Who has effective deer-be-gone tricks?

[gunsmith007]

You all forgot the best trick of all put some salt licks in your neighbor's yard lol.

 

[deadeye]

You all forgot the best trick of all put some salt licks in your neighbor's yard lol.

Nah just post a sign

 

[tinkerbill]

I've done the motion-activated sprinkler thing. It works real well...for a while. Then the dear decide a nice shower while eating is just fine.

That's the basic problem. When there is enough deer pressure, various predator smells and other tricks work only temporarily.

There are only two things I know that work more than temporarily. Besides turning the problem deer into food--not something you can do any time of year with any sex and any number of deer. At least not legally, anyway, not in Oregon. One is the garden being completely surrounded with serious fencing, which may need to be nine feet high. (A shorter fence may help because fawns can't get over it, so the mother may choose someone elses garden instead of yours because her fawns can't stay with her if she comes in. However, a short fence won't keep bucks out.) The other thing is a dog in the area. It doesn't need to be a big dog that could actually take a deer. But it does have to be outside at night actively barking at and challenging deer that come into the area. A pooch indoors at night doesn't work, even if it spends day time in the yard and pees all over the place. A pooch outside on a chain on the other side of the house from the garden doesn't help either. Nor does a pooch who simply goes to sleep at night. Or thinks deer are interesting. Or is afraid of them and lays low.

What deer will and won't eat, by the way, depends upon what is available and how desperate they are as well as what they are familiar with. In my experience, when the deer are hungry enough and there is little enough else for them to eat, they will eat almost everything except very mustards such asand the authorities did little to help us. Beyond Green Wave. They will even eat moderately hot mustards, garlic and onion tops, etc. They totally love strawberry plants, and eat them all before they produce berries. I''ve grown many unusual vegetables that deer left alone for years, then suddenly they tried it and deemed it good. From then on they eat it.

We chose our current home about 8 miles east of down town Gresham, about a mile from the city limits. It is surrounded with green spaces and very rural. We enjoyed all the wildlife, especially the plentiful deer and even occasional elk! We started noticing the decline of the deer population until it seemed there were none. Then we, as well as neighbors started losing domestic animals like goats, cattle, chand the authorities did little to help us. Beyondand the authorities did little to help us. Beyondickens, etc.We also lost countless outside cats and dogs. We chose very big dogs in the hopes that they would deter animal losses but to no avail. Other than logging the events and setting a few have-a-heart traps, the authorities did little else. We were hoping they would activate contracted cougar hunters with trained dogs to do something about it. Within the last 10 years or so we have seen at least three cougars on our property, two of them withing 10 feet of us in middle of the day! Both myself and the wife pack a pistol whenever we work outside. In addition to that the wife will not do any outside work unless I am with her and on guard. We are way past owning outside pets or livestock. Cougars get the big ones and coyotes get all the rest. As a lifetime bow and rifle hunter as well as conservationist I really miss the wildlife!
One thing I forgot to mention is, we have raised hearty roses on this property as a business, (over 150 varieties) and we have done a large garden most years. We also have fruit and nut trees for our own consumption as well as the wildlife. You would think with all that food around we would attract lots of animals but hardly any besides raccoons and possums, certainly not any ungulates!

 

[Certaindeaf]

Granny Clampett use a double barrel skillet.

 

[PBinWA]

Haven't seen many since I got my Anatolian Shepherd - she lives to patrol the property. She is eerily silent and very fast - she has also controlled just about every other pest (even moles). When she gets old, I'll probably get another.

 

[41mag]

One of these?

 

[v0lcom13sn0w]

u need an attack llama!!

 

[Norwestr55]

Buy a deer tag. Its the most potent deer be gone solution available but only works for a little over a month in the fall.

 

[RVTECH]

Buy a deer tag.

Providing you draw for the unit you live in AND can shoot in the area.

 

[PBinWA]

One of these?

View attachment 710121

Yup - there are several names for them and I'm sure purists could argue the subtleties. Mine is only about 90lbs and has longer hair but similar in build. She looks closer to these: Anatolian Shepherd Dog Dog Breed Information They are also sometimes called Kangal dogs.

 

[SavageGerbil]

When I lived in Grants Pass, I had a buddy that would go and hit up Wildlife Images for bedding material cleaned out of the big cat enclosures, and spread that around his orchard. Said it worked like a charm

 

[Norwestr55]

Providing you draw for the unit you live in AND can shoot in the area.

Doesn't matter. I should have said that you probably won't see any deer for a month. A joke.

 

[PaulB47]

Had a garden for 13 years in the boonies. Deer netting is not 100%, but close - and those exceptions came when I had not adequately tied up the ends of the net, or left some big holes from pulling out blackberry vines, etc. Also, since it is so light, it is easy to hang from suspended wire attached to trees, rather than laboriously installing posts everywhere.

I think part of the answer though, is to have some deer food outside the fence. If your garden is the lone green area in a large desert, netting probably won't do the job.

Finally, if a particular deer causes repeated trouble, shoot her.

Oh, it's always good in a garden to mix your plants up, and plant more than you need. We had more trouble with chipmunks than anything. But our strawberry patch was so big we didn't care if they carried some away.

Bunnies were also more of a problem; they are hard to keep out and they can do some real damage (how about every bean plant in a bean tower nipped off at ground level?). I think you need chicken wire for them.

 

[awshoot]

Funny though on the other hand, the hunter out in the woods wondering where did all the dang deer go?

The deer totally know where it's illegal to shoot. Like there's deer google maps or something.

 

[doobee8]

I've had this problem and all the gimmicks you see don't work like this. Outdoor life or Sports Afield published, in the 90s, an article about how to keep deer away from your garden. Deer are very much repelled by the scent of HUMAN URINE!. So they suggested taking four old milk jugs, add bit of your own urine inside each ( about 2 cups should do). Post the four jugs in the perimeter corners of your garden. The jugs help keep the urine from evaporating too quickly and it gets more concentrated as time goes on due to some evaporation. No fences, no gimmicks. They used to love to eat my zucchini flowers, not anymore. Done.