I've seen deer repellant at tractor supply. It's kinda gross though. It's usually coyote urine.

Jeanie,

Welcome to my world. When you live in a rural or semi-rural area with abundant wildlife, you will always, always, always have to protect your plants from the wildlife. If you relax your guard and stop providing protection for your plants for even a little while, the wildlife will sneak in and get your plants.

Repellents may or may not work for you. They work for some people in some circumstances and not for others. You do have to reapply them after rain falls.

There are recipes online to make your own deer repellents. Those that include eggs in the recipes seem fairly effective.

How effective coyote urine is as a repellent seems to vary. We have coyotes and deer on our property often and they travel the same exact 'game trails', often within minutes of one another, and having the scent of the coyotes (and their coyote scat) on the trails doesn't deter the deer from traveling those trails at all. They've used the same well-trod paths ever since we purchased this land almost 15 years ago.

I've linked one of the Dirt Doctor's pages from his website. This particular page deals with deer.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Dirt Doctor Discusses Deer

OK. Already grow strong-scented Perovskia, and they DID seem to ignore the one rose growing next to it. Chicken wire on the ground would be in the way of mowing. Six foot fence is not an option. Single wire electric fence sounds good, but I really think they would just step over it. Made a bottle of pepper spray today out of red pepper flakes and water, let soak and then shook vigorously and sprayed. Don't know if it will be strong enough or not but it's all I had in my cabinet with a "bite" to it. Going to leave porch light on tonight. Wonder if I hung a windchime in the flower bed would help? Egg spray? Might try that next.
Thanks for the hints. Don't know why, after three yrs., I suddenly have this problem.

Jeanie

Jeanie,

I have lived in this house going on 5 years and never a deer problem. I planted grain rye in my gardens last fall and the deer just tore my lawn and garden up this winter, but when the woodland and pastures started greening up I have not had any more deer problems.

I just came back from my mom and step dads house where I was planting them sweet potatoes. I could see deer tracks
all over their garden and I don't have a lot of stuff planted over there.

If I start having a problem I will be installing an electric fence. A fellow in this area uses the two wire system and great results with it, one wire about a foot high and the other about 4 ft. high.

Larry

And to tag onto Larry's suggestion - stagger the wire. Deer are "depth perception" challenged!!! We've kinda tried a variation I read in Grit magazine a few years back. A farmer had built fencing around his gardening in double rows...with the post staggered. The inner row being just slightly taller than the outer row, but the post for the outer row were centered compared to the inner row. A deer's eye sockets are on the sides of their head - so they don't quite see things "straight on" like we do and they have a hard time judging depth. It worked for that farmer and the variation that we tried (on a much smaller scale) worked for us on a west-facing flower bed.

Paula

Jeanie,

Deer are just that way. They are individuals with individual tastes and some eat some types of plants and others don't.

For several years they didn't bother anything but my hostas, which they completely devoured down to the ground over and over until the poor things (the hostas, not the deer) gave up and quit coming back. After a while, they started eating okra and hollyhocks and then sunflowers and tomato plants and then everything. That was before we raised the fence. Part of it is 7' tall and part of it is 8' tall. Do I like the appearance of the fence? No. Do I think it looks attractive? No. I think it makes my garden look like a prison, but without a tall fence there would be no veggies, herbs and flowers in that 100' x 100' space.

They bother the plants in the landscape very little. They nibble daylilies occasionally. I switched from hollyhocks to French hollyhocks and, while they devoured regular hollyhocks, they don't bother the French hollyhocks at all, so those aren't even fenced. In a really bad drought year, they'll eat plants they normally don't bother.

I grow pole beans (green beans and lima beans) and vining types of blackeyed peas on my 400' of garden fence, and while they occasionally nibble on leaves that grow outside the fence, they don't do it as much as I feared.

Begonias aren't safe except in a hanging basket on the wraparound porch, and it wouldn't surprise me if one of these days the deer come up on the porch and eat them there. They will eat expensive hybrid petunias, but won't touch the half-wild Laura Bush petunias. The never bother Texas Hummingbird Sage, tall verbena or four o'clocks, but they'll occasionally nibble the datura leaves. They don't usually eat my zinnias, but will in a drought year.

They also devour pentas, but haven't eaten Golden Bells (Tecoma Stans). Sometimes they eat blackberries, but don't bother the peaches or plums. Maybe they stay away from the fruit trees because of the squirrels who are hanging out in them constantly this year. They like to eat the blooms off my 'Jane' magnolia, which generally first blooms in late Feb. or early Mar. when there's not much around that they like to eat.

And yet, for every plant I've listed above that they 'generally don't bother', there's occasionally a deer that will develop a taste for one of those plants that no one else eats. I think they do it to make me crazy.

