Homeland Security Project

[TerryinMD]

War is declared!! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

The CFO has been personally insulted by one of our local does and has said "Enough is enough". /w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif Bad enough that the doe munched on the wifes Hostas... bad enough that they ate our peaches.... bad enough when she munched on the tomatoes.... but the straw that broke the camels back was when the doe ate my wifes prize pickling cucumbers!!

I'm sitting peacefully having my morning coffee and in comes a very animated wife just sputtering and mad as a hornet. She has declared war and I have to come up with the solution. So, two days of fence mending - re-stretching the 4' cattle fencing and adding another strand of barbed wire. Fencing is now 6' high. Added another board in the two walk thru gates. This did not help. Have you ever seen a deer jump thru a 10" opening - we did!!! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif/w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif

I have to extend the height of the drive thru gate - 4' to 6'. Will also be extending the height of the entire fence two feet. The later two feet will be electrified. I'm figuring at least 440v DC.... oops - too expensive. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Now, other than what I've mentioned what else can one do to protect from these varments!! No, I cannot use lead poisoning - too many homes that are too close and the use of firearms in the subdivision is a no-no. The deer laugh at us and the dog. They think we are all good sports. Any other thoughts.....

Director of Homeland Security,
Terry

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Put up one 8 foot high fence and be done with it. A deer will not jump 8' high and will not even attempt to unless in dire need to get to the other side. The wire cost about $1/foot and you just sink in 12' pressure treated 4x4's every 15'. You can still use electric wire 6" above the ground to help detour smaller critters but the deer won't get thru. Take care.

 

[Chuck52]

Terry,

I do feel for you and the missus. While I have a herd of deer in my area, I think it is a single doe that has eaten all my beans, most of the cucumbers and is now starting on the tomatoes. She tried the okra, but I guess it was too fuzzy for her taste. I got all kinds of advice on another thread. I suspect your fence modifications will do the trick. My problem is that the only tiller I have is my KK 60", and I don't want to fence in enough area around my garden allow me to get in there and use the tractor. So, I'm looking at some 7' deer netting I can put up and take down pretty easy. If you've got water close by, the motion sensor-water jet things sound like they work pretty well. There's also something that sounds like a cattle prod on a stick, that you bait. The deer licks it and gets zapped. I'm so teed of at this deer that even if I manage to keep it out of my garden with the netting I've had dreams of setting up a few of those things around for revenge!

I think the best fencing idea, if you don't want to go really high, is a double fence set 3-4' apart. For instance, I think I'll be fencing in my small fruit trees before next spring because the deer almost did them in too. I'll put up a relatively short fence around the row of trees, but the two sides will be close enough so the deer should not want to try to jump into the enclosure. I had each tree in circular fencing this year after it was clear the deer were going to chew them to the ground, but they are now too big for the original surrounds and I'll go with the straight fence.
Chuck

 

[cisco]

Solved my problem - became bow hunter - silent, doesn't distress neighbors, and even if you miss - the deer aren't real enthusiastic about returning - of course, the deer are going to have to really alienate your wife (sounds like the cucumbers did the trick) before she'll allow you to zap one in your yard (my "yard" is 7.5 acres) - tastes good too, especially with a recently rich diet of all your vegetables and flowers

 

[Anonymous Poster]

The easiest thing you can do is hang bars of the stinkiest motel soap you can find along the fence about every 10 feet.
That will keep most deer away.
There is a product called Liquid Fence, made in Pa, that works extremely well too. If you use liquid fence, make dam sure you are standing upwind when you spray it. Liquid Fence stinks worst than anything you ever smelled till it drys, then humans can't smell it, but critters can.
The deer munch clover in our field every day, and leave the wiff's flower gardens alone since she uses these 2 systems.

 

[TerryinMD]

Franz,

Not to sure about the soap in our area. I think the deer are taking it and bathing in the Potomac River!! /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

The wife put up little sacks of tobacco dust and dried blood. It seemed to have worked before... however, they ignore it now.

I believe that the bigger problem is the dry conditions we're having. The does have to nurse their babies and, well, their bellies are driving them to eat well. /w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif

I wouldn't mind looking into the liquid fence product though. Thank you for the tip.

Everyone else,

Thank you for the tips. The eight foot fence is going to be one of the easier solutions. I have bought the supplies for extending the currrent fence and electrifying it. We've been thinking about that for awhile but have postponed it because the deer were leaving us alone. As you have read, that all has changed.

Pictures will follow upon project completion.

