A sure fire method is to place a few concrete building blocks around your
garden. From time to time, go out & pee on the blocks. The concrete will
hold the smell for a long time. This will scare off the deer. Coyote or dog
pee works better, but I don't know how you could collect it!



Re the coyote pee - I know how you collect it 'cos I already tried that
- you go to Home Depot :-) It doesn't seem to work all that well
despite the grandiose claims on the packaging.

Jon

Here are some legitimate ideas:

* Do some research to find out what plants the deer do NOT like to eat
(I'm sure there are hundreds). Use that in your landscaping.

* Do some research to find out what plants the deer like even better
than what you've planted in your yard. Put some of those plants (maybe
from seed) a little further into the woods. With access to these
plants within the protection of the trees, the deer should prefer that
to your ornamental plants.

* Experiment with some different oils or kitchen spices that you can
spray on the plants that don't hurt the plants but that the deer don't
like. I'm thinking maybe red pepper or paprika (ants hate paprika).
This may be a pain for a couple of weeks, but eventually the deer may
stop trying.

* There are several online retailers that sell a water-sprayer hooked
up to a motion-detector for the purpose of scaring off deer whenever
they come near. This is very effective. They also have other
automated, motion-detector, deer deterents, but I can't remember what
they are.
http://www.smarthome.com/6120.html
http://www.smarthome.com/6143.html
http://www.biconet.com/critter/sprinkler.html
http://www.awesometools.com/scarecrow.htm

* Hook up lights to a motion-detector. Experiment with different
lights. If a floodlight doesn't work, try Christmas lights right on
the plants (only lights up with motion detector at night) - that will
probably freak 'em out enough to go away.

* Hook up audio speakers to a motion-detector. There are probably
several sounds that will scare away deer whenever they come near but
that are soft enough not to wake up the neighbors. Maybe the growling
of a wolf?

* Build decorative barriers between your house and the woods. I've
seen explicit instructions online of how to build two fences
(non-electrified) each at specific heights and distances that prevents
the deer from jumping over.

* Take up wildlife photography as a hobby.

As for hunting - putting aside the ethics of hunting for a moment, it
is not a real solution. Killing or maiming every deer you can get in
your sights won't keep another deer from coming in tomorrow night. So
unless you want to be camping out every other night and risking your
neighbors property and lives constantly, it really won't be effective.

Mike

Here are some legitimate ideas:

* Do some research to find out what plants the deer do NOT like to eat
(I'm sure there are hundreds). Use that in your landscaping.

* Do some research to find out what plants the deer like even better
than what you've planted in your yard. Put some of those plants (maybe
from seed) a little further into the woods. With access to these
plants within the protection of the trees, the deer should prefer that
to your ornamental plants.

* Experiment with some different oils or kitchen spices that you can
spray on the plants that don't hurt the plants but that the deer don't
like. I'm thinking maybe red pepper or paprika (ants hate paprika).
This may be a pain for a couple of weeks, but eventually the deer may
stop trying.

* There are several online retailers that sell a water-sprayer hooked
up to a motion-detector for the purpose of scaring off deer whenever
they come near. This is very effective. They also have other
automated, motion-detector, deer deterents, but I can't remember what
they are.
http://www.smarthome.com/6120.html
http://www.smarthome.com/6143.html
http://www.biconet.com/critter/sprinkler.html
http://www.awesometools.com/scarecrow.htm

* Hook up lights to a motion-detector. Experiment with different
lights. If a floodlight doesn't work, try Christmas lights right on
the plants (only lights up with motion detector at night) - that will
probably freak 'em out enough to go away.

* Hook up audio speakers to a motion-detector. There are probably
several sounds that will scare away deer whenever they come near but
that are soft enough not to wake up the neighbors. Maybe the growling
of a wolf?

* Build decorative barriers between your house and the woods. I've
seen explicit instructions online of how to build two fences
(non-electrified) each at specific heights and distances that prevents
the deer from jumping over.

* Take up wildlife photography as a hobby.

As for hunting - putting aside the ethics of hunting for a moment, it
is not a real solution. Killing or maiming every deer you can get in
your sights won't keep another deer from coming in tomorrow night. So
unless you want to be camping out every other night and risking your
neighbors property and lives constantly, it really won't be effective.

