Got Deer???

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MissS
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Got Deer???

#1

Post: # 53944Unread post MissS
Thu Sep 16, 2021 6:04 pm

Deer are a huge problem for some of us and when they come through they can do immense damage.

How bad is your problem and what do you do to help you to cope to live with them or deter them?
~ Patti ~

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worth1
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Re: Got Deer???

#2

Post: # 53947Unread post worth1
Thu Sep 16, 2021 6:28 pm

Bad enough I gave up on a nice garden I used to have.
I'll be so glad when that deer feeder next door goes away.
Worth
25 miles southeast of Waterloo Texas.

You can't argue with a closed mind.
You might as well be arguing with a cat.

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Cole_Robbie
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Re: Got Deer???

#3

Post: # 53950Unread post Cole_Robbie
Thu Sep 16, 2021 6:58 pm

About 60 years ago, my grandfather took my mother as a small child to a state park where they had deer in a pen. They were breeding them to reintroduce into the wild. About 30 years later, I was a teenager working in my grandparent's gardens. There were deer around, but they had not grown to be a nuisance. We never had a fence around a garden or deer damage. Now, 30 years after that, it is impossible to have any garden without a fence. The deer have far surpassed the humans in number. Just last year they started to learn to jump over the electric fence. It takes a fence similar to a 6 ft chain link to really keep them out. It's not that they can't jump it, but they won't unless they are running scared.

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ddsack
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Re: Got Deer???

#4

Post: # 53954Unread post ddsack
Thu Sep 16, 2021 7:51 pm

I can't grow anything unless it either has high deer netting or an electric fence around it. I've been trying to grow an ornamental flower border along our deck, trying to find flowers that deer don't enjoy eating. Last year they nipped some of the zinnias, but mostly left them alone and I had plenty of flowers. This year they continued to come at night and stripped off all the branches and leaves, so no zinnia flowers, and no flowers on the marigolds either, which supposedly they don't like. The only flowers they don't touch here are snapdragons. They are bold enough to come up onto the cement pad under the 2nd story deck, so I can't even have tuberous begonia pots there. Next year, I'll have to figure out a way to put removable deer netting on shepherd's hooks to fence off the border, and attach the netting to the walls of the house and garage at night to prevent them coming onto the pad. Or give up on flowers.

rxkeith
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Re: Got Deer???

#5

Post: # 53955Unread post rxkeith
Thu Sep 16, 2021 7:59 pm

we have deer all over the place.
one doe with twins is somewhere near our drive way each day. other deer going to and fro across the back
field, and snagging apples near the barn. my wife says a couple have been eyeing a garden patch. deer have
clipped leaves off cucumbers, and squash vines that have grown through the fence. only way for us to have a
garden is to fence them out. we have an eight foot fence around all the gardens. a neighbor uses a three strand
electric fence. they have sheep, and alpacas to keep enclosed. it is a chore, and an expense to put up, but its either
that or kill all the deer.


keith

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brownrexx
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Location: Southeast PA, zone 6b

Re: Got Deer???

#6

Post: # 53959Unread post brownrexx
Thu Sep 16, 2021 8:31 pm

@ddsack we have a cabin in the woods in western PA and there are lots of deer there. I grew a few flowers which they ate immediately like hosta, day lilies and coneflowers but they absolutely won't touch my beebalm and it has grown and flowered happily all summer.

Deer also do not touch my garlic that I grow there.

I don't know if it helped but the year that the deer ate my sweet potato leaves at home, I clipped some foul smelling lavender dryer sheets to the posts in the garden and I had no more damage. I don't know if the dryer sheets helped or if the deer just went elsewhere but I would avoid those sheets if I were a deer because they really stank. They were cheap store brand heavily perfumed sheets. If anyone ever used them on any of my clothes I could probably never wear them again.

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GoDawgs
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Re: Got Deer???

#7

Post: # 53982Unread post GoDawgs
Fri Sep 17, 2021 7:30 am

As stated in my post in the Dawg Patch, deer problems here are seasonal and are usually late winter until late April-early to mid May. They're after my brassicas and peas when browse out in the pastures is brown. Only two things have deterred them, the main one being a dog. Since BonieDawg crossed the bridge several years ago with no replacement, deer netting covered tunnels over the beds is the current method of protection.

