Deer in garden

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I don't!! But yes good fencing helps!!
 
Good Luck with that. They have become a nuisance in our area as well, but we don't have a garden. One of our friends asked "Do deer like tulips?" The flowers were all gone but the stalks and leaves were left untouched. Like one deer walked down the row, and ate them all at the same level. My guess would be fencing.
 
You could always send them to freezer camp. Some people believe that human hair will keep them away. You might be able to talk a barber out of a bag full of hair.
 
Another vote for freezer camp. Word gets around through the "deer chat" channels. 45-70 works if the hair trick doesn't.

Sometimes old, fat and slow is just the ticket :). Of course, then the "neighborhood chat" is filled with "did you hear that cannon?" :p
 
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Currently we got 7ft black netting fence haha we love our doe's we feed them for winter and they live on our farm we get tons of bucks for fall with them here! just had babies so we spoil them so it's our fault they love to snoop in our garden last year we didnt have that big of garden so our fence was enough to keep them out well now we have a wayyy bigger garden and we just decided to pick the 7ft fence up hoping it does well 🤣🤣🤣
 
Kelsey96 said:
Currently we got 7ft black netting fence haha we love our doe's we feed them for winter and they live on our farm we get tons of bucks for fall with them here! just had babies so we spoil them so it's our fault they love to snoop in our garden last year we didnt have that big of garden so our fence was enough to keep them out well now we have a wayyy bigger garden and we just decided to pick the 7ft fence up hoping it does well 🤣🤣🤣
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Yep, that's what happened to me!! I fed them!! You know you are in way too deep when they bang on the door wanting food!!😕🙄
 
We have a 6' wood fence around our whole yard area, and it's the only thing that keeps them out, and every once in a while (when there's a drought in the mountains), we'll get a buck or 2 big enough to jump the fence. The previous owner of our property didn't want a fence and had pretty good success with cougar urine, but I'd much rather have a fence, thank you very much.

On the topic of freezer camp, we had a neighbor who was a martial arts instructor. Legend has it he hid under a pile of leaves one night and dispatched a particularly destructive deer with a katana. No boom to give you away there :)
 
Kelsey96 said:
just had babies so we spoil them so it's our fault they love to snoop in our garden last year we didn't have that big of garden so our fence was enough to keep them out.
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It is hard not to love them, especially the babies who are so adorable. Fortunately, we don't have anything they can ruin. Plenty of tracks, so we know they drink from the ponds. We haven't had any knocking on the doors, yet.

A portion of our backyard is fenced with about a four foot high fence. The purpose was to have an area we could let the dogs out to take care of business without having to put them on a chain, and it works well for that purpose. We have had lots of other critters in the yard, but the deer have never jumped the fence to get to the bird feeders.
 
what doesn’t work here- hair, sprays, music, Irish Spring soap, fences that they can see into. I’ve only gone as high as 6 ft fence, wire, but that only slowed them down. I haven’t tried laying wire flat on the ground, supposedly they won’t step on it, because I mow too often. Millerite works for a bit, till it rains.
 
Deer. I had a huge issue with them in North Carolina, here is what I did that worked, and a few that maybe, kinda worked.



Pee around the garden. Apparently, they can smell the carnivore in the urine. I had my Black Lab poop and pee in that general area also, by their paths. Seemed to work but you had to keep the pee fresh. I would pee into a gallon jug and take that with me. It also is great for around the tomatoes! Just don’t tell the folks you give tomatoes to that you pee on them. Lol!

Human hair and soap did not seem to work. Tried both for most of a summer.

For what really worked:

4’ wire fence with 8’ fence posts. Put the fencing up (rabbit protection) and a rope across the top of the posts. I hung various crap (yeah, soap being one of them 😊) from the rope. Tin foil items seemed to work the best as a slight breeze would give them movement. Theory was that it ‘looked’ like it was too high for them to jump over, so they did not try.

