A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Deer deterrents

I'll be planting my vegetable garden Mother's Day weekend and I've got a question about keeping the deer out. My garden bed has been fenced with plastic "chicken wire" material. I intend to use the same faux chicken wire over the top of the existing fencing. I selected this material because it was light weight, easy to handle and I won't cut myself bloody while trying to get in and out of the garden. Will this stuff be enough of a deterrent or do I need repellant, mousetraps, etc. in addition? Thanks for your help, everyone!

That would depend on how big of an area you had fenced off. If it is large enough for the deer to jump into, he may just do that. They can jump a 8 foot high fence from a stand still, but there has to be landing room.

A couple of suggestions...
1) A commerial spray, Deer Off is one. A little pricey, in fact, quite pricey. It works and usually only takes 1 application. The deer learn quickly. But be careful not to get it on your hands or food you will be eating, as it is difficult to get the taste off.

2) Make your own by using a few eggs, and hot sauce, whip up the whole thing, add enough water to make 1 gallon. Set in a warm spot, in the sun is great for a few days until the eggs rot. Strain it, and use in your 1 gallon sprayer. This year I am added a bit of dishwasher detergent to help with insect pests. You will have to really clean out the sprayer as the egg gets stuck in the sprayer. This works almost as well as the commercial products. Works for rabbits as well, except they are not quite as smart and it has to be reapplied often for them.

3) I am experimenting with a sound deterrent called 'Yard Guard'. It has different settings for various animals. It has worked for the dog and cat urine problems and now I am ready for the skunk and raccoon settings. They have an long corded adaptor and will operate on c batteries. We have one battery operated and one on electric current. I bought our 2 thru Home Depot's internet site & they came to $98. Free shipping with $100, so ordered a small something to get the free shipping.

I've found that Irish spring soap works pretty well ... it has such a strong scent that it keeps most Deer at bay. Just hang a few bars from nearby trees, and possibly put a few just outside your faux-chicken-wired area.

2 raw eggs
1 cup skim milk
1 cup water
3 garlic cloves
1 tbsp. dish soap

mix in a sprayer and use every 2 weeks

If none of those work you could always try lead poisoning induced by a high speed, light weight projectile which is explosivly released from a tubular piece of steel aimed in the critter's direction.

venison mmmm mmmm good!


*sorry I could not resist*