HelpfulGardener.com

Hi Folks,

Have any of you had problems with deer eating cantaloupe? I'm wondering if my cantaloupe are in danger? Should I get a motion activated water sprinkler?

Thanks
Bart

Deer will munch on any new plant even if they don't really like it. They are curious about anything green, looking for sweet new growth. Really the only fool proof method of keeping deer out of a garden is to put up a fence at least seven feet tall. It wouldn't hurt to try the sprinkler until the vines get bigger and the deer figure out the older plants do not taste so good and they try other plants in your garden. They are really pests to a gardener.

Oh yes! A couple of times I tried growing this really cute little heirloom melon, only to go to the patch and find the deer had tried every single one. They ate the ripe ones and simply tasted the not quite ripe ones.

Groundhogs and raccoons will also eat ripe melons. One year we had a problem with the barn cats eating them!

As for the deer, I haven't done this but have read that it was tested extensively. Install a double fence. Google "deer double fence" for lots of info. Supposedly electric fencing works too but you can't do that easily in a neighborhood or with small children around. Although children do quickly learn to avoid the fence if they happen to get hold of it.

Small children huh? That would be entertaining. No, just kidding.....

My grandparents thought it was pretty funny the time I accidentally got hold of the fence.

One of my co-workers came from a sadistic family. They had a cousin who they tricked into urinating on the electric fence every time he visited. He said the voltage must have taken out some of the cousin's brain cells because the cousin visited every month for several years.