Deer driving me nuts

First they got my blueberries, then they got my raspberries. Now they are into the vegetable garden. I will not have to be concerned with my tomato plants getting too tall, nor will I have too many peppers, beans, butternut and cukes.

Any good remedies before the peaches and pears begin to ripen?

TIA

John

Reply to
John Bachman
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Reply to
redclay

I live on the southern coast of Maine and have a wicked bad deer problem. I just tried something I had read on my tiger lillies and it has worked for a couple of weeks now. Here's the recipe.

Mix 1 egg with 1/2 cup milk then add 1 tbs of cooking oil and 1 tbs of dishwasher detergent Then add to one gallon of water. Mix

Put into spray bottle. Spray every two weeks unless it has rained. Leftover does not need to be stored in fridge.

Good luck,

Jackie (to e-mail take the "x" off jackie)

Reply to
Jackie Kuscher

Some years ago, when I lived in a Deer area, I used a fertalizer that was made from blood and bone, spead it all over the yard, that did the trick, lasted all year. I guess they don't like the smell of death. I bought the stuff from what was an Agway store at the time, big 25lb bag didn't cost too much either. Wish I could remember the name on the bag, must have been very generic looking for me not to remember.

I would call around to your local farmer supply type stores in your area, and ask if they have something like that.

I just remembered, the guy at the store said they make the fertalizer mainly to get rid of deer, but can't market it like that for some reason.

Reply to
peter_may_day

Some years ago, when I lived in a Deer area, I used a fertalizer that was made from blood and bone, spead it all over the yard, that did the trick,lasted all year. I guess they don't like the smell of death. I bought the stuff from what was an Agway store at the time, big 25lb bag didn't cost too much either. Wish I could remember the name on the bag, must have been very generic looking for me not to remember.

I would call around to your local farmer supply type stores in your area, and ask if they have something like that.

I just remembered, the guy at the store said they make the fertalizer mainly to get rid of deer, but can't market it like that for some reason.

Reply to
peter_may_day

I *just* bought a motion-detecting sprinkler to keep cats from digging up my garden. I haven't used it yet, but it says it works on deer. Nobody (except maybe a duck) likes to get sprayed with a stream of water.

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regards, Bob

Reply to
zxcvbob

Deer love peaches and apples. I've seen them stand on their back legs to reach the fruit. Try applications of products such as "Deer Away" or "Deer Scram." They work, but you need to re-apply them from time to time. One of the ingredients is cow blood.

Reply to
Phisherman

Some people swear that deer are repelled by hanging bunches of human hair around the flower beds. Makes sense, if you consider how much money is spent by hunters to buy products which suppress their scent while hunting. Anyway, the hair is free - visit any haircutting salon. Bundle it in pieces of pantyhose.

Here in NY, it is legal to kill any animal which destroys food crops. A permit is sometimes required if it's an animal which falls under the hunting season regulations. And obviously, local laws (and common sense) governing the discharge of firearms must be observed. But, if you're in a location where you can imagine a rifle or shotgun being safe to use, call your state's environmental department and find out what your options are.

Venison is delicious. Got any juniper growing nearby? Or, marinate the meat with good gin.

Reply to
Doug Kanter

Men's hair works best for some reason. All repellents work for a little while until the deer's hunger exceeds their fear. They are quite adept at becoming accustomed to such repellents. If you ever drive through Valley Forge Park (PA), you will find that they eventually loose any sense of fear they ever had. The only true way to keep deer out of an area is a physical barrier. They are light weight deer fences.

