Frogleg wrote in
:


The clue for folk remedies is any discussion whatsoever. IF soap (of
any brand), or human hair or urine or chile solution actually worked,
there would be no discussion. It would be in all the FAQs. It would be
standard advice in gardening mags and newspaper columns.

what you just said is: because discussion, therefore folk remedy,
therefore ineffective, which just isn't a logical conclusion.

Folk remedies can be effective - if only from the time they are conceived
to the time they transition to 'scientific' or 'generally accepted'
remedy. Obviously you've got a whole other class of 'science' remedies
that are necessarily broader in scope or more easily applied to order to
take advantage of economy of scale in a capitialist society. That does
not make them more effective or more applicable than folk remedies, just
cheaper in terms of money or competence. You can certainly claim
something 'works' because there is an observable result, and that
something else 'does not work' because it works specificly and you have
the wrong specifics.

For the soap remedy to work, it needs to induce a psychosomatic response
in the deer. This response can be conditioned or innate. Since probably
there is nothing intrinsically, unavoidably or lethally toxic to deer in
the soap, you'll have to do with some conditioned response, and as noted,
many deer no longer avoid unnatural/artificial smells. Also, most deer
to not like to lay down and die, so if they are hungry and there are no
alternative foods, then you are SOL. This also applies if what you are
growing has any psychotropic compounds enjoyable to deer.

If using the soap solely as a passive deterrent, given the current
population ratio of deer to deer predators in the US, the efficiacy will
probably be on the order of 'does not work' since deer are likely learn
that soap really isn't a concern (at least not comparable to starvation).
But that doesn't mean soap is not going to work for somebody that lives
near a relatively balanced ecosystem or near a kid* who carves slingshot
pellets from soap pieces.

* This message has not been approved by PETA