Cursed Deer!

[megintn]

I haven't been on here in quite awhile but figured this would be the best place for answers. Last year, we had our garden near where we were living,at the very front of our land and also had a dog.

This year, we finished the house way back in the woods and started a new garden area. The new garden was easily twice the size of the old one, the big difference was it is back here in the woods by the house and we found a home for the stray dog.So, no dog and the garden is bordered by woods. I got a few pounds of tomatoes and a few pounds of peppers out of the garden before the DEER came in an wiped EVERYTHING out.

They ate the tops off the pepper plants,ate the tops off my okra, ate the ripe tomatoes, ate ALL my bush beans and pole beans..literally obliterated my garden. I know it was deer from the foot prints in the garden.

I tried the garlic clips, the dried blood/rotten egg powder stuff, human urine ..they still treated my garden like their own private bufett.

Anybody know something that truly works? These guys have 20 acres of trees to eat..why did they eat my garden? Nothing to can, nothing to dehydrate...dang critters got all we had hoped to put up.

Definitely going to be stalking these guys with a rifle,they should be fat and happy for the freezer after eating my entire garden!

[Native87]

Sorry to hear you lost your garden. I tell you I have had that same problem here before. The only thing that I found that worked for me was putting up a deer fence around my garden. I have finally been able to actually get some stuff from my garden this year.

Best way to look at your situation is that your garden raised some fine venison that will taste mighty good this winter. :)

[MrGreenJeans]

Go to the dollar store and get several bars of the stinky cheap soap, then drill a hole in it and hang about every 20-40 ft. around garden. Their sense of smell is way more than ours. So if ya can rember walking down the soap isle in the store, burning eyes, runny nose this is what they get from the cheap stinky soap just a hole lot more than us. It does work, got this from mountain rope gardeners and they swear by it.

[DM]

Go to the dollar store and get several bars of the stinky cheap soap, then drill a hole in it and hang about every 20-40 ft. around garden. Their sense of smell is way more than ours. So if ya can rember walking down the soap isle in the store, burning eyes, runny nose this is what they get from the cheap stinky soap just a hole lot more than us. It does work, got this from mountain rope gardeners and they swear by it.

That has never worked on the deer around here.

DM

[goldengate]

I agree that the only thing which works over the long haul is a fence. Ours has posts which are ten feet out of the ground. Our fencing is six feet woven wire. It has worked okay so far. If it ever lets the deer in, we have room at the top to add chicken wire if necessary. Yes,it is quite an expense. However, it is final! That is important to my busy husband/fencer. Maybe you can save up a little each pay check over the winter and put up a fence next spring Good luck!

[MooseToo]

i've read that you can keep deer out with minimal fencing by erecting two parallel fence lines five or six feet apart - both lines must be highly visible since the idea is that deer will be reluctant to jump the first line if they consider the second line a hazard for landing -

may be baloney but worth researching if the cost of a single tall fence is a factor -

[DM]

i've read that you can keep deer out with minimal fencing by erecting two parallel fence lines five or six feet apart - both lines must be highly visible since the idea is that deer will be reluctant to jump the first line if they consider the second line a hazard for landing -

may be baloney but worth researching if the cost of a single tall fence is a factor -

I've seen that used here in big fields of carrots, by big i'm talking 20 plus acres. I've also seen deer in that field, but not many.

I'm thinking all of the things mentioned do work on "some" deer, but not "all" deer or every place. I don't have any deer/garden problems, and i see deer pretty much every day. The deer here have LOT'S of food from food plots ect., so they aren't interested in my gardens or orchard tree's.

The best solution is a tall fence like was already mentioned.

