Deer Damage

[Duffman]

Well, I returned from some salmon fishing on Lake Michigan last night to find that the deer sure enjoyed the tasty tops of 3/4 of my pepper plants. This is the second year in a row that the deer have found my garden, it doesn't help that the neighbor has four apple trees 20ft away.

So I remembered what my mom used to keep them from munching on her tulips, Billy Bass!!!! Yep, she had two of them things swimming guard over her flowers. I went to the garage and found the one I had, put in new batteries, and put him on patrol last night. We'll see what happens, hopefully the deer will be as annoyed as I hearing "Take me to the river...."

And if your posting on FM, chances are you have a Billy Bass that you got as a gag gift sitting around. Give it try as a scarecrow, I'm hoping that it works somewhat. I might stop by and get a second one at a buddies place, dueling bass just may be enough to scare the deer and rabbits away.

And if they don't work, I've always wanted to take a shovel to dem dang singing bass.

[Mark Christianson]

Try shaving some Irish Spring soap into a bowl and fill it with very hot water to dissolve the soap.

Put it in a spray bottle and spray on the leaves. Works pretty darn good.

I wish I had some magical potion to get the moles out of my yard though!

[Gissert]

Duffman!

Some people have some luck with the Irish Spring as BLB mention. I have also heard that getting some hair from a barber/hair salon and hinging it in an onion bag will deter the deer too.

[Marmot]

Will moth balls keep deer away? Deer are chewing up my small orchard I planted last year.

[Duffman]

Hey Gissert!

I'm loving the trailcam shots you and BLB have been posting. Good stuff!

Seeing that I shave my own hair off the head, I just might try that method in a couple weeks when I'm due. Maybe throw in some dog and cat fur also. No futher damage to the veggees yet. I busted a gut when Grizz set off Billy Bass last night, it's hard to beleive a 22 lb. cat can get that much air! Maybe I should move the catnip.

[Gissert]

Mothballs will work for a while, keep them fresh. Rain, or sprinkling will dilute them. To keep deer off of yummy browse like that, you will probably need to use a combination of things.

Someone seeded the edge of where I hunt deer last fall with mothballs. After a couple days, I could see deer walking right over them after a light rain.

[Duffman]

So much for the Billy Bass experiment, a small deer came and kicked him over. Then finished off the rest of my pepper plant tops, dang it, it was going to be my best pepper harvest ever. Didn't touch the habanero though. I guess these city deer must be street smart. I'll have to come up with a better battleplan for next year.

[Eric Wettschreck]

I had problems with deer eating the asparagus buds right off the tops of the plants. A little cayenne pepper on the buds took care of it. As an added bonus it was fun to watch the deer jump when they took a bite.

[fishwidow]

We have used Milorganite, fertilizer made from the Milwaukee municipal sewage tratment plant with some success. It seemed to help when spread around the base of plants that deer were munching on.

The drawbacks--our dog got into the bag and ate about a pound of it. It didn't do any real damage, though, he just had an upset stomach and barfed quite a bit. And, no, he didn't grow.

[zent]

I had two small apple trees that the deer destroyed, bought a product called plantskyd at the local country store. Comes in liquid ready to spray, or powder you mix with water. The powder is more economical, and is suppose to last six months. It's been two months now and They haven't touched any of the plants or trees or anything in the garden. It won't wash off like some of the products we have tried. Hope this helps you. Zent