Braided fishing line - #80 or #100 test. Get the dark green stuff, so it is hard to see. Tie it between trees across their paths to the area. Knee high and one at about chest high. They will walk into it, it will spook them as they cannot see it, and they will abandon those paths.
 
Deer see 2 dimensional. If you put a 2 nd wire away from main fencing, they can’t judge distance. We have a 3 wire electric fence around garden currently. So far no hogs or deer. Garden is in front yard. I also put some solar lights around it. But, corn has not started making yet. Might not help with raccoons.
 
Deer netting is made 7' tall to keep them jumping over it.

Deer will not jump into confined areas.
Below is a doubled up frame work with deer netting around the sides. Never had deer issues in the double stacked frames.
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But just deer netting is not enough to keep them out. The will kick through the netting. I had to devise a steel cage to keep them out.

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The deer and ground gogs will prune anything that grows through the mesh into perfect cubes.

I can also cover them with plastic for early crops.
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Works fine for the 21 4x4' raised beds I have.

Ben
 
A double fence five foot apart works, the deer see a trap & will not jump the first fence.
Smelly soap will keep them away until it rains.
Some people swear by pie pans, hanging from hay strings.
I had a hunter harvest 15 deer from my ten acres & will see more this year I am sure.
 
joel said:
Smelly soap will keep them away until it rains.
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I've never tried it, but there is a claim that Irish Spring Bar soap works. People were drilling a small hole and putting a string through and hanging it.
 
I don't have the problem with the deer in the yard, but I know the pee doesn't work, here's why. I went out hunting one afternoon and just as I got to my tree I needed some relief so I walked about 30 yards away and watered a tree. Anyway, I went back to my tree and climbed up and sat there for a while, along comes a deer and she walks over to the tree that I had marked, she walked around it, never raising her tail, just eating acorns.... It became obvious to me that she was NOT afraid of MY PEE.....
 
After fighting them for decades I can say the only thing that works is electric fencing. Especially if I use peanut butter.

If deer become an issue I put up a simple single strand electric fence. Which won’t keep out deer… alone. I get a jar of the cheapest peanut butter from the store. Using a plastic knife I smear little bits of peanut butter to the wire.

Deer love peanut butter! (along with coyotes and other critters) They have to lick the wire, can’t help themselves! 🤣

Deer will vanish for a few weeks after such shocking events! :rolleyes: By the time they are brave enough to return the crop is over.

The only other thing that’s worked… One year I had several acres of peas almost ready for the market. I put up a dome tent in the middle of the field and slept in it a few nights. I had a .22 rifle and set the tent opening towards the woods. Every time I woke during the night I fired the rifle out the tent flap a couple times… all night long. The deer never knew when I was in the tent or when I'd wake up and start shooting, kept them out of my peas until the harvest was over. After the first 3 nights I slept in it couple times a week.

My big german sheppards keep them out of the garden by the house. Raccoons can do a lot of garden damage that deer get blamed for. (and coyotes) Both will destroy melons. Raccoons will pull down whole stalks of corn to eat the ears. They'll ruin tomatoes... just about anything is raccoon food. I use an electric fence for them also, bout 6" off the ground and peanut butter... they won't be back for weeks.
 
Thank you guys so much for some great advice! I guess it's a hit or miss 🤣 we used the 7ft deer netting fence so far first night was a success as the doe's stood off in the distance about 200 yards and watched us put it up🤣 last year they only got our beans but praying it keeps them out! Thankful for all the advice to try and not try! 🙂
 
If you feed them you are telling them it is a safe feeding spot. On my land any critter that eats my food becomes my food. Typically it's my 257 Roberts and a head or neck shot. They never do that again. For smaller critters I use a 223. Same shot same result.
 
A few decades ago the Fish and Game transplanted 6 elk to an Island across from town. They kept getting into the garden of one of the residents. He kept complaining, to no avail. The last call he made to F&G was to tell them to come and get all 6 carcasses off his property. He had a right to protect his food and they had been warned. All they could do was to grumble. There wasn't a jury in this town that would convict him.
 
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