# Ideas On Keeping The Deer Out of The Garden????



## Live Oak (Dec 22, 2003)

The deer are decimating the garden. They have eaten everyone of my wife's sunflowers and are now starting on the squash and cucumber plants. I hate to kill them but if this does not stop or another idea comes to mind. I will be applying the OO buck copper plate buffered 3" magnum 12 guage to the garden. I have tried everything folks locally have suggested in the past but they keep right on coming back. I'd appreciate any idea's short of shooting the deer to keep them away if it will work. I would rather not shoot them during their birthing season while they are raising their young.


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## Argee (Sep 17, 2003)

Put an electric fence around it. Attach tin foil strips with peanut butter on every few feet...they find PB irresistible...the rest is instilling in their psyche about your garden area being an uncomfortable experience for them.


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## memmurphy (Sep 18, 2003)

So far my electric wire seems to be working. I have not seen the deer for a couple of weeks now anyway. Maybe they changed their route (I hope). 

Argee, I like the PB idea. That could also work for the neighbor kids. Naw, I'm not that mean. I have signs on the wire to alert them.

Mark


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## parts man (Sep 24, 2003)

:ditto: I'd never heard the PB plan before,,, great idea!!


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## psrumors (Apr 25, 2004)

You are right argee, the PB plan works wonders with the deere, dogs also.

I put in a 6 wire high tensile electric fence. I put a couple of salt and apple mineral blocks on the out side of the fence. They haven't come in. I didn't use the PB but I know it works from past experiences. We are trying to bring the deere to the yard just not through the Garden.

But remember most deere have a 6' vertical leap. They can come over most fences, if they want.

Good luck.


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## Argee (Sep 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by psrumors _
> *But remember most deere have a 6' vertical leap. They can come over most fences, if they want.
> 
> Good luck. *


Your right about that! But, the whole intent of the electric wire is mental conditioning....once they get zapped, they will avoid the fence and its immediate surrounds.


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## Argee (Sep 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by memmurphy _
> *Argee, I like the PB idea. That could also work for the neighbor kids. Naw, I'm not that mean. I have signs on the wire to alert them.
> 
> Mark *


What works for kids is to talk them into peeing on the fence...they'll only do it once...don't ask me how I know this:lmao:


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## Stewart (Sep 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Argee _
> *What works for kids is to talk them into peeing on the fence...they'll only do it once...don't ask me how I know this:lmao: *


Sounds like it is spoken from previous experience!!!!!


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## Stewart (Sep 17, 2003)

They have a motion activated sprinkler, it would water the garden and spook the deer as well????? Just an idea and might not be as expensive as the electric fence.:smoking: 
:cheers:


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## psrumors (Apr 25, 2004)

Hey Stewart, is the peeing thing really true?

I always thought that to be a myth. I remember as a child peeing around them but I don't rightfully remember if anyone of us boys actually hit the fence.


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## luckycharms (Dec 4, 2003)

Did you not see the Mythbusters episode with the re-enactment of the peeing on the subway hot line?


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## Stewart (Sep 17, 2003)

I have never done it, but have heard the stories, I was raised on an acre in town and never had a fence like that. I am also told that boys and men have terrible aim. Maybe Argee will tell us his story????


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## bontai Joe (Sep 16, 2003)

Near where I work, a fella got really P.O. at the deer eating his landscaping, that he put up a 10 foot high multi wire electric fence that makes the outside of his property look like a POW camp. I gotta admit though the landscaping inside the fence is beautiful.


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## Chris (Sep 15, 2003)

I must say that is a little extremist, Joe --- but whatever works, right? 

I would hate to have to go to that lengths to protect my property.
Did he place any claymores?

unchin: Me and the deer would have to tango.


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## Live Oak (Dec 22, 2003)

Venison steaks anyone:question: :question: :question: I left the dog out last night but the wife has spoiled him to the point that he is a big pussy cat.  I'll wait and see how the dog thing works out. I can't use the 7mm Remington Magnum because I am too close to the road and houses. Buck shot will work but it makes such a mess.


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## Argee (Sep 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Chief _
> * I can't use the 7mm Remington Magnum because I am too close to the road and houses. Buck shot will work but it makes such a mess. *


Think .22 magnum HP in the eye....quick, lethal, quiet


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## Argee (Sep 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Stewart _
> * Maybe Argee will tell us his story???? *


In my adolescent (stupid) years I acted upon a dare....it was a shocking experience but it taught me a great lesson...think before you act.