Mike

Here are some legitimate ideas:

* Do some research to find out what plants the deer do NOT like to eat
(I'm sure there are hundreds). Use that in your landscaping.

* Do some research to find out what plants the deer like even better
than what you've planted in your yard. Put some of those plants (maybe
from seed) a little further into the woods. With access to these
plants within the protection of the trees, the deer should prefer that
to your ornamental plants.

* Experiment with some different oils or kitchen spices that you can
spray on the plants that don't hurt the plants but that the deer don't
like. I'm thinking maybe red pepper or paprika (ants hate paprika).
This may be a pain for a couple of weeks, but eventually the deer may
stop trying.

* There are several online retailers that sell a water-sprayer hooked
up to a motion-detector for the purpose of scaring off deer whenever
they come near. This is very effective. They also have other
automated, motion-detector, deer deterents, but I can't remember what
they are.
http://www.smarthome.com/6120.html
http://www.smarthome.com/6143.html
http://www.biconet.com/critter/sprinkler.html
http://www.awesometools.com/scarecrow.htm

* Hook up lights to a motion-detector. Experiment with different
lights. If a floodlight doesn't work, try Christmas lights right on
the plants (only lights up with motion detector at night) - that will
probably freak 'em out enough to go away.

* Hook up audio speakers to a motion-detector. There are probably
several sounds that will scare away deer whenever they come near but
that are soft enough not to wake up the neighbors. Maybe the growling
of a wolf?

* Build decorative barriers between your house and the woods. I've
seen explicit instructions online of how to build two fences
(non-electrified) each at specific heights and distances that prevents
the deer from jumping over.

* Take up wildlife photography as a hobby.

As for hunting - putting aside the ethics of hunting for a moment, it
is not a real solution. Killing or maiming every deer you can get in
your sights won't keep another deer from coming in tomorrow night. So
unless you want to be camping out every other night and risking your
neighbors property and lives constantly, it really won't be effective.

Mike

Jon,

I feel your pain. I am less than 10 miles from downtown Atlanta, and we
have a large deer population in our area, too. I have tried all of the
suggested voodoo magic over time with limited results until I installed a
very low voltage electric fence. It's not unsightly, either....blends in
rather well with the landscape. The charge can be supplied by either
standard current from your house, or via a solar unit. It's not the most
inexpensive method to control deer's natural eating patterns, but it has
suited me best over all other methods tried.

Good luck,

Sean

FWIW, Mike has a good post on alternate methods. Unfortunately, I didn't
have succes with any of them....the deer became accustomed to the motion
detect flood lights and the motion detect water spray.


"Jon Maurer" wrote in message
.. .
The ultimate answer is to learn to live with it. My guess is you
moved out of the city and into the country. Essentially you did this
to yourself. The deer is only trying to survive on it's land. Quit
chewing up mother nature's land and move back to the city. You could
of course round up some coyotes and stick them in front of your house
or bow hunt the deer. As a conservationist and hunter, seeing people
move into the country and then try to eradicate the wildlife hacks me
off.


I'll ignore the implied insult that being a city-dweller makes a person
somehow inferior to their rural cousins. As it happens, I have not
lived in a city as such since around 1966, and have not even lived in
the suburbs of a city for the last 16 years.

My ex in-laws who live in a large town (city) in mid-state NY and far
from what I would call a rural setting, are completely overrun by deer
and don't even bother to plant much in the way of plants anymore. The
deer there are so fearless that you can usually get within 10-15 feet of
them before they bother to get up from a resting position among the
trees in the back garden. Sadly, this has led to my ex father-in-law
getting lyme disease and being very sick, but that's a completely
different issue.

I am no stranger to wildlife on my property, which is in a semi-rural
town whose primary zoning for all non-commercial property is
residential/agricultural. In addition to all manner of small critters, I
have seen moose on my property, my neighbor has seen bears from time to
time, and we sometimes hear coyotes in the woods at night. There have
always been deer around too, of course. However, it's only recently that
the deer that obviously use the woods around here to live and travel
have started damaging my garden, perhaps because of new development in
the area eliminating some of their habitat.