For a long time, we had a double fence around the veggie garden that consisted of two parallel fences 4' apart. The outer fence was 3' tall and the inner fence was 4' tall. It worked because, in general, deer can jump high or they can jump wide, but they cannot jump high and wide at the same time. I planted only flowers and herbs between the two fences so there was a 'moat' of flowers and herbs between the deer and the veggies. While the deer might reach over the 3' fence and eat flowers, they never breached both fences and came into the veggie garden....until one year they did! I think they carefully hopped into the moat, and then jumped into the big garden from the moat. No solution necessarily works forever.

Since we raised the height of the fence, the deer have been in the garden twice. Once, I accidentally left the gate open and came out the next morning to find 4 deer grazing in the garden. Even though I hurriedly retreated to the house, they ran wildly around the garden in a panic, trampling everything, until they found their way out. The second time, I think the wind blew the gate open. Apparently a deer came in and carefully walked up and down the paths in between the raised beds. There were hoofprints everywhere but no damage that I could find to one single plant. I always wondered what it was looking for that I didn't have!

There is an older gentleman up the road a couple of miles near our fire station. One of our firefighters asked him how he keeps the deer out of his garden. He said he plants habanero pepper plants around the perimeter of his garden. I can't imagine that actually works, but apparently it works for him. I thought about doing that, but it sure would take a lot of habanero pepper plants to put a single row all around my garden. I'd do it, though, if it would keep the raccoons from climbing the fence and coming after the ears of corn before they're even ripe.

Dawn

Dawn, we should all grow a flat of habs for you and bring them to the Spring Fling...that would give you a head start!

Lisa

Lisa,

That's too funny!

We are at war with the raccoons this year. They are everywhere and are killing our chickens and tearing up fences trying to get through them, etc.

We always have raccoons around, but they must be having a huge population explosion this year.

Just think, I actually was excited to see them and thought they were "cute" when we first moved here. I'm both older and wiser now. (They really were adorable when they were sitting on the porch furniture, knocking on the living room windows, and trying to get us to feed them! We had the good sense not to feed them though.)

They're a huge pain in the neck and are much more of a problem for us than deer. You just can't fence them out because they'll eventually find a way over, under or through the fence.

I'd love to just sprinkle ground up habanero peppers or habanero powder on the ground around my corn, but I don't want my cats to walk through that stuff and get it on their paws. I am going to put out some 'bait' corn in another week or two. I'm going to buy some fresh ears of corn, pull back the husks and spray the corn kernels with a mixture of water and habanero powder and then put them around the garden for the raccoons to find. I'm going to try to 'teach' them that our corn is unpleasantly peppery before our actual ears on the plants begin to mature. It is either that, or sit out in the garden all night with a gun.

Dawn

The lack of deer here seems very unusual to me. I'm from SW Kansas originally, where you can't live in the country or even drive out of town without seeing at least one deer, and I've hit three on the road in my lifetime. In the five years I've lived in Blanchard and commuted to Norman every day, I have not seen a single one. Maybe it's the coyotes that are scaring them off. I guess that's good for my garden and good for my car.

Our three resident rabbits, on the other hand, are starting to act like they own the place. Just this morning on our drive in to work, all three were lounging in the grass near our driveway and didn't seem to care at all that a car came within three feet of them. I saw that they nibbled all the leaves off of one of my strawberry plants, but it was from a runner that grew outside of my rabbit fence, so I'll let them get away with that one.

Omigosh! Obviously, many of us share this problem, and obviously, the deer have a higher IQ than you would think! Apparently, no matter WHAT clever device, spray, VB or FB configuration we come up with, they will, eventually, figure a way thru or over it or just adapt. I think I am getting the picture. They have diverse personalities, and some of them acquire "tastes" for certain plants. Since my deer seems to like the tender buds of my daylilies and roses, and if I can't discourage it with sprays or repellents, I will have to go the electric wire system route. Never have installed one before, but can read the box and, hopefully, "git er done"! I refuse to give up flower gardening, as it gives me so much pleasure. Like you, Dawn. When I first came to the "wilds", I was delighted to spot deer, raccoons, bun buns, possums, etc., til I discovered I was creating a gourmet restaurant for them. Now, after many plants nibbled to the ground, bird feeders raided and trash cans invaded, I STILL think they are cute, but would prefer to observe them from a distance, no matter HOW much fun I think it would be to hand-feed a deer. Thank you, everyone, for all the hints and ideas. This "City Slicker" is rapidly becoming a bona-fide country girl!

Jeanie

I couldn't see to read all that but I was always told to hang bars of soap everywhere. Not sure what kind I think the cheap ivory.
Good luck
Tree

Soap didn't work terribly well for us after the first month or so and I was really disappointed because I had high hopes for it. We were told to use a very strong-smelling soap, so we used Irish Spring. We hung the bars from the 3' tall fence in knee-high stockings. After it had been out there awhile, some sort of wild animals began tearing open the knee-highs and eating the bars of soap. I was irritated to think that (a) anything would eat soap, and (b) we likely were attracting some sort of wild critter to the garden with the soap.

One of our neighbors puts a radio in his tree and leaves it playing all night as his apples ripen, He says the deer rarely bother the corn, but they still sometimes get into his garden, which has a short fence, which sits right beside the apple trees.

