Electronic Scarecrow

[BXmark]

I decided to put in a vegetable garden here at our new place. The neighbors said I was crazy. They have had no luck unless they put up at least a 6 foot fence. Not only do we have 2 rabbit nests within 50 yards of the garden (one evening there were 7 rabbits at once near the garden area) but the deer population migrates from the fields across the road to the woods behind us right through the area where I wanted to put the garden. I found this high-tech electroic scarecrow on the web. You hook it up to a garden hose and point it at your garden. It senses movement and infrared heat and kicks on with a 3 second burst of water. The garden is up and growing great for 6 weeks now. No fencing at all. Not one single leaf has been touched. I have heard it go off in the middle of the night but what ever it was lurking out there was gone by the time I got to the window. It even keeps out the 2 legged animals--- my neighbor came a snoopin at the garden and it soaked him. Was he ever startled!

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I have one of these gadgets, too. It has been installed for 5-6 weeks. Haven't had any intruders , yet. I am in a prime critter territory of MI( near Holly Sate Park) so it gets a work out.

 

[geneP]

What is the effective range on these things? Can they "see" a deer at ~100 feet?

 

[deadstick]

Do you happen to have the website address handy??

 

[Mosey]

"this high-tech electroic scarecrow on the web"

OK, you’ve got my interest. Do you mean to say a burst of water is enough to scare deer away? What about raccoons? Can you provide the web address and/or company name? How much was it?

 

[RayP]

There are several individuals selling these on e-bay, do a search under pond scarecrow. Also the company has a website. They will pick up a deer at 35 feet or so, according to how sensitive they are set. Each time they spray for 3 seconds with a total of 2 or 3 cups of water. I think it is a combination of noise, movement, and the impulse spray of water that does it. The list price is 79.99 approx., but I bought mine for 59 on e-bay. So far, it is doing the job.

 

[Tdog]

I have one of those & I'm not sure it helped me much. My problem is #@$%#&$ squirrels. They learned to take my tomatos a couple of years ago when it was really dry. I guess, besides being food, it provided water. I didn't think that gadget worked well on little critters like rabbits & squirrels - - especially at a distance. Seemed to work fine on me, however, whenever I'd wander out to check on the veggies & forget to turn off the water.

My solution for the squirrels was to buy some 5' chicken wire & make round cages that completely surround the tomato plant - - even put a roof on it. And, I've got my best crop of maters this year since I've lived here in the sticks.

Of course by the time you take the $$ I spent on my chicken wire tomato cages, you could probably but 2 - 3 produce stands. But it's not about economics, is it?

 

[Bird]

The critters that get into gardens never cease to amaze me. The first year I was here, the rabbits ate the little green plants just as they got started, and I finally had to spread blood meal around the perimeter of the garden to keep them out (on the advice of neighbors) and it seemed to work. But a couple of years ago, when I dug the potatoes with a middle buster, I plowed up a nest of baby rabbits. I didn't know until then that some mother rabbit had a nest in a burrow in the potato row. And this year, I had a nest of baby rabbits under one of the tomato plants. But in neither of those cases have I noticed any damage done by the rabbits. And we have squirrels in the trees around the house all the time and I've seen them at the edge of the garden, but never in it. One year (but only that one year), the crows got every kernel of corn I planted the first time, on the second planting they only got about a third of it, and after chasing them off by firing a 20 gauge in the air numerous times, I finally shot one and hung him on the fence by the garden and they didn't bother it anymore. Don't know if it was because the dead one was hanging there, or that they had just had their fill./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif Sometimes the critters play havoc with a garden and sometimes they don't, and I don't understand why the difference.

 

[Dobber30052]

We have a garden at the tip of a pine point, last year the deer did a number on us. This year, we got 2 "scarecrows". If they are on, no deer. If they are not, they top my plants - some all the way to the ground! We have it enclosed by 2"x4"x4' fence so the smaller critters have a hard time getting in. I recommend them. My "old timer" neighbor commented, "I don't think that silly little thing would do anything..." - then he "tripped it", I think he cleared out faster than a deer would! the website for the oem is www.scatmat.com, read the testimonials, there are some tips in there, and not all of them are positive. I think the advise about moving them around is good too, not from scarcrow experience, but from hunting experience. Good luck!
Dob

 

[Dobber30052]

www.scatmat.com

Just wanted to make sure you saw it...

Dob