I am not asking to eradicate any wildlife, I'm just asking about how to
maintain a reasonable balance in terms of sharing our beautiful country
in peaceful existence.

Anyway, now back to our regularly-scheduled programming already in
progress.

Jon

Xref: 127.0.0.1 alt.home.lawn.garden:5386


The ultimate answer is to learn to live with it. My guess is you
moved out of the city and into the country. Essentially you did this
to yourself. The deer is only trying to survive on it's land. Quit
chewing up mother nature's land and move back to the city. You could
of course round up some coyotes and stick them in front of your house
or bow hunt the deer. As a conservationist and hunter, seeing people
move into the country and then try to eradicate the wildlife hacks me
off.

yep, its the morons like heydan that give the human race a bad name. I bet he never had any parents
that were around to show him anything but hatred, abuse, ridicule. Growing up in a trailer park
will do that .

You might try a product called milorganite - we sprinkle around the hostas
and the deer don't touch them. If we forget they are picked clean.
Regards.... Steve

http://www.milorganite.org/uses/use_res.asp

Ah, a personal attack. The last resort of one with no rational argument.

Alright, first, you assume that I'm illiterate, which is clearly wrong.
Then, you assume that since I hunt that I'm a redneck, and therefore had an
abusive childhood. Do you make similar assumptions about blacks, Jews,
Cajuns, etc? Well, I'm not a redneck. My family belongs to a different
culture. And while I didn't grow up in a trailer park, my family was
impoverished financially (and I know some perfectly upstanding citizens
living in trailer parks - you should apologize to them). My parents were
caring, loving individuals. In fact, last week my mother lost her battle
with cancer, during which she showed more faith, courage, and grace than
anyone would under similar circumstances. Finally, while I have enjoyed our
battle of wits, you are obviously out of ammunition, and I have more
important things to do.




"Gilian" wrote in message
...

The ultimate answer is to learn to live with it. My guess is you
moved out of the city and into the country. Essentially you did this
to yourself. The deer is only trying to survive on it's land. Quit
chewing up mother nature's land and move back to the city. You could
of course round up some coyotes and stick them in front of your house
or bow hunt the deer. As a conservationist and hunter, seeing people
move into the country and then try to eradicate the wildlife hacks me
off.

yep, its the morons like heydan that give the human race a bad name. I bet
he never had any parents
that were around to show him anything but hatred, abuse, ridicule. Growing
up in a trailer park
will do that .

If a garden, suggest double-fencing. Place a second 3' to 4' fence
3-4 feet away and around your main 6' garden fence. Deer do not like to be
enclosed between two fences. An alternate method is to lay fencing
horizontally on the ground 4' away from the main fence .. . deer don't like
to tread on fencing. Population pressures, cleaner environments and diffuse
hunting probably account for the deer population increase. When I was in
New Jersey people had to guard against wild turkey attacks as well .. .

Bill


"Mike" wrote in message
m...
Here are some legitimate ideas:

* Do some research to find out what plants the deer do NOT like to eat
(I'm sure there are hundreds). Use that in your landscaping.

* Do some research to find out what plants the deer like even better
than what you've planted in your yard. Put some of those plants (maybe
from seed) a little further into the woods. With access to these
plants within the protection of the trees, the deer should prefer that
to your ornamental plants.

* Experiment with some different oils or kitchen spices that you can
spray on the plants that don't hurt the plants but that the deer don't
like. I'm thinking maybe red pepper or paprika (ants hate paprika).
This may be a pain for a couple of weeks, but eventually the deer may
stop trying.

* There are several online retailers that sell a water-sprayer hooked
up to a motion-detector for the purpose of scaring off deer whenever
they come near. This is very effective. They also have other
automated, motion-detector, deer deterents, but I can't remember what
they are.
http://www.smarthome.com/6120.html
http://www.smarthome.com/6143.html
http://www.biconet.com/critter/sprinkler.html
http://www.awesometools.com/scarecrow.htm

* Hook up lights to a motion-detector. Experiment with different
lights. If a floodlight doesn't work, try Christmas lights right on
the plants (only lights up with motion detector at night) - that will
probably freak 'em out enough to go away.

