HelpfulGardener.com

Our local wildlife officers refuse to help in any way with our deer problem, and because of this, our population has doubled in the past 3 years. My neighborhood alone has a documented 50+ head of 'permanent' deer. They have been here so long, they are almost domesticated.

We have tried: human hair, cougar urine in containers that are on small posts scattered in the garden, all types of pepper, spraying them with water, putting a fence around the young plants.

Others in the area have resorted to shooting them with paintball guns, air soft rifles, slingshots, you name it. So now, we have psychedelic deer running around town, who still come right back into our gardens and tear them up.

We are looking into installing those ultrasonic deer repellers, and I'm wondering if anyone else has tried these. If so, did they work? We're looking at a $200 investment if we go with this, because we will have to buy 5 of them - one for each corner of the property and one right smack in the middle.

Would love to hear input from anyone who has used these. Right now, we're thinking of buying one as a test run, and if we get good results, then we'll go ahead and buy the other four.

Pat

Copat: Boy can I relate to all the deer, we have tons here as well, have eaten all my lilies etc. etc. I didn't no there was the deer repeller thing you are talking about. I live in Canada, will have to check that out. Good luck with it.

I was just reading about it on the internet, it doesn't have very many good reviews. I did read somewhere last week if you plant Basil or Oregano they don't like the smell, so I bought 3 oregano plants today am going to give it a try.

My boss grows oregano, and all I can say is - they don't eat that? but they do eat everything else around it! lol She lives just a block from me, so it's the same herd giving us the problem.

I agree, after some intense study I noticed that the supersonic deer repellers don't seem to have very good reviews at all. That right there told me I don't want to invest that much money only to have it not work.

We are going to go ahead and get the deer netting and build a fence around our perimeter. It's going to end up costing the same amount as the supersonic things, but the Wildlife officers say it's actually the best in the long run. And since it won't be permanent (only the posts to hold it will be) we can't be assessed and taxed for having the fence. Turns out, it is classified as a "temporary garden enclosure" and therefore not subject to property taxes.