We found a way to keep the Deer out of the garden

[BERRYHILL]

We found a way to keep the deer out of the garden. My husband has been saving his urine and putting it in a sprayer and spraying around the outer edges of the garden. Its been two weeks and no deer yet.They were getting in it every night. I know it sounds gross but it is better than losing your plants and all your hard work.

[TZ -OH6]

It may not work for long. I planted my extras in an unfenced area last year to test it. Human urine worked for a while and then one night after an "application" the plants were eaten almost to the ground. My yard is pretty secluded (so stepping behind a bush is easier than walking back to the house when you gotta go), and the deer are fairly tame, often standing within rock tossing distance when I'm in the garden, so my deer may not be as skittish to human scent as your's.


This year, for my new plots outside of the main fence I'm trying a 7 ft high fence made out of old 20lb test monofilament fishing line

[Kisal]

All scent-based repellents are only temporarily effective. They work in the beginning because they are something unusual, new and different in the environment. After awhile, the deer/rabbits/raccoons/whatever become accustomed to the scent and, being hungry, will approach to eat. As long as nothing bad happens to them, the scent simply becomes part of the background of odors with which they live on a daily basis.

The same is true of visual repellants. As long as they are new in the environment, animals will be wary of them. Inevitably, with time, they become accustomed to the visual repellents and ignore them.

Fencing works, but it has to be a minimum of 8' high. I was sent out to capture a doe that had a badly broken rear leg, hanging by a thread of skin. She easily cleared a 7' deer fence, and when I finally caught up with her, roped and hog-tied her, I found that she also had a dislocated right shoulder.

Deer are great at the 'high jump', but not so skilled at the 'long jump'. If you don't want an 8' high fence, you can install 2 parallel fences about 5' high and 4' apart.

Whatever type of fencing you decide to use, I recommend that you make it visible to the deer. I have had to remove many that had gotten their heads or antlers caught in wire fences that couldn't be seen easily. The deer almost always had broken necks from struggling to free themselves.

[tedln]

Animals learn pretty quickly. I used to place large realistic looking rubber snakes in my tomato plants to repel birds and squirrels. It would work for about a week and then the pests would catch on and start chewing and pecking on the snakes. If I changed the positions of the snakes about every five days, they never caught on and stayed away from the garden. I used to sit and watch mocking birds dive bombing the garden trying to chase the snakes away. Deer seem pretty sensitive to sound. Do you have anything you can put in the garden that will make a loud noise occasionally? In a noisy area, the deer become skittish and eventually just go somewhere quieter.

Ted

[cynthia_h]

What about the motion-detector sprinklers? Do they work against deer? I've heard/read about it both ways.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17/USDA Zone 9

A good 24 hours for Vergil...max pain meds for three days in a row seems to have made a big difference for him. Sleeping well.

[tomf]

I tried a few things and what works is putting up a deer fence with a rabbit fence at its bottom. Using fishing line may not be a good way to go, deer do not see all that well and may run in to it. You can get a black almost invisible deer fence, and then tie white strips around it to warn the deer it is there.

You can see that the fence is it's self is not very visable you see the posts I used mostly. If you look you can see the white strips on the fence. This gets the deer to look as flapping white is a warrning to deer. You can buy black metal poles from the sellers if you want to hide the fence even more. As the deer can not tell just who high the fence is they do not even try to jump it. But as said by Kisal you need to let them know it is there.

[img]https://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e57/twistedtomf/Yard%202010/_DSC0038.jpg[/img]

[Kisal]

Amazon has some interesting reviews of one of the motion-activated sprinklers. Lots of people think the product is great, but several had less than stellar experiences with it. One review, in particular, that made me chuckle was by a person who observed that the animals quickly learned to walk behind or just out of range of the device. OTOH, he often forgot to turn it off in the daytime when he wanted to work in his garden. No more dashing out to harvest ingredients for a quick salad for one's lunch, I guess!

[Hispoptart]

out side of putting up a tall fence, the only thing we have found to work is Liquid deer fence. We have used it for 3 yrs now and never have deer eating our stuff ( unless they get to it before we spray)

[TZ -OH6]

I got the idea for the fishing line fence from a book on deer proofing. Supposedly they get confused when they are held back by something they can't see.

[garden5]

The sprinkler idea would work if it covered the entire are of the garden.

[tomf]

In Oregon at this time of year the deer would just think it is raining when the sprinkler came on.

[Kisal]

[img]https://www.smileyhut.com/laughing/rofl.gif[/img]

[rootsy]

Urine as a deer deterrent is minimal at best. A bit of a story from my younger years.

