.

Very interesting....never heard that. Thanks for the info.

alot of their normal browse is protein rich, the way they eat is by browsing a little hear and there. this moderates their protein intake. with bulk feed they will eat very conservatively, not to over tax their system along with some of the enzymatic issues that have been mentioned.

I have watched hundreds of deer come into my Creep Feeding Stations throughout the year, for years. they come in and grab a pellet.. walk around in and out of cover for 3-50 yards chewing it... come back 5 minutes later or so and take another pellet..  they will usually only eat 3-5 pellets per visit. this is the small 16% creep pellet, not a large cattle cube.

It is very unlikely to find a single source feed.

However what I do is to trap around feeders. DP coon traps are really effective. But leg hold sets will wrk just as well.

I do some paid trapping for other properties and sometimes they are shocked at how much feed is not going to the deer.

A raccoon can eat up to 2 cups of corn a night and it is common to see 4-5 coons work a single pile. Add that up and many places on year round feeding programs lose thousands of dollars of feed a year plus the deer never get it so.... It reduces the impact of the feeding program.

I have even seen coyotes and fox grabbing bites out of the piles of feed.

Plus rats and mice will take their portion also.

I have good luck with peanut butter or persimmon flavored rice bran. But the hogs like it too... I've never had any kind of feed that just attracted deer.