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## Stewart (Sep 17, 2003)

Lesson learned!:dazed:


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## freebird (Sep 16, 2003)

I have also heard that eggs work real well for the forestry service in protecting young saplings. Beat them up well and spray with a pump sprayer.


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## jodyand (Sep 16, 2003)

Go to the barber and get all the hair you can get and spread it around. I saw that on a movie the deer was eating the grass seed for on a baseball field and they used hair to keep them off until the grass had grown. The movie was a true story about a High school baseball coach that ended up playing a few games in the majors as a pitcher.


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## John-in-Ga (Sep 22, 2003)

Chief,

A few years ago, just after retiring and starting a garden, I was at a tractor show and got to talking with an interesting old gentleman. Learn he had been involved with the University of Georgia’s agricultural research program and at one time specialized in sweet potatoes. (Now, I don’t know if you’ve tried sweet potatoes yet, but deer will follow you home if you have sweet potatoes draws in the truck of your car. If you have them on the back of your pickup truck you will bring home a load of deer and no potato draws.) I asked the old gent how they kept the deer out of their potato patches. He and I spent the rest of the afternoon discussing the problem. Most of the time I was listening to him, as I’m a fellow who seldom has much to say. His bottom line was nothing worked all the time.

In my experience hair, Irish Spring soap, dogs, urinating (neither me nor my wife), witch craft, cussing, nor shooting (yourself or deer) will not have much influence on the deer visiting you garden. 

Deer have a very highly developed sense of sight, hearing and smell, so try to use this to your advantage as you struggle with them. Remember even though they have you beat in the sight, sound, and hearing departments you are suppose to be smarter than they are. They are going to prove this wrong, but keep telling yourself you are the smart one. (Try to stay as sane as possible.)

It is mostly at night that the deer visit my garden. I visit a good bit during the day so I guess that sort of keeps them away in the day time. I did, however, meet one on a pea row one morning in broad daylight. I was picking. He was eating. I politely asked him to remove himself from my pea patch. He did, though reluctantly.

I’m getting fair results using an electric fence just regular fence height and peanut butter. My variation is to cut open aluminum cans (my neighbors are kind enough to deposit plenty of them in my front yard, out beside the road). I make flat sheets then make a small fold which I can then hang on the fence and secure with just a regular office type staple gun. You need to reapply the peanut butter from time to time. If you have some that has become too rank for human consumption use it. You want the deer to walk right up and smell. Maybe even taste. I think (remember what I said about staying sane) that using the aluminum cans not only makes for a good electrical connection but also with the shiny side out plays on the sight thing and perhaps with the sound thing as little wind will make a slight rattling sound as the aluminum vibrates on the wire.

When the deer start coming over the fence anyway, I stretch a nylon string across my garden up about head high and hang those free CD computer disk about ever 6 to 8 feet. (AOL’s works really good) 

After they get used to that I put up a scare crow. Actually it isn’t an elaborate scare crow like you normally think of, just a white plastic bag I get fertilizer in, hung on a clothes hanger. I sort of hide the “scare crow” down at one end of the garden in some trees. I hang “him” from a tree branch with a wire so “he” will swing in the breeze.

After the deer get used to that, I place a small cheap (real cheap) battery powered radio somewhere in the garden easy for me to get to (so I can turn it off in the morning and on just before dark. Reset the station to a talk station if the deer have changed it to a music station during the previous night). I set the radio on a concrete block and place a 5 gal. bucket over it and another bock on top of that. The bucket is to water proof the radio incase of rain. The block on top is to keep the wind from blowing the bucket off.

So now, there you have the things I’ve tried. See, I told you I was a fellow who seldom has much to say. Yea right. Bet, this has run long enough and been sprinkled with my feeble attempts at humor to the extent, you now wish you had never ask “What to do about deer in your garden” on a forum that, that John-in- GA can access.

In closing, let me say - deer actually getting on the back of a moving pickup truck after potato draws - might be stretching truth a little. I don’t have proof of that ever actually happening. The radio changing from a talk station to a music station during the night - could be, due to cheap radio, and a change in radio frequency band conditions or temperature, that the radio drifted off station. The deer changing stations isn’t the only explanation. I did, however, meet the deer head on while picking peas.

As for as me staying sane, my wife says I was loosing my grip before I started battling the deer.

Good luck gardening with the deer.

