They may look cute and cuddly, but muntjac deer are the bane of many gardeners’ lives, mine included.

Over the years in my garden the natives of southeast Asia have stripped rose bushes of buds, chewed their way through shrubs and perennials and made divots in my lawn with their hooves.

A new Government survey asking people to record sightings of foreign invaders including the muntjac in a bid to control their population may have come too late for many gardeners with already-ruined plots.

The Royal Horticultural Society now receives almost as many inquiries about deer as it does about rabbits, another prime garden pest, and while there are a number of deterrents on the market, the only one guaranteed to work long-term is a 6ft fence around your garden.

Only red and roe deer are native – there are also fallow, sika, muntjac and Chinese water deer. However, fallow, roe and muntjac deer are the species most likely to be encountered across the UK.

Both muntjac and roe are territorial and their numbers have spread in gardens due to a reduction in their natural habitat and the steady rise in their population.

No-one knows exactly how many deer there are in the UK, but the Deer Society estimates it could be around 1.5 million – equivalent to one deer in every ten square kilometres.

They will eat rare orchids and do untold damage to new shoots in woodland, destroying both young trees and beautiful forest flowers such as bluebells.

Males (bucks) will rub the bark from the main stem and leave it hanging in tatters.

There are no plants that muntjac won’t touch, although they’re not so keen on camellia, cistus, hellebore, hosta, hydrangea, lavender, poppies and sedum.

If you want to preserve the balance of nature, you could grow alternative food for the deer, allowing an area at the end of your garden to be devoted to brambles, rowan, dandelion, campion and yarrow. Hopefully the deer will prefer these to your favourite roses.

There are a number of deterrents on the market. You could try scare tactics by having a motion detector attached to a sprinkler or by planting strong-smelling plants. However, these options have only limited success rates.

People are also advised to not set their dogs on the muntjacs in a bid to frighten them away as the family pet could come off worse if it corners a buck with 5in-long antlers.

The sooner you get that fence up, the better.

* For more information, visit the British Deer Society’s website at bds.org.uk.