I am a hunter. Deer hunting is a rite of passage in Michigan, or it used to be anyway. When I was a teenager I would religiously watch Fred Trost's Michigan Outdoors. He would test myths and urban legends. When I was 15 or so he ran a segment just before Nov 15th about human urine as a deer attractant / deterrent. I figured I'd give it a shot also...

Opening morning (Nov 15) I lugged a half gallon milk jug of my own urine, collected the previous day on our trip North, into the woods of Northern Michigan. Dumped it on the ground near a tree 50 yards from me and copped a squat on the stump my father told me to sit on.

30 minutes later just as the sun was rising a little 7 pt came along chasing 2 does. If you understand a buck during the rut you'll understand that they are relentless in pursuit of a doe in heat or pre-estrous. This little guy stopped dead in his tracks 10 yards from where I had dumped my milk jug full of pee. Began sniffing the air and actually made a fast trot toward the urine. Licking his nose and the air the entire time. He actually spent 5 minutes investigating the urine spot before I put 130 grains of lead from my 270 through his chest...

Was a surreal experience for a teenage boy in the big woods of Northern Michigan. To this day I have no idea what caused the buck to be interested in my urine. I actually will wiz in the field if the bladder tells me I have to go and I still have deer wander through (proof is in the track) and pull the tassel from the whorl on corn...

[tedln]

Rootsy,

They are attracted to salt in urine. They are repelled by the scent of human body odor. I've often wondered what they would do if you simply hung your very sweaty gardening shirt in the garden before you quit for the day.

I used to place mineral blocks in the forest for deer. The blocks are about 95 percent salt and are intended for cattle. If you place them early in the spring, it also helps provide the minerals for a young buck to grow antlers.

I would also place molasses/salt lick tubs for them and wild hogs. They love the salt. The hogs love the molasses.

Ted

[jmoore]

Deer seem pretty sensitive to sound. Do you have anything you can put in the garden that will make a loud noise occasionally? In a noisy area, the deer become skittish and eventually just go somewhere quieter.

Ted

If the noise is not accompanied by any danger, then they will get used to the noise as well. Sometimes when we fill up our feeders at the deer lease, you can drive away and sneak back into the stand and there will be deer there. They know the sound of the trucks driving away and come to investigate. One of the best times to shoot a deer is immediately after shooting another one. Often deer that are on the periphery will show themselves if a shot is fired. They like to come investigate. Neither of those techniques will work in a neighborhood where there is a garden.

[VeggieGrower]

My grandpa always hung his sweat soaked shirt in the garden. He swore it kept the rabbits and raccoons out.

[tedln]

jmoore,

I've seen them get shot at and missed. If you wait around, they often will come back to see what made that loud noise and then get shot.

Ted

[jmoore]

jmoore,

I've seen them get shot at and missed. If you wait around, they often will come back to see what made that loud noise and then get shot.

Ted

I've never done that. :cough: :cough:

[rootsy]

Deer are very adaptable creatures.... They will not enter an active logging area while loggers are there... But as soon as the loggers leave you better be there and set up because the deer will come out of the wood work to browse the buds from the tops of the trees that were harvested during the day.

[TZ -OH6]

This morning a doe was eyeing my little corn patch so I walked up to her clapping, which usually sends them running. She would only run back a few feet and looked like she wanted to kick my butt, so there is probably a fawn in the weeds behind the garden. That's probably a good thing because the adults tend to stay away from the areas where the fawns are. We have a couple of bambies playing in the yard every year but the does don't hide them in the same areas every year. The last time they were behind the garden was a couple of years ago.

[tomf]

I can not fence every thing so I put some "Deer be Gone" on some areas, the plants did not get eaten at that time but it is an expensive and the rain washes it away. I am not sure if it works long term. Some people mix water, eggs and pepper then spray it on plants.

This is a link to a photo story and argument with a deer trying to get her not to eat my plants.

[url]https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25851[/url]

[mansgirl]

Have you tried human hair or bar soap? I've collected whats in my hairbrush, grab a scissors, and walk the perimeter of the garden making little snips here and there. You can also hang bar soap around too. Maybe if you alternate the three you can trick the deer?

[rootsy]

I finished cultivating sweet corn last night about dark and put the tractor away and made sure all of the chickens were present and accounted for. Walked into the back yard and here was a big doe standing there looking at me... Hollar and yell and she just stood there 40 yds away looking at me... Pretty soon she just went back to eating grass in the yard until I walked toward her... Then she took a few bounds out into the field and went to browsing again... Fearless...

