5 Ways How You Can Make Deer Attractant – DIY


Many hunters are interested in learning ways about how they can make deer attractant at home, DIY. Attractants work great during the early hunting season when deer can be patterned or during those times when natural vegetation/mast are abundant. When natural food is readily available to deer hunters will need to make something different, add a attractant so that whitetail deer simply cannot resist visiting the area.

There are a number of deer attractants on the market but hunters can often make different types of DIY attractants just by raiding the pantry. Often times the necessary ingredients are tucked away in far corners, way behind the Oreos and Fruity Pebbles.

Peanuts Will Attract Deer

This is an attract that you do not necessarily have to make. Really, all you have to do is take a jar of peanut butter and get it in position. Whitetail love peanuts, so peanut butter is like money in the bank when it comes to bait for deer. To install your peanut attractant, simply cut the bottom off of the jar of peanut butter. Next, take the lid off and screw it to a tree within shooting distance of your stand, about 3 feet off the ground.

Next, screw the jar back onto the lid and your pulverized nuts are hard at work. Whitetail will go bananas trying to lick out the peanut butter. And since the smell is so strong, deer will be visiting even after all the peanut butter is gone.

Vanilla Ice Your Deer Down

Another easy and effective way to attract deer is to use plain ole vanilla extract. Using it is simple. Here’s how you do it: Get a container of vanilla extract and either put it in a spray bottle and saturate some of the vegetation around your stand or use a wick (as with urine attractant), pour extract on it and hang it from a tree.

Also, for those days when it’s really cold you can improve the scent distribution by putting some vanilla in a small tin can stacked on top of another tin can with a candle inside the bottom one. You will have to create a few holes in the bottom can so the candle can burn, bu the heat helps spread the scent during frigid temps.

How to Make Kool-Aid Attractant

Remember when the kids on the commercials yelled “Kool-Aid” and that weird thing came crashing through the wall. Well, deer will be crashing your stand once you learn how to make this deer attractant that involves the tasty fruit-flavored powder. You will only need 4 ingredients: 3 packs of grape or cherry Kool-Aid, 2 pounds of powered sugar, 2 pounds of baking soda and 2 pounds of table salt.

Mix all the items ingredients together and you’ve got a cherry bomb or grape bomb that deer will think is the bomb. Set up your game camera near the site and watch the action unfold. And when the time is right during the hunting season, sneak into your stand and get ready to crash their party.

Make a Molasses Lick for Deer

Molasses is one of those things animals can not resist. It’s used as an additive in livestock feeds so that animals will eat all of the things they don’t want to eat. Deer will readily use livestock feeds, especially when molasses is in the mix. Molasses can easily be used to attract deer to your hunting site.

First, find a place that sells molasses and get some. It more than likely will be a feed store if you plan on using any amount, but you can also find it at your local grocery store. You can find straight molasses or mixed into protein tubs for domestic animals (but there will be nothing you need to do with the tub except place it near your site).

Molasses syrup can be used in a number of ways, but here is how I like to make a molasses hot spot. Find a stump or big, punky piece of cut wood and pour the syrup all over it. Don’t be shy. Stumps and really old firewood will be very porous and allow the molasses to absorb into it. This makes the attractant last longer and that means more visits by deer to your hunting spot.

How to Make a Mineral Lick, Attract Deer

One way to make a long lasting deer attractant is to create a mineral/salt lick site. Whitetail seek out minerals as part of their nutritional requirements, especially where it is limiting in their local environment. It’s not difficult to have deer hanging around your deer hunting grounds once you learn how to make a mineral attractant. Once placed on the ground your mineral lick will work for a long time, often over a year before you need to freshen it up!

To make your mineral hot spot, grab 20 pounds of rock salt, 5 pounds of dicalcium phosphate (feed store), 3 pounds of brown sugar, a 5 gallon bucket and 2 gallons of water. Then, dig a hole about a 18 inches deep and 18 inches wide. Place the dirt into the 5 gallon bucket and mix it with the salt, phosphate, sugar and water. Pour it all back into the hole, then rinse the bucket out with a little more water and pour this over your mixture. Sit back and watch as deer go nuts over your sweet and salty attractant.

If any hunters have additional tips on how to make homemade deer attractants please leave them below. Best of luck in your pursuit of whitetail deer!