:cpu:


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## parts man (Sep 24, 2003)

Great post John!! Enjoyable read, And chock full of good ideas. Thanks!!:friends:


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## memmurphy (Sep 18, 2003)

:ditto: Thanks John-in-Ga for sharing the information. 

There was a Naturalist / Organic type gardener on TV. They asked him since he did not use any chemicals how he kept the animals and bugs out of the garden. His response was to plant enough for both them and you and allow the weeds and grass to grow. That way there was more than just vegetables to fill their stomach.

Since that approach goes against the grain of how my parents and grandparents taught me and I only have roughly 20'X20' plot, that approach did not seem viable for me. :lmao: 

Mark


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## waynl (Jun 2, 2004)

Yes, thank you John-in-Ga. It's plain to see that you speak from (unfortunate) experience. Lots of good info there.

One observace of mine, deer don't like to jump over a fence if they cannot see where they are going to land clearly. I protct my sweet corn with an electric fence that is only arm's length away from the corn. No deer has ever jumped that fence, yet the guy next door has a fence around a much larger area and he gets visitors all the time. Perhaps his is the planting for the deer. 

waynl


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## John-in-Ga (Sep 22, 2003)

> One observace of mine, deer don't like to jump over a fence if they cannot see where they are going to land clearly.


OH, yes, waynl, I've heard that one before. I have corn planted on one side of one of my garden patches this year. I want to see if that theory is really true and the if deer in this area knows about it. What worries me is, deer aren't above crawling under!!!. 

And, memmurphy, I don't know about you but there aren't any of those Naturalist / Organic TV gardeners doing it in my neighborhood so I don't put too much stock in what they say. I use bug and weed killer when I think either will help. 'course I've never been ask to be on TV. Guess it is obvious I'm just a ignorant old goat:serta: 

This aint got nothing to do with either of these post but want to say Andy has really got that SpelChek fired up and working. Its Johnny Quick. He just needs to set it so it reads my mind and correctly spells the word I'm thinking of so I won't have to keep giving it hints.

:cpu:


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## Chris (Sep 15, 2003)

Well, mental control and vocabulary insertion technique mod is definately in the works, John. 

Glad you like the "SpelChek" (ironic about the spelling isn't it?)
HAHAHA

So let me get this straight, I buy you lunch and then you give me $20? How about I come down and visit and bring a Tractorforum.com t-shirt and I get YUMMY produce and then you buy me lunch and I go home.   

Seriously though John, simply one of the finest "gardens" outside of ANY produce farm, I have ever seen. You have an amazing knack for growing vegetables (your wife included) --- :thumbsup:

Andy


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## Stewart (Sep 17, 2003)

John that has to be one of the best posts in a while. I am thinking about putting a garden just to see if your theories are correct!!! NOT! 
:smoking: 

We are going to try raised beds next spring and hope to only have to battle rabbits and bugs, we shall see. Thanks for the info and insite!!!:nerd:


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## John-in-Ga (Sep 22, 2003)

Andy,



> You have an amazing knack for growing vegetables (your wife included)


You calling my wife a vegetable? I can tell you've never seen a real battle ax in action, else you wouldn't make those kinds of slips-of-the-tongue. I've got her calmed down now, I think, but after she read that I thought there for a while I was going to have to visit you. :dazed:

Now, I'll put all jokes aside and say: Come on down we'll pick you any of the vegetables you want (long as they last), we'll go out for lunch, I'll pay, and wear the T-shirt. Even while we are in public. 

As for as the twenty dollars, I'll work on getting the battle ax's credit card long enough to make my long overdue donation electronically. Will consider it money well spent. I'm having a ball on this site.

Many on this site has has some awful kind remarks for me as of late. Several have "made my day" many times over. I hope my efforts in the past as well as in the future were and will be accepted as entertaining and maybe just a little helpful.

:cpu:


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## DeereBob (Sep 16, 2003)

Chief,
John-in-GA missed the boat on a deer repelling solution. Just make sure stuff in your neighbors' yards taste better than what is planted in yours. He planted too much stuff that tastes good which is why he has to go to such extreme measures to keep the deer out! Putting signs listing the nutritional value of various items in your neighbor's yards helps also for those deer on Atkins!


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## Live Oak (Dec 22, 2003)

Well, I would feel terrible shooting "Mama Deer" now that she has a little fawn in tow. We will just have to share I suppose. The wife did not like the idea of shooting them either. Besides, the weeds are camaflaging the good stuff now.


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