* Hook up audio speakers to a motion-detector. There are probably
several sounds that will scare away deer whenever they come near but
that are soft enough not to wake up the neighbors. Maybe the growling
of a wolf?

* Build decorative barriers between your house and the woods. I've
seen explicit instructions online of how to build two fences
(non-electrified) each at specific heights and distances that prevents
the deer from jumping over.

* Take up wildlife photography as a hobby.

As for hunting - putting aside the ethics of hunting for a moment, it
is not a real solution. Killing or maiming every deer you can get in
your sights won't keep another deer from coming in tomorrow night. So
unless you want to be camping out every other night and risking your
neighbors property and lives constantly, it really won't be effective.

Mike

Do you actually know that a sprinkler will deter deer. I keep thinking of
deer on a rainy day, do they stop eating? Now if you could sprinkle dog
pee, or lion urine...that might work!

John


wrote in message
...
Jon Maurer wrote:
OK, so here I was, hoping against hope that somebody might have the
definitive answer to how to keep the deer off my plants, and I get a
firestorm of insults and counter insults about hunting.

There is no real definitve answer, but here's my stab at the subject.

Human hair (go to a beauty/barber shop)has shown to be a somewhat
effective odor deterrent, as well as moth balls, and cigarette butts.

There's also a motion detecting sprinkler available that will turn
itself on if the deer move around it.

--
GO# 40

Dave,

Did the deer actually never try to get through the fishing line fence?
It's an interesting idea, the line being invisible must spook them if it
works.

John


"Dave in The Ozarks" wrote in message
...
Here's a fix I haven't seen on the net.

Weve been here in SW Missouri for 3 years. For the past two years,
deer have devastated our plants.

This year we set up fences made of 10# to 20# test fishing line. We
used 5 ' pieces of conduit for fence posts and used 4 strands of
fishing line. In some areas where the deer were poking their heads
through, we put diagonal strands of line. You can not see the fishing
line from several feet away.

Believe it or not, the fishing line has been about 90% effective.
We've lost a few day lilies where the deer have poked their heads
through, but that's about it.






On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 16:10:23 -0400, Jon Maurer
wrote:

Once again this year, one (possible more than one) deer that has made
it's home in our neighborhood had discovered my lillies and other
flowering plants/shrubs and had had a nice meal off the buds and
flowers.

Last year it ate every one of my lilly buds before they flowered; at
least this year most of them had flowered and we'd had weeks of pleasure
from the blooms before they became supper for the deer, but it has also
now eaten all the buds off multiple asters too so I may not see any
color from them this year now.

So, apart from erecting a 6' high electric fence around my entire
property, what is the "never fails" answer to keeping deer away from a
flower-bed but that still allows you to enjoy the pleasure of looking at
the bed directly (I.e. not through chicken-wire, etc,)?

Thanks,

Jon

Jon,

Thanks for bringing this up, you've attracted a few ideas worth trying. And
also a few self righteous city folk. Personally I believe humans have just
as much right to live in the woods as the deer.

What I've done is use plastic deer fence around my large yard...the deer
pretty much wiped out all my gardens and young fruit trees when they
discovered my area 4 years ago. The plastic deer fence is black and really
seems to blend into the background. I found it on the internet a few years
ago. You have to keep it intact as the deer are good at slipping through
any openings, and if they are trapped inside the yard and get spooked they
can break it when they try to jump over and snag the top. (My fence is only
6 feet high and the company recommended 8 feet high as the deer won't know
what to do when it is that high...my mistake, the deer around here have
springs for legs). I also have used it around smaller spaces such as
gardens.

I'm not sure that anything else will work all the time, deer are really
persistent and they never forget a tasty bud. There is a shed outside and
next to my fence and I once found a deer on top of the shed getting ready to
jump into the yard.

The idea of a horizontal fence sounds like it's worth trying...make it wide
enough so they can't jump over it and raise it off the ground a foot so they
can't walk over it. And maybe a sprinkler that sprayed really hot water.
Double fences would also be really hard to jump over and probably wouldn't
have to be are high as single ones.