DM

[mountain man]

Megintn,

I had the same problem this year. I extended my garden this year and had a 5ft fence around the outside. My pepper and tomato plants were niped in half while young. Every night a dozen of so were nipped off. I did not know it was deer at first so I left the cat in the garden and she killed a rabbit overnight. I hoped for the best but had already dusted the plants with red pepper so I felt confident that no further damage would occur. After the rain washed off the red pepper dust the plants were nipped off again. I then bought motion lights and installed on the fence to try to keep animals out and peppered again. This worked until the next rain when the plants were disappearing again. I bought fence pole extentions and barbed wire to put on the top to extend the fence to 8ft but did not have time to install. That night I woke at 3AM to notice the lights on from my bedroom window. It was a large doe eating my daylillys and then walking toward the garden. I got the 300 mag and went to the bathroom window but knocked out the screen in the process. She ran 50 ft to the woodline and I went to the bedroom to get a better angle. I watched in the scope of my rifle as she walked up to the fence but then she disappeared from the scope as she jumped straight but and over the 5ft fence like it was nothing. She tripped the motion light nearest the tomatoes and stood there eating the plants. I refocused the rifle and ended my deer problem for the year. It was one rouge animal that had been devestating my 200 plant tomato and pepper plot. You will need the fence and a backup plan for that one animal that learns to jump the fence. Gardening in the woods is like providing a buffet to all the animals that wonder the night. Without a fence groundhogs, rabbits, racoons, possums and deer will all eat everything you plant unless you install a fence.n

[Artemis]

I tried the soap on a rope trick, and something with badger lilke claws ripped it to shreds, then proceeded to demolish the broccoli. AND the spicy hot peppers.

[cartershan]

Artemis, thats the squirrells here. They drug all the soap out into the yard, and you can see on each end where they come and nibble on it every now and again. We have just left it where it laid. Hoping they'll go to the soap to eat instead of anywhere else!! The coons nipped out peppers last year and drug off a few plants as well. When they started taking the whole plant is when they disappeared!!! So glad to have the 22

[land steward]

excuse me but what did you think would happen? You are in their home land after all. We all impact nature and growing a garden and living in the bush only makes it worse.
We all have an impact all of us. Just fence the darn garden with 8 foot steel fencing. That will cure the problem. If you want run a couple strands of electric wire around it as well.

I haven't been on here in quite awhile but figured this would be the best place for answers. Last year, we had our garden near where we were living,at the very front of our land and also had a dog.

This year, we finished the house way back in the woods and started a new garden area. The new garden was easily twice the size of the old one, the big difference was it is back here in the woods by the house and we found a home for the stray dog.So, no dog and the garden is bordered by woods. I got a few pounds of tomatoes and a few pounds of peppers out of the garden before the DEER came in an wiped EVERYTHING out.

They ate the tops off the pepper plants,ate the tops off my okra, ate the ripe tomatoes, ate ALL my bush beans and pole beans..literally obliterated my garden. I know it was deer from the foot prints in the garden.

I tried the garlic clips, the dried blood/rotten egg powder stuff, human urine ..they still treated my garden like their own private bufett.

Anybody know something that truly works? These guys have 20 acres of trees to eat..why did they eat my garden? Nothing to can, nothing to dehydrate...dang critters got all we had hoped to put up.

Definitely going to be stalking these guys with a rifle,they should be fat and happy for the freezer after eating my entire garden!

[MIKENSUE]

For what it's worth, mom and dad's neighbor used to mix dried blood powder with skim milk (to make it stick better he said) that he got from momma and sprayed it around the perimiter of the garden and on his young trees. Swore it helped for bunnies and deer. Never tried it myself as the Irish spring soap and Liquid fence seem to work for us.
I think the idea of a good dog is about the best.
Sue

[jmhall]

I agree that a good dog can do wonders with keeping the critters at bay. Since ours is an indoor dog and not out at all hours and for added protection, I brush her outside in the summer in the garden area and just empty the loose hair around the garden. Seems to work as we do not have problems with the critters eating our produce.

[MCKNBRD]

One method that I've heard had good results was putting up some engineer stakes (or small fiberglass fencing posts) and stringing 2 or 4lb mono fishing line between them, at about 12" intervals from the ground up to about 4' high. The logic is that a deer will jump what it can see, but if they just casually walk up and bump something that they can't see, they'll turn away. Might work, might not. Heck, if nothing else, its a good use for last year's fishing line.

A good, quiet alternative is a bow and a stand in the corner of the garden...

Byrdman