[tedln]

I've seen videos on you tube I think, showing a deer attacking a home owner. The animal was standing on it rear legs throwing punches with it's front legs like a boxer. Those hoofs can hurt you. I'm certainly not afraid of deer, but I am respectful of wild animals. I don't hand feed the bears and I don't try to hand pet the bison in Yellowstone. Most wild animals do have some kind of defensive ability.

Ted

[rootsy]

So do I... It's called my M&P 40c... goes where I go 98% of the time...

Deer can do a number with those hooves... Just like most farm animals...

[Kisal]

Those hoofs can hurt you.

They sure can!

I always wore a heavy jacket when I went out on a deer call, regardless of the weather. Because there were only a few of us who did rescue of larger animals, we often had to go on calls alone. That meant that, when we needed an extra pair of hands, we had to ask bystanders for help.

I had already roped the particular deer that kicked the blankety-blank out of me, but I had to have someone keep the rope taut while I hogtied the critter. So, I asked the guy who had called to report the injured deer. The deer was down, but bucking, and the guy got scared and dropped the rope. I, sadly, was down on my knees right beside the deer. The animal shredded my coat in short order, but I was mostly unscathed, just a few bruises. Let me tell you, Bambi packs quite a wallop!

[tedln]

So do I... It's called my M&P 40c... goes where I go 98% of the time...

Deer can do a number with those hooves... Just like most farm animals...

Me to rootsy. I just have a different brand and a license that tells everyone I'm legal. The problem is the animals don't care anything about my license.

Ted

[tomf]

My father in law had a friend who had a buck for a pet, when rutting season came the buck gored him in the back and killed my father in laws friend.

[tedln]

The point I was making telling about the deer fighting back was simply a warning to people who think it isn't a big deal to go in the back yard or the garden and simply shoo a deer away. Like all Boy Scouts, you need to be prepared for the unexpected and you need to have a planned method to protect your self or a planned route of retreat.

Ted

[dave103069]

I don't know if this will work or not but I mixed garlic, cayenne pepper & dish soap with water to spray around to try to keep critters away. After reading some diffrent things it sounded like this may work. So far I have not had any critter issues. I have not sprayed this stuff on the plants but just on the ground around them.. I figure I will just do it one or two times a week and see what happens..

[rootsy]

So do I... It's called my M&P 40c... goes where I go 98% of the time...

Deer can do a number with those hooves... Just like most farm animals...

Me to rootsy. I just have a different brand and a license that tells everyone I'm legal. The problem is the animals don't care anything about my license.

Ted

I also possess a Michigan CPL. Do you also or are you a peace officer?

[tomf]

I don't know if this will work or not but I mixed garlic, cayenne pepper & dish soap with water to spray around to try to keep critters away. After reading some diffrent things it sounded like this may work. So far I have not had any critter issues. I have not sprayed this stuff on the plants but just on the ground around them.. I figure I will just do it one or two times a week and see what happens..

That sounds close to what a friend of mine uses, he says adding eggs helps as deer do not eat eggs so the smell keeps them away.

[tedln]

Nope, not a peace officer. I've just been licensed to carry for a lot of years. In Texas, we have reciprocal agreements with a lot of states. I think that includes Michigan which means you are legal to carry in Texas if you decide to come see my garden.

Ted

[dave103069]

I don't know if this will work or not but I mixed garlic, cayenne pepper & dish soap with water to spray around to try to keep critters away. After reading some diffrent things it sounded like this may work. So far I have not had any critter issues. I have not sprayed this stuff on the plants but just on the ground around them.. I figure I will just do it one or two times a week and see what happens..

That sounds close to what a friend of mine uses, he says adding eggs helps as deer do not eat eggs so the smell keeps them away.

Yes, I was going to add eggs too but got the evil eye from the Mrs when making the mix from the already interesting smell so I held off. I will be adding egg shells to the mix this week as well and leaving the container outside to rot a little..

[Susan W]

Another option for the deer and cannot verify results. Get a Bubba Bass at the thrift store for $5.00. Set it out. It wiggles and makes noise by motion detector. Hmmmmmm.

[jal_ut]

A radio tuned to the local talk station and placed in the corn patch seems to discourage skunks, raccoons and deer.
For sure a 30-06 will take care of the deer..............

[jal_ut]

Options:
Call the local game warden and tell him to get the deer out of your garden or you will.
I guess you can send the state a bill for the damages?
For sure contact local, county and state officials and complain about the rogue critters.
Shoot them in the butt with a good strong pellet gun?
Or as I suggested above, just kill the deer.