I'm guessing Talk Radio featuring Limbuagh, Imus and Nuggent would be scarrier or a least more annoying than say NPR. Oh sure they'ed listen to Prairie Home Companion but I bet never make a pledge.

Jeanie, an electric fence is very easy to install but I would suggest you read about then and decide what type and size you need. I would suggest you read about the "wireless deer fence". I don't know anything about the wireless system but the idea sounds good.

I have supplies here to build another electric fence. My plan is to drive a foot long piece of 1/2" PVC into the ground and then insert a piece of 1/2" re-bar with two two gauge wires around it to control the spacing between the ground and the next piece of PVC I drop over the re-bar to use for a fence post. The Idea behind this is to be able to just lift my post out of the ground (wires and post) and lay aside while I mow, then reinsert the post. I have trouble using a weed-eater, plus the mower leaves a smoother cut.

I have never built a fence in this manner but I hope do be able to deal with voltage leak I have had in the past and use a very small constant flow charger often called a "Pet Deterrent".

I have been holding off on doing this because at this point I am not having pest problems and I don't like the looks or the work of trimming around any kind of fence.

Larry

Larry,

Thanks for the suggestions. At this point, I don't know WHAT I am going to do. Some of this fencing sounds a bit pricey, and, like you, I HATE mowing or weed-eating around obstacles. My son suggested I fill my deer feeder and hang it for a diversion. I haven't used it this year, because the deer seemed to ignore it, while the squirrels and crows loved it. Since this particular deer (I think it is just one) has become brave enough to come right up to the house, maybe she would condescend to a.corn diet instead of a flower bud diet. Wonder if those hideous whirli-gig things spaced around the flower beds would help. Who knows. Maybe an obnoxious radio program is the answer, as PHJones suggested. HA. Again, thanks for your info.

Jeanie

So far I have not had a deer problem, but the hab comment reminded me of something else. Squirrels aren't such a big problem now but for a few years they were terrible. If I would till anything, they would walk it up and down with their nose to the ground like a bloodhound and I suppose it was because they had nuts buried there and knew that I had disturbed them. I guess I wore them down because I don't see many in my garden.

However, they would not leave my bird feeder alone and I just couldn't keep it full. It was hanging from a shepherds hook so I mixed hot chili pepper with Crisco and covered the pole. The squirrel jumped from the tree onto the hook of the pole and started down the pole. As he hit the shortening he started to slide and he slide to the next rung of the hook where he caught on for a minute, then continued to slide down. When he got to the ground he started licking his paws, then he started shaking his paws. He would go back to the pole, then sit on the ground and shake his paws again, walk a few feet and shake them once again. It didn't cure the problem but it sure did provide entertainment. We probably have 20% of what we once had so I would guess someone is eliminating them.

Carol, that sounds a little like a stunt I pulled a few years ago. We had a lot of crows and they were getting into every thing. By the time I could get out of the house with a gun they would fly away. I got the happy idea to kill them with electricity. I got a metal chicken feeder, the kind for small chicks that had the holes where they would stick their head through. I ran an extension cord out to the feeder and insulated it from the ground. drove a ground rod, placed some chicken scratch in the feeder, and a little on the ground and went back into the house and waited for the crows to start eating and then plugging in the electric cord.

Well to make a long story short. I just taught the crows to dance, I did not kill a single crow. I guess all the other crows thought this was some kind of "Crow Roadhouse", I have more crows now than ever.

Larry

Carol, the best bird feeder I ever got has a small grid wire enclosure around it. I still have to secure the top, those squirrely squirrels can always find a way in :)

Quite a few years ago I posted this pic...but I'll post it again. Look close, the squirrel is nose first inside the bird feeder.

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How funny! I can't believe he would go down in something that small. LOL

Very funny, Punkinhead. I bet they wouldn't pledge at all, but I'm sure Garrison Keilor could put them to sleep real nice like with his soothing voice.

Kelly

The soap solution made me laugh and reminded me of something. Our goofy springer spaniel (his name is Dakota but it should be Dennis the Menace) gets into everything he shouldn't. A couple of years ago I noticed the bar of soap was missing from the tub in the guest bathroom. I replaced it and then noticed it missing again. I finally figured out that silly dog was eating the soap! I guess that was his version of a deep cleansing detoxification treatment :).

Suzie

Animal problem, wellll maybe not!
Last winter I had an Armadillo in my fenced garden. (net wire) He was hell bent for the grubs, etc. large holes and all.
Then I started to trapping at him. I had two different live traps out with all the right wing fences that go with that sort of thing. I used marshmallows and all the right baits, but didnt catch him. I mean I trapped all winter. When winter was over and I still hadnt caught him, I started in thinking of my spring garden and the preparations for that. First thing to come to mind was cutworms. And all of a sudden it hit me. Why didn't I leave him alone and let him get the cutworms. This year I will.
Best of luck to you all
Bill