Trellised veggies such as pole beans are still a target as they are hard to protect without making an enclosure around them. The vines grow through the netting resulting in tossing the vine-encrusted netting away. I did put up a makeshift netting enclosure around four rows of field peas one year after the deer gave them an overnight "pruning" but that was a pain in the butt

The only answers I can think of other than fencing, nettings and dogs is to just grow what they don't like to eat. It's a constant war.

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rdback
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Re: Got Deer???

#8

Post: # 53988Unread post rdback
Fri Sep 17, 2021 10:02 am

Fencing is the only thing that's worked for me. I installed a six foot chicken-wire fence around the whole garden. It was effective until it started rusting out after 15 or 16 years. Then, I installed a four-wire, solar charged, electric fence. It's been effective as well, it just doesn't keep the rabbits out lol!

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JRinPA
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Re: Got Deer???

#9

Post: # 54103Unread post JRinPA
Sun Sep 19, 2021 12:53 am

Very rarely on a foggy spring day will we get deer or turkeys in the yard here in town. There is too much development nearby for that to happen often. There is still a mid town swamp/wood 250 yards north and a farm field 200 yards east, but we are a street and a few houses deep each way.

At the comm garden, there are deer closer by, with a hayfield and wooded hillside right nearby. But I never find any droppings. There is a fence around it, 5ft 2x4 grid wire, and then a couple lines of wire above that to keep the deer from jumping it. The garden is fairly surrounded by residences except the hayfield side, and even that field is further surrounded by development. So any deer approaching the fenced garden can only really approach from that one side, and would be very nervous since they really can't go further without lights and blacktop. The do browse the arbor vitae outside the fence in the winter time. But I've yet to find any sign inside the fence.

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worth1
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Re: Got Deer???

#10

Post: # 54115Unread post worth1
Sun Sep 19, 2021 7:39 am

They have deer in highly developed parts of Austin.
You never know where you will see them.
Worth
25 miles southeast of Waterloo Texas.

You can't argue with a closed mind.
You might as well be arguing with a cat.

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MissS
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Re: Got Deer???

#11

Post: # 54149Unread post MissS
Sun Sep 19, 2021 11:44 am

I have deer!!! Lots and lots of deer. I had a neighbor couple over and we saw 32 deer pass by in an hour. They were coming by two's and three's sometime 5-6. We have an interstate hwy nearby which I think bottles them in here. There is not a deer problem 'on the other side of the road'. The deer have nothing that they like to eat left in this suburban neighborhood so they are eating everything including the spruce trees. Finally the DNR has heard us and not just my subdivision but the whole area and they came out to cull the herd. In 3 days this spring they took 57 doe's. I sure hope that they are coming back this fall because they are still eating things that they shouldn't like such as salvia. The deer are even coming up on my deck and patio to eat my plants.

Things that I use to deter the deer are:

A motion activated sprinkler. The problem with this is that you need a strong hose that can take high water pressure with the water on all night. Another is that if it is windy, the movement from the tree branches will set it off. This does work pretty well but is expensive especially if you need to protect things from more than one direction because then you need more than one.

Deer Scram. I buy it on Amazon but it's a little pricey and needs to be applied after every rain.

Dried blood and bone meal.

A homemade spray with garlic, hot peppers, cumin, cayenne pepper, and white pepper. I put it in a milk jug and let it ferment, strain and then spray the plants. To make it slightly water-proof I add some Wilt Proof to the mix.

Rotten eggs. I buy eggs at Costco and break them into a milk jug, allow them to rot a few days and then spray plants.

Use Milorganite.

Most of these need to be re-applied after rain. I have found that you also need to rotate what you use or the deer get used to them.

Coyote urine has not helped in this yard.
~ Patti ~

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Amateurinawe
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Re: Got Deer???