The deer seem to ignore that dogs in my neighborhood but how about an
austrailian sheep dog that's trained to chase the deer and nip at their
legs. How about five australian sheep dogs?

Good luck, you are in a war.

John


"Jon Maurer" wrote in message
.. .
Once again this year, one (possible more than one) deer that has made
it's home in our neighborhood had discovered my lillies and other
flowering plants/shrubs and had had a nice meal off the buds and
flowers.

Last year it ate every one of my lilly buds before they flowered; at
least this year most of them had flowered and we'd had weeks of pleasure
from the blooms before they became supper for the deer, but it has also
now eaten all the buds off multiple asters too so I may not see any
color from them this year now.

So, apart from erecting a 6' high electric fence around my entire
property, what is the "never fails" answer to keeping deer away from a
flower-bed but that still allows you to enjoy the pleasure of looking at
the bed directly (I.e. not through chicken-wire, etc,)?

Thanks,

Jon

"jbclem" wrote:
Do you actually know that a sprinkler will deter deer. I keep thinking
of deer on a rainy day, do they stop eating?

If I spray you with a garden hose, will you stop eating?

--
GO# 40

Jon,

I just thought of another variation. How about eye level horizontally
spraying hot water hooked to a motion detector. The kind of spray nozzles
you'd see in a grocery store over the vegetable areas, or in drip irrigation
setups or higher pressure nozzles used in greenhouses. Deer probably
ignore water that comes from above(could be rain they're thinking!) but if a
nozzle goes off right in their face as they lean over to yours flower beds.
Maybe a row of nozzles at flower level pointing up so they get a mouth of
hot water when they are a foot from that tasty bud.

You could experiment mixing cayenne pepper in the water, or vinegar, etc...

John


"Jon Maurer" wrote in message
.. .
Once again this year, one (possible more than one) deer that has made
it's home in our neighborhood had discovered my lillies and other
flowering plants/shrubs and had had a nice meal off the buds and
flowers.

Last year it ate every one of my lilly buds before they flowered; at
least this year most of them had flowered and we'd had weeks of pleasure
from the blooms before they became supper for the deer, but it has also
now eaten all the buds off multiple asters too so I may not see any
color from them this year now.

So, apart from erecting a 6' high electric fence around my entire
property, what is the "never fails" answer to keeping deer away from a
flower-bed but that still allows you to enjoy the pleasure of looking at
the bed directly (I.e. not through chicken-wire, etc,)?

Thanks,

Jon

That's right, John. They don't seem to try to walk through.
I didn't believe that it would work, but it does.

Dave


On Sun, 03 Aug 2003 08:02:55 GMT, "jbclem"
wrote:


Dave,

Did the deer actually never try to get through the fishing line fence?
It's an interesting idea, the line being invisible must spook them if it
works.

John


"Dave in The Ozarks" wrote in message
.. .
Here's a fix I haven't seen on the net.

Weve been here in SW Missouri for 3 years. For the past two years,
deer have devastated our plants.

This year we set up fences made of 10# to 20# test fishing line. We
used 5 ' pieces of conduit for fence posts and used 4 strands of
fishing line. In some areas where the deer were poking their heads
through, we put diagonal strands of line. You can not see the fishing
line from several feet away.

Believe it or not, the fishing line has been about 90% effective.
We've lost a few day lilies where the deer have poked their heads
through, but that's about it.






On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 16:10:23 -0400, Jon Maurer
wrote:

Once again this year, one (possible more than one) deer that has made
it's home in our neighborhood had discovered my lillies and other
flowering plants/shrubs and had had a nice meal off the buds and
flowers.

Last year it ate every one of my lilly buds before they flowered; at
least this year most of them had flowered and we'd had weeks of pleasure
from the blooms before they became supper for the deer, but it has also
now eaten all the buds off multiple asters too so I may not see any
color from them this year now.

So, apart from erecting a 6' high electric fence around my entire
property, what is the "never fails" answer to keeping deer away from a
flower-bed but that still allows you to enjoy the pleasure of looking at
the bed directly (I.e. not through chicken-wire, etc,)?

Thanks,

Jon