LOL!

Since you already look like you've sacrificed a lamb, maybe if you go ahead and really do sacrifice a lamb the gods will favor you and keep the deer out of your garden.

I've never had to use any anti-deer compounds, but I would think rain (in Colorado?) or watering would wash the stuff away. I bet it wasn't cheap! If you're game to keep trying, I have a pretty extensive deer resistant list I could post here.

Good luck --- and I think luck might just be the most effective remedy for hungry deer,
Skybird

Thanks, Skybird, I will need some luck.

So far this morning, the odor and color has lessened a little, and it appears nothing was touched last night. In a couple of days we will know if the "sacrifice" was worth it, ha!

An inexpensive, reasonably effective alternative is an egg and teaspoon of chicken bouillon in a gal of water. Use a food processor / blender to dissolve it in a qt or so, then dilute. I would still run it through a strainer first before putting it in the sprayer. You can slosh this stuff around pretty freely.

I finally put up a deer fence around my place. Now, all I need is to come up with a raccoon deterrent; they seem to prefer my lawn as a depository of, well, you know, and every morning I awake to find many a fly covered pile. There is nothing they are eating in the yard, although they will munch the craw-dads in the pond.

Update on my "experiments."

The Plantskydd works! The deer have not even had a tiny nibble since I used this stuff a month ago. Hilariously, I looked out my window very early one morning about 2 weeks ago and saw five deer standing in my yard. My heart sunk, but when I rushed out there, they hadn't touched a single plant. (They did munch the ryegrass that had not been sprayed, but what the heck, deer have to eat, too.)

The smell went away in 2 days, and the "bloody" look in 3 days. Plus, my plants LOVED it. My guess it is the blood meal. I will use this stuff again, with rubber gloves and a scented bandana over my face.

I am saving David's deer repellent recipe, too, for later use, because rotating repellents seems to work best.

The plastic milk jugs I planted in my shade gardens also worked wonderfully, but I am going to replace them with real pottery Ollas for aesthetic reasons. High Country gardens is FINALLY selling pottery ollas this year and I am excited to get some.

Thanks all and happy gardening.
Pam T
wishccr

Well, mine have been yielding about 1/2 a jug of milk per month (just joking!)

I misspoke, I should have said "burying mik jugs" instead of planting them. I put a couple of tiny pinholes in them and buried them near plants that need more water because I was unable to find any ollas.

Pam T
wishccr

I bought this stuff on amazon.com to try to control the bunnnies. They eat my asters, cones, lythrum, rudbeckia ... it' like they're at a buffet. The stuff is horrible to mix and you get it everywhere. I looked like I had been out skinning animals by the time I was done too! So far so good, though. I might try hot pepper wax spray as an alternative though because this stuff is ultra messy.

Well, that begs the question: Wishccr, are you going to use the Plantskydd again this year with "rubber gloves and a scented bandana?"

I've got bunnies . . . just learned that squirrels will sometimes eat birds . . . what is likely to happen with the Thumper and Bambi? Can they be corrupted?

DigitS'

re hot pepper spray, I once thought to do this for the deer, and bought a one lb bag of 40,000,000 BTU powdered cayenne. I made the mistake of opening the bag in the kitchen.

A week later, after we'd stop sneezing and the house was, relatively, aired out, I mixed up some with water for spraying, wearing a dust mask. For the whole summer, every time I opened the sprayer, I'd start to sneeze.

Digit, I am planning to use it again this summer.

Right now the deer have so much to eat I will probably use the more tolerable Deer Off so I can work in my gardens, but when it gets drier and my garden starts looking to the deer like an oasis, I'll pull out the big guns and use Plantskkyd.

As playsindirt notes, it is messy, but it truly works, but you have to be desperate. Wear rubber gloves, old clothes, and a bandana or something over your face.

Added bonus, your plants will love the bone meal. After the red stain goes away in a week, your plants will glow with good health.

