http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=268x3257Oh my.
Just as Nebraska recently extended the deer-hunting season (both firearm and archery), and set up a whole bunch of temporary one-time deer-hunting "seasons," and gave landowners (not the hunters themselves) a $25-per-deer deduction from their state income taxes, so as to somewhat ameliorate the deer problem.
conscious evolution (1000+ posts) Fri Feb-26-10 01:54 PM
Original message
sonic deer fencing
A community garden project I am involved with has a deer problem.Someone suggested using radios set to talk radio to scare the deer off.The theory is that the sound of people talkinf is enough to scare them off.
Anyone ever heard of this,and if so,does it work?
I wouldn't know of course, but would broadcasting Mike Mellow, Eric Olderman, Rachel Meadow, Rose O'Donnell, Doug's ex-wife's idol Thom Fartmann, Rancid Rhodes, &c., &c., &c., be enough talk radio to work?
OneTenthofOnePercent (1000+ posts) Fri Feb-26-10 01:57 PM
Response to Original message
1. I can think of super sonic things to keep deers away... but that doesn't involve radios.
Jackpine Radical (1000+ posts) Fri Feb-26-10 02:05 PM
Response to Original message
2. Crap. I don't even want the neighborhood crows listening to Rush. And I imagine my neighbor would wonder how all the corn he has growing near my fence line got so twisted and deformed.
timeforpeace (1000+ posts) Fri Feb-26-10 02:06 PM
Response to Original message
3. You don't have a deer problem, you have a deer blessing. It's their land too.
enough (1000+ posts) Fri Feb-26-10 02:56 PM
Response to Reply #3
7. So what is your suggestion for keeping this blessing out of the vegetable garden?
And also out of the woods where they eat all the native tree and shrub seedlings, leaving a seriously degraded habitat with nothing but a few invasive species thriving.
It's a serious question.
timeforpeace (1000+ posts) Fri Feb-26-10 04:34 PM
Response to Reply #7
10. Why do you hate the deer? They were here first. They are not an invasive species.
blueworld (876 posts) Fri Feb-26-10 02:17 PM
Response to Original message
4. Well, you might get lucky for a little while...
but I have to tell you: I've been gardening all my adult life and I have never found anything to keep deer out except dogs. That's why I never chased my neighbors dogs out of my yard down here.
The flashy pie plates only worked for a while, the hair & soap only worked for a while. I sprayed a mixture of tobasco & water & that worked, but I got worn out spraying that stuff all over my huge garden every 2 days or so.
I sit on my deck talking with family at dusk every night and the deer jump in the garden & stare at us while they munch. I have to turn on the sprinklers to get them out. I wanted to set up a sensor with a battery that would do that automatically every time they jumped in. Maybe this year.
I've also never found anything they won't eat except daffodils. Good luck to you, I hope it works, but the only thing I'm sure of is a 6-foot fence or dogs.
HereSince1628 (1000+ posts) Fri Feb-26-10 02:27 PM
THE PILGRIM PRIMITIVE
Response to Original message
5. Once the deer get acclimated to the noise, they'll ignore it.
I tried this a few years ago.
A Golden/Newfoundland Retriever crossbreed worked better, but in the end, deer fencing worked best.
Imagine the letter X with only one upper arm. The top is 6' or so to let the deer get _under_ the top wire.
The top of the outside arm needs to be 3-4 feet forward of the upright support.
The result is simlpe, the deer that go under the overhanging wire cannot go over the top of the fence.
In general, they are too stupid to back-up and take a leap over.
TNDemo (1000+ posts) Fri Feb-26-10 03:47 PM
Response to Original message
9. You can try the 5-5-5 method.
Get five gallons of water, put in five eggs and five teaspoons (I think) of tabasco sauce and let it sit for five days. Then spray it around. Of course, like someone else said, you gotta keep spraying when the smell wears down. And it will make you not want to work out there either.
Peace Patriot (1000+ posts) Fri Feb-26-10 06:42 PM
Response to Original message
11. The only thing that I know that works is a 6' deer fence. It's very wide-mesh and nearly invisible.
They have black plastic deer fencing which is very invisible, but I think wire lasts longer. They have it in 6' or 7' rolls but I've found 6' to be sufficient. The kind of deer fencing where the horizontal lines get narrower at the bottom can also help keep out rabbits, moles and other foragers and disturbers of the peace.
ALSO, and this may please "timeforpeace": There is a new concept from permaculture called a "natural deer fence," whereby you plant big bushy perennials that the deer love to munch on, around and near your precious vegies or flowers, and they stuff themselves before they get to your garden. I have a friend who is trying this. No reports yet.
Really, I love my deer fencing so much that I don't see it! I can actually grow wonderful vegetables and flowers now! And it does disappear. You don't see it after a while. It's very unobtrusive. And you can put it up just around the most vulnerable areas-small areas. Just leave yourself some room to work.
About the nearby forest, I don't know. Maybe the permaculture "natural deer fence" might work. Look it up on the internet, and get some neighbors and friends to help you plant stuff on deer paths in the forest. OR, put wire deer fencing around special plant areas.
For those who accuse you of hating deer, the numbers of deer may not be natural at all. And, indeed, the deer might not be. They may have migrated from another area where their territory was taken by human development or other human-caused impacts. Munching in gardens may not be all that good for the deer either. They need the exercise from roaming far and wide for their food--in wild landscapes. That is their natural state. We humans concentrate the vegetation in one spot for them. And if we use any bad stuff--pesticides, snail bait, chemical fertilizers--they are getting all the toxins.
I like the permaculture idea of accommodation--and I'm in the process of learning about plants that deer like and don't like. (I've found they don't eat rock rose. And they've never bothered lavender, sage or borage--that I've noticed.) I will plant some food for them outside my yard. Also, I'm lucky to live near big open fields that grow lots of wild flower and other plants as well as forested areas. The deer around me are not going to starve by being barred from my little vegie/flower patch.
I love deer! They are such sweet creatures. I would not want to harm them, or any wild animals, even gophers. And I have a huge gopher problem. I've gopher-wired my garden areas instead. (You need very small gage wire--especially for gophers--don't buy anything else.) You dig the garden plot out, place the wire in the bottom and up around the edges, sticking out of the ground about 6 inches, and the gophers cannot get in, and will not come out of the ground to climb over the wire. Before I did that, I just acquiesced to gophers getting 25% of my crop. But for some reason they have become more voracious and take ALL the lettuce and ALL the marigolds, etc. You could certainly say that the gophers belong here and I don't. They are apparently of ancient vintage. But, hey, they can build their underground cities in the big fields next door and up the hill and don't need to eat my little plots of vegies.
I accidentally killed a gopher once--digging out a hole for planting--and I STILL feel bad about it. They are very adorable critters, too--and VERY smart and VERY innovative.
One final thought: We think that our tenant's dog, and neighbor's dogs, may be a factor in keeping deer away. And legend has it that mountain lion dung will do it--but I've never tried that. There are apparently sources for it, for this purpose.
