Deer Eating Me Up

[thatguy]

IF you can prove they are being a hardship on you, you probably can petition the local game department for a special permit to kill them anytime of year.. They could probably also recommend a bow hunter that would love to help you out as well..

Around here the local pd's have units with night vision and silenced rifles that thin the herd every year..

best of luck

Brian

 

[Chuck52]

The only way I've been able to keep my fruit and nut trees from being Bambi food is by fencing the individual trees until they are big enough to take some browsing. I have had some luck with Liquid Fence for small stuff, like hazelnuts, but as someone said you do have to keep it sprayed fairly often. This year we haven't seen nearly as many on our property, but we did hit one with the car, and a buck did a number on one of my Carpathian walnuts that I had just taken the fence off of.

Chuck

 

[Eagleview]

Is it not an option to put up a Deer fence around your crop ? It sounds like they are probably doing a good job at keeping the weeds down on the property .

 

[SnowRidge]

This stuff actually works. I used it every year but one on my xmas trees. The year I didn't use it, I got nailed bad by the long legged rodents (my wife's term for deer ).

It's made from blood meal with a vegetable oil carrier. It comes either premixed or as a powder which you mix with water to make the solution. Mixing it yourself is really nasty, but oh so much cheaper. It comes with a good set of instructions on how to use it. You can spray it, or dip it if you have seedlings.

If your trees are in a row, you have to spray the whole row. If they are in a rectangular or round grouping, you can start on the perimeter and work your way in. If you run out before getting to the inner trees, they will still be protected as the deer tend to avoid the whole group when they get a whiff of the outer trees.

It's good stuff.

 

[jinjimbob]

We used old fence left on the property to individually surround each tree with a fence, too small for the deer to jump into, just like the other poster.

Killing a deer usually just creates more room for other deer to move into.

What we need all over the country is a natural 'herd thinning' solution . . . . wolves. But people are scared of those, and not drunk hunters.

 

[Pilot]

Here are a few things I learned as a forester for 25 years.

First, deer learn what they like. So, they may pass up something for years, then take a sample, decide "hey, that's really good" and go after it aggressively. They like western red cedar like they like your cypress. A friend has cedar at his place & they prune it up about 8 feet high. At my place, 8 miles away, I planted cedar & they haven't touched it, nor have they touched my Doug firs. But we have had instances where deer would be in the clearcuts eating the trees while the tree planters were still there. I just hope my cedars will get up to 10 ft. or more before they discover it.

If you kill some of the deer, others will just move in from other areas. There is an infinite supply of deer.

I will not touch liver but some people love it. Just as with people, deer have different tastes. So sometimes deer repellent works, sometimes it doesn't.

Deer can jump pretty high. A fence has to be pretty high. We never fenced our clearcuts as it was public land, fences are spendy and there might be access concerns, but I understand sometimes it helps to tilt the fence about 30 degrees.

Most of the time, in spite of my friend's experience with his cedar, deer will only eat stuff about crotch high or less. There are lots of exceptions, depending on how much they like your crop or how hungry they are. But we had good success with rigid plastic netting around each tree. This stuff is not cheap; it doubles reforestation costs. Comes as a tube about 3-4 inches in diameter and you need to use a stake beside it to keep it upright. The material photodegrades over time so you don't have to remove it. They protect the trees until they are about 2 ft. high. Once they are that high, the deer don't eat so much of the tree that they would kill them--at least with Doug firs. Check with forestry suppliers to get the stuff.

 

[AMP762]

I've tried all these and they all worked, for a while.Deer learn real fast.Plant enough for everyone.

 

[George2615]

Build a deerstand. Go sit in it...if you're like me, you won't see anything

And I thought I was the only one that this happened to.

 

[wolc123]

For the most part I really like deer as they provide the bulk of the protein that my family consumes. I put in many acres of crops for the sole purpose of attracting and holding them, makeing the filling of the freezer as simple and quick as possible. The one place I dont want them is in my 1/2 acre pumpkin patch and they really love pumpkins. What has worked real well for me is putting up steel t posts about every 30 ft around the patch and running two strands of 20 lb test monofilament fishing line (1.5' and 3' high) between the posts to surround the "safe" area. They cant see the line at night and it scares the heck out of them when they stroll into it. This has been 100% effective at keeping them out. I tie some some short white ribbons at several locations between each post so that I can tell at a distance if a strand is broken. Several times, a strand or two of line have been broken, but I simply replace it and have not had as much as a bite out of a pumpkin within the enclosure. One thing I like less than deer eating my pumpkins is spending money, which made this solution especially attractive since it didnt cost me a dime. I had a bunch of old posts, and every year I replace the line on my fishing reels and this gives me something to do with the old stuff.

 

[Tororider]

I used the plantskyyd for my pumpkins this year, I didn't apply enough and lost them all to the deer. Oh well.

I agree about the treestand. Although if you are not allowed to hunt them you will probably see them. I can sit in my deerstand any time other than hunting season and see a bunch of them. Doe season and I saw all kinds of bucks. Regular season and no bucks at all.