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Reply to
Stephen M. Henning

Everything but a deer fence or electric wire is an impermanant solution, or incredibly expensive over time. Deer don't mind sprinklers at all and get used to human or predator scent. Especially if there are tasty treats that they want to snack on. The repellent products with eggs or other noxious scents work similarly. In other words, temporarily. Deer products with a bitter taste that rely on the plant incorporating them into itself for a deterrent effect will work fairly well until the deer population pressures are too great during a famine year. They are also very, very, expensive over the long term, wheras an electric wire is very very cheap. Deer will eat bark off of trees and everything else if they are really hungry, especially in winter months. You haven't seen deer damage until you go out and all of your shrubs are gone above the snowline. My cousin in RI lost every single rose one year down to the ground because of deer. SHe now has the electric fence I suggested and couldn't be more happy with it. A one time investment of between $50 to a couple of hundred dollars, depending on if you already have a fence in place with which to use as a base for the standoffs for the wire.

Reply to
Sunflower

And deer NEVER get to the point of eating the bark off of trees unless a bunch of bunny huggers decide to get laws passed the restrict hunting to the point of non-existence. Same way with other herd type animals.

They over-populate.

WE KILLED OFF ALL THEIR NATURAL PREDATORS.

It's time we quit wimping out and stepped up to the plate. You kill off an animals' survival needs, you should take responsibility.

Remember that herd of elk that fell thru some ice at Yellowstone? (yeah, it's been awhile) Most of them weighed 1/4 of their normal weight. A bull Elk should weigh far more than 150 lbs. A healthy whitetail doe weighs between 150 lbs. & 190 lbs. Hundreds of them were out there looking for food.

Quit bunny hugging the environment to death already, and check with Fish & Wildlife in your area, nuisance permits can usually be bought year 'round, and fairly cheap.

Murri

Reply to
Lady Blacksword

they dont like being shot with wrist rocket slingshots

Reply to
steve

Seems like you are saying that this is a human made problem and not a deer problem.

Perhaps the solution would be to restrict the human population to urban areas so as to not destroy the habitat for wildlife.

I suggest that you be the first to return your property to the goverment, so that it may be re-naturized!

If you are the problem, you are the pest, not the deer!

Perhaps you could take a nuisance permit out on yourself.

Ray

Reply to
Ray Jestheimier

Do you?

Try shooting your mother or father with one, see if they like it!

Ray

Reply to
Ray Jestheimier

Around here they use they use electric fences around important stuff.

My last dog liked the woods in our back yard, so we never had any deer back there. The new dog is afraid to go back there alone, so the deer have retaken it. She does keep them out of the front yard at least. (old dog chased them; new one rolls on her bad, but at least the smell is effective.)

Reply to
toller

If I caught them eating my bushes, I would!

Bert

Reply to
Bert

Sounds to me like one of your hobbies is ignoring reality. :-)

Here's an example, one which YOU know is typical all over America:

I live in Rochester NY. The population of the city proper is declining slowly, but remaining pretty much level within the county. Many people don't want to live near blacks, gays and Hispanical folks, so even though the city's full of gorgeous houses and fine neighborhoods, people are moving to the suburbs. Twenty years ago, those suburbs were beautiful rolling farm properties - really productive ones, too. Production was about evenly divided between dairy feed and vegetables for canning/freezing. Now, they're being gobbled up by housing developers. Because many developers are as dumb as a bag of hammers, they like to remove the large wooded patches which existed between the farm properties. Instinctively, this is where deer spend much of their time. Ask a hunter about this, or pay attention to where the deer crossing signs are located along roads.

Here's the tricky part: If there are ten patches of woods in a given area and you remove eight of them, the deer will still seek out the remaining two. This is where they find shelter at certain times of day, and food in particular seasons. If YOU needed a place to sleep in the middle of January, you'd head for woods, not an open field.

So, the more they wander, the more interesting things they find, like our gardens.

Call it a deer problem if you like. It's really an interface problem. I have no problem with hunting to control the deer population, but in addition to that, I think we should regulate what stupid developers are allowed to do insofar as removing habitat.

Reply to
Doug Kanter

Thank you, for exercising the right to actually use that grey stuff in your head. Murri

Reply to
Lady Blacksword

I always do. 24x7

Reply to
Doug Kanter

Shh! That'll get people to killfile you if you aren't careful. ;-) Murri

Reply to
Lady Blacksword

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