The wildlife in your yard aren't just squirrels and rabbits anymore. University of Georgia county extension agents now answer thousands of questions a year on backyard problems deer cause.

Many homeowners enjoy seeing deer in the suburbs. Others have learned to hate them. They devour expensive landscape plants. They eat garden vegetables. Deer-car crashes cause destruction and even death.

Unlike more specialized wildlife, deer don't need wild habitat. They eat a broad array of wild and cultivated plants.

Are deer pestering your plants?

If so, what can you do?

When most people get a wooded lot, they clean out all the adapted vegetation. Then they bring in store-bought deer "dessert." Avoid this pitfall if you can.

Not every plant is good deer food. It's possible to go into landscapes where deer are abundant and see green plants all around. The deer decide what plants will live.

Use landscape plants the deer don't like. If you want a list of deer-resistant plants, I'll send you one. Just send your request to: Jeff Jackson, c/o Extension Forest Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-4356.

OK, so you insist on having your favorite plants anyway. You want to keep that exotic azalea your Aunt Mary gave you despite the fact that the deer have nibbled it down to half its original size.

In this case, unsightly exclusion is your only option. Various fences and cylinders of wire mesh will protect your azalea.

Cut the bottom wire off a length of concrete-reinforcing mesh. It makes a fine free-standing deer barrier like a big tomato-plant cylinder. Wrap it with chicken wire to keep the deer from sticking their heads through. It's ugly, but effective.

Protecting a large area like a vegetable garden takes a bigger, better fence. A seven- or eight-foot-high plastic deer fence is OK. An electric fence with a single wire 30 inches off the ground is cheaper.

Teach deer not to enter by smearing the entire wire with peanut butter. Mark the fence with rags eight to 10 feet apart so deer see it. They'll check out the new fence and smell the peanut butter. They touch their noses to it and give it a lick. It's sort of an education fence.

Deer are likely to accidentally run right through or jump over an unbaited wire. The baited electric wire isn't deer-proof, but it's a good trade-off between cost and effectiveness.

How about repellents?

I never recommend them for homeowners. They're all temporary at best. No matter what it is, sooner or later -- for one reason or another -- the deer will eat your plants anyway.

You need to protect your plants 365 days a year. If a repellent fails even for one day, Aunt Mary's azalea will get another nibbling.

There are home remedies, but I don't know any a professional will stake his reputation on. Many articles hold out hope for repellents. But they aren't my thing.

Repellents do have value in many commercial situations where a crop needs to be protected for a few weeks or so, until it has passed its vulnerable time, or until the harvest is in.

If a community can find a consensus to remove deer, appropriate authorities can be designated to shoot them. Killing deer can reduce deer damage.

Surely, you must be asking, why aren't scientists studying the problem and finding a simple, cheap, easy-to-use wonder cure for homeowners' deer problems?

A lot of public and private money is being spent on deer research. But I predict these commonsense solutions -- ignoring the problem, using resistant plants or exclusion, and killing surplus deer -- will remain the mainstay of deer damage control for a long time to come.