Terry

 

[BOOMERANG]

Terry,
There is a simple, low cost solution to your problem. I live just across the river in No. VA. I bought a few 4x4 post and installed them on the perimeter of the garden. They don't need to be very close (10-15 ft apart). I then put a lower perimeter of rabbit fencing to keep out the digging varmits. Above that, I extended the 4x4s with 2x4s and installed a low cost plastic deer fencing around the entire garden. I now have a 10 foot high fence that is totally deer proof but virtually invisible to look at. The whole thing cost me less than $200. You can buy the deer fencing at Home Depot.
See attached photo.

 

[TerryinMD]

Boomerang,

Looks like you put up a good defense!! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Where are you in NVA??

However, our fencing is 290' x 90' feet - somewhere around ~750' of fencing with 2 4' walkthrough gates and a 12' drive through gate. The existing fencing is around 6 years old and has served us well. This year has been different. Is it the weather or just a persistent doe, I'm not sure. I restretched all of the the main sections and added a third strand of barbed wire. The main gate may be the main entry point right now. I parked my tractor in front of the gate and it seems as thought the doe did not get into the garden last night.

I'm in the process of adding approximately 2'-3' foot of electrified fencing to extend the fence to a height of 8' to 9' feet plus extend the height of the 12' gate. I think that should do the trick. I've been reading up on different methodologies and it seems as though the fencing might be the easier way to go. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif The sprays appear to have mixed results. The deer adjust to the different mixtures.

As a caveat, last year the CFO decided to dispose of our wasted/bad tomatoes by throwing them over the fence very near the garden area. Being a person thrifty in the use of energy (let's leave that thought alone..... /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif), she thought that it wouldn't matter very much.... well that seems to have encouraged the deers taste buds... /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif We may be paying for that err in judgement. Sigh.....

Be that as it may, the current problem needs to be corrected. It is very possible to lose more in lost revenue that the cost of correcting the problem. As a side note, it is amazing how much a small garden can produce in generating good crops. The deer can be very destructive. More so than the drought conditions!!! /w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif

Since I have six Saturdays and one Sunday due to the WorldCom debacle, I have some extra time to fix the problem along with finding a new job. I hope to have the new fencing corrected by mid-week.

Terry

 

[Dobber30052]

I have a great, easy solution. Read this <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.tractorbynet.com/cgi-bin/compact/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=rural&Number=164220&page=&view=&sb=&o=&vc=1>Thread</A>
I have two, only deer in the garden this year: 1 - forgot to turn it on, 2 - went out of town and left it on, battery went dead (this was after a couple of months of service though). Are the deer still around? Yes AROUND my garden, tracks all over, but not IN the garden.
Beats the heck outta fencing!

Good Luck,

Dobber

 

[BOOMERANG]

Terry,
I live in Purcellville, just west of Leesburg. Funny you should mention the WorldCom debacle. I work for Nortel and my one and only account was WorldCom. Needless to say I have had some free time on my hands too!

Back to the problem at hand, here is a site you may want to check out if you're looking to do some large scale deer fencing.

http://www.bennersgardens.com/

Good luck in your job search. Its ugly out there these days !

 

[Carl_NH]

Boomerang & Terry,

I just finished 660' of the deer fence 2 bought from mastergardening.com http://www.mastergardening.com/pest-control-fencing---netting-virtually-invisible-deer-fence-deer-ii-pro-fencing.html

for about $1 per foot. Well the deer got in one night before I finished, ate hostas and more plants, almost broke the fence down trying to get out. Once I put the top line 8 gauge and mid line 11 gauge, and stapled it to the ground no more problems.

Since there is an existing fence tho, what else is effective is an angled to the outside bracket at the top of the fence at 45 deg 2' high so total is about 6-7' . THe angle is over their heads so discourages them from jumping when they are close.
This is one of the methods I saw when looking at options.

I have an area for ingress/egress to the back woods as well open and visible to us and neighbor, so I concocted a warning system with a IR motion sensor lite from HD $28 and a radio $15 plugged into the other socket. This covers a 60' area to 180 degrees.

Works well so far, also you can easily add a sprinkler head solenoid to this setup as well for a few more $.

Carl

 

[BOOMERANG]

Carl,
The angled fence is a good idea. I hear its very effective. I wouldn't trust the opening to an IR device though. If there is an opening, they WILL get in ! I'm getting anxious for bow season anyway. It's time to "thin the herd" !

 

[TerryinMD]

Boomerang,

Hey neighbor!!

I may have been past your place a few times on my way home!! I drove home via 7, 9, and 287 through Lovettsville.

Ouch... sorry to hear that you only had WorldCom as an account. Things are very ugly there now as you may well understand. Did you provide network or voice devices?

My fence is basically complete except for the extension to add some height. I began to work on the fence extensions yesterday but threw in the towel my late morning - man it was brutal out there yesterday. I wish I knew about that fencing before I put up the cattle fencing and barbed wire. I know what I will use when the current fencing goes bad.

Terry