Deer

[jobguy]

I tried using cheap/thin 7'x150' netting sold as Deer netting. Also installed baling twine chest high and at 8' high so they would see something was there and not run through it. I covered the bottom with dirt to hold it down. The netting kept out the Deer and rabbits but is so thin that any amount of wind would tear it off the posts. I'm going to plant some beets and other fall produce in a few days and will purchase chicken wire to replace the plastic netting or find better/thicker plastic netting.

 

[Baby Grand]

Gotta get me one of those 28' anacondas to eat my "rats with antlers".
Or a fence.
They decimated our cucmber vines the other day.
We are trying to figure out an "affordable" solution that is also effective.
Good thread - this is helping a lot.

 

[RaydaKub]

I have had serious deer issues at both my Md. gardens and have had great success setting up a perimeter using cheap 50 # fishing line from Walmart. As mentioned above, they can feel it, but cannot get a handle on where the top is and stay out.

Seriously? They are can't figure out the top so assume it isn't safe? That's shear genius!

 

[crowbar032]

I haven't tried it, but a local nursery owner swears by it. She go the idea from the Indiana DNR. Coat an aluminum pan with peanut butter and hang in from a pole in your garden. Deer bite it and they don't like the texture of the aluminum pan and learn there is no food nearby. Supposedly she doesn't have much of a deer issue anymore. You can also put milorganite around your garden. I have used this and it helps tremendously but it does smell pretty bad. Milorganite I've also heard of using blood meal around the garden to repel critters. Supposedly it works well, but smells awful. As others have also stated, electric fence will keep coons out. One wire about 4 inches off the ground, and another about 12 inches above the first.

 

[crowbar032]

There are 3 little white tail bucks that seem to take turns draining about a quart of bird seed out of my feeder almost daily.
The feeder is about 15 yards from the house, and the deer will only move off about 10 yards when I go out to fill it. As soon as I turn my back they follow me back to the feeder. It is kind of fun to watch them grow and mature.

However the chipmunks are another matter. I have had them be destructive around buildings and machinery. So far I have taken 3 of them from under the bird feeder with a pellet rifle.

It's easier and cheaper for me to do my gardening at the farmers markets.

Enjoy

My former boss used a rat trap with a cashew on it to catch/kill chipmunks.

 

[RaydaKub]

You can also put milorganite around your garden. I have used this and it helps tremendously but it does smell pretty bad. Milorganite I've also heard of using blood meal around the garden to repel critters. Supposedly it works well, but smells awful.

The worst part isn't the smell. The worst is that if it rains or you water it, you get to do it all over again. My wife used this a few years ago and went through buckets of the stuff. It works great, but isn't a "full time" solution.

 

[crowbar032]

The worst part isn't the smell. The worst is that if it rains or you water it, you get to do it all over again. My wife used this a few years ago and went through buckets of the stuff. It works great, but isn't a "full time" solution.

True. It's just another available weapon in the on-going battle without going lethal (not that I'm opposed or haven't done it). Sometimes you can break deer of the habit of coming into your garden early and don't need it all season. Most solutions are "your mileage may vary" though.

 

[scaredychicken]

for me, dog food was cheaper than an 8-10 foot deer fence around 7 acres - those deer are olympic jumpers. I'm more concerned about the bears running right through a fence or the pool, or the beavers by the creek chewing the nicer trees... country life, I love it.

 

[Wyobuckaroo]

Had a 6yo grand daughter here that saw the doe with the two spotted fawns come to the patio door, look into the house eye to eye with her. (door was closed)

Then they went to the bird feeder and dined on some of what was there.
She wailed when I said something about having to stop putting out feed.

I'm doomed.............. Oh well.........

 

[scaredychicken]

wyobuckaroo - if you don't mention Bambi, I won't mention Yogi

 

[MoKelly]

Our Jack Russell chases deer all the time, as if she had a chance of catching them. The problem is she's in at night when the deer are at work. She also chases squirrels and crows.

Our dog does exactly the same (a Jack Russell mix). Sometimes I wonder what he would do if he really did catch up to the deer. On second thought, not really as he would be in trouble!

MoKelly

 

[Ed of all trades]

Run an electric fence at about two feet off the ground, rub the fence with strong smelling syrip. Sit back and watch the fun deer noses are tender. It works I have seen 20 deer on one side of a fence like that and our garden on the other with no damage. :thumbsup:

 

[Wyobuckaroo]

It is a given in this part of the country a bear is as unwelcome as a skunk...........

And a bruin with an ear tag is one big target.........
(ear tag = transplanted bear, already a problem bear somewhere else)

 

[Lineman North Florida]

I was up North of Baltimore last year helping to restore the power and couldn't believe the amount of deer that I saw in the subdivisions we were working in, they were everywhere I just thought we had a lot of deer down here in the South.

 

[countryboycansurvive]

I haven't tried it, but a local nursery owner swears by it. She go the idea from the Indiana DNR. Coat an aluminum pan with peanut butter and hang in from a pole in your garden. Deer bite it and they don't like the texture of the aluminum pan and learn there is no food nearby. Supposedly she doesn't have much of a deer issue anymore. You can also put milorganite around your garden. I have used this and it helps tremendously but it does smell pretty bad. Milorganite I've also heard of using blood meal around the garden to repel critters. Supposedly it works well, but smells awful. As others have also stated, electric fence will keep coons out. One wire about 4 inches off the ground, and another about 12 inches above the first.

I use a similar system. I run a single hot wire and hang aluminum pans smeared with peanut butter from the hot wire. I've been hunting for years and love to watch deer, but when you have a quarter acre of sweet corn wiped out in a few nights it's a little much.

 

[countryboycansurvive]

Our dog does exactly the same (a Jack Russell mix). Sometimes I wonder what he would do if he really did catch up to the deer. On second thought, not really as he would be in trouble!

MoKelly

I have 2 beagles who used to chase deer. One day there was a doe in the yard with two young fawns. One of the dogs ran toward the doe baying, the doe ran straight at the dog and flailed it with her front hooves. They don't chase deer anymore.

 

[phoenix49]

Man, I'd be willing to give up a few veggies to see a deer these days. Haven't seen one on our property for 8-10 months now. They used to be around all the time but the population has declined drastically in my area for some reason.

 

[k0ua]

Man, I'd be willing to give up a few veggies to see a deer these days. Haven't seen one on our property for 8-10 months now. They used to be around all the time but the population has declined drastically in my area for some reason.

I will ship you a car load up your way if you will ship us some cool weather and some rain

James K0UA

 

[toppop52]

Mark, I don't know in what part of Maryland you live, but here on the shore we have so many deer that it's not unusual to have to stop in broad daylight to wait for 15-20 to cross the road in front of you. I live near the airport outside Salisbury and we have have a half dozen regular does, and many passing visitors. They are pretty to look at but the ticks, the garden damage, the crap in the driveway, etc... is a pain. We have at least one a month killed on the road within a mile of here.
The over population is causing a drastic increase in predator population, we have coyotes multiplying like rats, though right in my area not bad yet, there are 20+ cougar sightings a year now vs 1 every 2-3 years 25 years ago. The overpopulation of deer is a major problem!

 

[phoenix49]

I will ship you a car load up your way if you will ship us some cool weather and some rain

James K0UA

I would if I had any, we've had less than a half inch of rain here all month (they ahve done better in the extreme southern part of the state). Had to water the garden twice and I hated to do it. Now black flies and deer flies I can send ya.