#12

Post: # 54156Unread post Amateurinawe
Sun Sep 19, 2021 1:17 pm

20210919_185553.jpg
All you's with deer problems need one of these to keep out all critters out.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
The behaviour of light means you observe me as i was then, and not as I am now.
I cannot change history, so I do hope i gave you a good impression of myself

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JRinPA
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Re: Got Deer???

#13

Post: # 54157Unread post JRinPA
Sun Sep 19, 2021 1:34 pm

Image

No, that won't work around here. The deer around here can be pretty dumb.

"Even though there are signs posted for them, those deer just cross where ever they want to!"

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worth1
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Re: Got Deer???

#14

Post: # 54165Unread post worth1
Sun Sep 19, 2021 2:07 pm

You can with ingenuity make a motion detection spray system that movement alone won't set off.
It requires both motion and IR to activate.
It's already in most security systems.
All you need is a security system that can use one to activate the sprayer.
It's called a PIR motion sensor and very adaptable.
Worth
25 miles southeast of Waterloo Texas.

You can't argue with a closed mind.
You might as well be arguing with a cat.

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Amateurinawe
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Re: Got Deer???

#15

Post: # 54166Unread post Amateurinawe
Sun Sep 19, 2021 2:18 pm

@JRinPA i think the deer must be ignoring the sign. "That's there for those others backward facing antler types", " don't see many of them round here "

How do they do rutting? Or are American deer different ?
The behaviour of light means you observe me as i was then, and not as I am now.
I cannot change history, so I do hope i gave you a good impression of myself

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worth1
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Re: Got Deer???

#16

Post: # 54177Unread post worth1
Sun Sep 19, 2021 3:06 pm

I had one come out of the woods and jump over the front of my motorcycle.
I was only going 10 miles an hour in a 30 because I knew one would jump out at any minute.
The hooves were literally in my face as it went over.
Worth
25 miles southeast of Waterloo Texas.

You can't argue with a closed mind.
You might as well be arguing with a cat.

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Amateurinawe
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Re: Got Deer???

#17

Post: # 54182Unread post Amateurinawe
Sun Sep 19, 2021 4:18 pm

@worth1 we have them too and they can cause nasty accidents
The behaviour of light means you observe me as i was then, and not as I am now.
I cannot change history, so I do hope i gave you a good impression of myself

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karstopography
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Re: Got Deer???

#18

Post: # 54184Unread post karstopography
Sun Sep 19, 2021 4:49 pm

A good number of whitetail deer are about a mile west of me. Even the people right across the lake get a few at times on their thickly wooded 11 acres. We had one or two deer on our little tract after Hurricane Harvey flooded the deer’s normal haunts. The deer are hunted around here so they are truly wild and very wary of people. I don’t want them in my yard and especially the garden. However, I’ll have one over for dinner on occasion.

I’ve never hit a deer in a vehicle. My dad’s dad did. Whitetail buck leaped into the side of his car as he was coming home from work on a side road. The motionless buck was there laying in the ditch so Grandpa went over to it and got out his folding lockblade knife and went to field dress the buck. About the time he was going to make his first cut, the buck sprung up and bounded away. Guess the collision with the car only knocked it out.

My dad hit a mule deer in Colorado, kind of strange really, as dad has driven many thousands of miles of deer infested parts of Texas and never hit one. The Edwards Plateau has unreal numbers of whitetail deer, plus plenty of Axis, Sika, and fallow deer, all naturalized and wild. Dead deer litter the edges of I-10 where it crosses the area.
Zone 9b, located in the Columbia bottomlands, annual rainfall 46”

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Cole_Robbie
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Re: Got Deer???

#19

Post: # 54185Unread post Cole_Robbie
Sun Sep 19, 2021 4:53 pm

I once saw an intense argument break out between two men on the side of the road over which one got to claim a deer that had just been hit. They did not quite come to blows, but they were just about to literally fight over road kill.

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Amateurinawe
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Re: Got Deer???

#20

Post: # 54186Unread post Amateurinawe
Sun Sep 19, 2021 4:58 pm

I still think the antlers are wrong way around.
The behaviour of light means you observe me as i was then, and not as I am now.
I cannot change history, so I do hope i gave you a good impression of myself

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