Wishccr,

I had the same problem when I first got plantskydd, but I just bought a different spray bottle and that solved all my problems. I did get a good spray bottle, 4.00 i think, instead of the cheap 99 cent ones. It drips a tiny bit now and then, but I solved most of that by opening the bottle when i am done and squeezing some of the air out of the bottle. it reduces the pressure buildup in the bottle that causes most of the dripping.

About the smell, I guess being raised in hog country (western iowa) it just smelled like a farm or hog operation to me! lol

I see that stuff is available in granular form now. I wonder if it will work as well as the spray. Sure would be a lot less messy. Anybody have any experience with it?

Here is a link that might be useful: plantskydd granular

Planting chives around my flowers stopped the bunnies from helping themselves in my last garden!!

glo

You know, after this thread was revived for the 3rd time and since I posted, I've learned something. Or, I think I've learned something.

For some reason, I was reading about a fawn rescue. The neighbor brought venison for the fawn to eat. This made for an immediate improvement in the fawn's health. How 'bout that??!

This sort of thing isn't completely unheard of (in my little pea brain ;o). The Cape Buffalo is a bovine that is known to eat meat on occasion.

Just why is it that the white-tail deer is the most dangerous animal for humans in the North American forest? What are all those attacks really about?

Steve's digitS'

A hippopotamus is supposedly a strict herbivore. When we lived in Western Kenya, we used to drive down to the Masai Mara for weekends, and one time, we were there just at the start of that huge wildebeest migration. As seen on National Geographic specials, they all pile into the Mara River, which is full of big crocodiles that eat them. So we showed up along the river, and there are a about a hundred stuffed-to-the-nine huge crocs on the banks burping away, a whole bunch of drowned wildebeest in the river stinking the place up, and all these hippos gnawing away on the bodies. No body believes me. But it's true!!!

I just saw the gaping hole in the fence where the deer have been jumping in and out. It is soooooo muddy there, the fence is going to stay that way for a while.

Plantskydd is also made in a granular form. Might be easier to deal with. I have not used either but do have the spray on form I plan on using. Not looking forward to using it now!

I've been using Plantskydd in both liquid and granular form for a couple of years now & it works wonders. I mix up the powder and apply it with a pressure sprayer & really don't notice a bad smell. We live in a village overrun with deer and they haven't touched my hosta in two years. (Neighbor's untreated plants have been eaten, though)
I tried the granular version for the first time last year to protect my tulips, which were a regular snack every spring. Last year - nothing was touched, so I'm using it again this spring.

Plantskydd's main ingredient is dry blood. I wonder if using blood meal would be cheaper? In theory it should work the same. Yes? No? Any ideas?

I haven't seen it for years, but one used to be able find 2 - 4 lb sacks of blood meal in nurseries. A quick google shows that its still available.

I'd wonder, though, if it might not attract other critters like raccoons or rats or something.

I wonder if I put it around my bird feeders whether the deer will quit eating my birdseed?

I use plantskydd all the time. I found it works very well at about half the recommended concentration, although for more like 2 months insteasd of 4. It's not nearly as messy and visible and really smells very little once it dries. I iused to use Deer Away, and plantskydd is MUCH more effective

I find plantskydd works better than anything else too and I have tried them ALL. my question is how do all of you keep the nozzle from clogging? Nothing is more annoying than to be spraying away with the $25 bottle (that stuff is not cheap) and it clogs. I've heard many people complain about this but would love to hear any suggestions. I get so frustrated I open the bottle and just spread it around that way but I am wasting a lot of it. I have tried the powder you mix with water and had the same issue.

I’ve just started using Plantskidd this year, and have read that if you rinse the spray nozzle after each use, it wont clog as often- I’ll let you know how it goes.

Also,does anyone lnow how to neutralize the smell of it, because it gets on my hands- I’ve tried scrubbing with coffee grounds, which helps, but the smell stilll lingers.