When my husband was stationed in Great Lakes, IL, which is where he retired from, they were having a massive deer problem in some of them areas around there. The houses were mansions, and the deer were totally out of control. There is enough open land there to feed them, but the population was never under control, due to the lack of natural predators. So, they had bow hunters come in and thin them out. My husband and a friend were asked by the owner if they would hunt on her private golf course. The place was surrounded by several hundred acres of woods, with more than enough food for the deer, but the deer destroyed over $50,000 in trees that the owner had planted, not to mention the damage they had done to the grass. The owner hated having to go to that extreme, but nothing else worked.

I get irked here in Utah about some of the people who complain about the deer eating their flowers. They've build their houses on the side of the mountains, where the deer have always been, and can't figure out why their flowers disappear. I figure if you're going to live in the deer's backyard, you either feed them your flowers, plant flowers that they don't like, or do something to keep them out of the yard. In Idaho, I know it is going to be a problem for us, keeping the deer away, but I know for a fact that there is more than enough food for them, and my flowers will not be on the menu! I sure do love to watch the deer though!

Seems like things work for a year or two and then the deer figure things out (or get hungrier....) For a couple years now, I've sprayed a mix of 2 T cayenne pepper and 2 T Sirracha hot sauce in a hose end sprayer on all my foliage early in the year and then a few weeks later. Seems to work. I saw one daylily bitten off and spit out the first year I did this. I think maybe they don't like spicy food! Anyway, it's cheap and certainly doesn't hurt.

Ann, that's a great idea about putting the mix in the hose end sprayer!

I haven't read his book in years, but Jim Baker used to have some really good "home remedies" like this. He had something for about everything. Of course, since I bought his book eons ago, the enet has arrived and you can probably find most anything on here for free.

Natalie,

Yeah, I tried my regular sprayer and it clogged up, but the hose end sprayer worked great! Fast, too. I probably sprayed my entire garden (2/3 acre) in less than 15-20 minutes.

Kim, I just LOVE your Himalayan kitty. I had one for 14 years, we loved him to pieces. I have two persians now who are half Himalayan.

Dot

Irish Spring soap works for me. I have lots of deer around here. They only seem to like to munch when the snow first comes off in the spring and the daylilies just begin to poke out of the ground. The large areas I put a bar on a stick at the row ends.Small areas I just shave some off a bar onto soil. It seems to works very well.

Tons of deer here, and we never have a problem after using the Scarecrow. Just move it around once in awhile. It has to be in an area a hose will reach, though. Totally effective from bunnies to deer to birds eating the berries.

http://www.smarthome.com/6120/...

I alternated Milorganite with Plantskydd last year and it worked well. I'd do one or the other each month. I have overhead watering and it still lasted that long.

tink3472 said:Deer sausage is yummy!!!!

HA!

I use DEERSCRAM, available on the net, $$$, on an estate with the problem. Organic. Hot pepper for the initial scram. Garlic I think as a temptor? Then ground up carcass of lord only knows what. That is the real deterrent. They are afraid of also being dead.

I spread it about one ft wide around perimeter of gardens 3 times a year.

I have heard that the idea is to not let them get used to a pathway to food.

We use blood meal spray on the fence to keep the deer away, it seems to work quite well, at least so far.

Natalie, we put a 7 foot fence and gate at the front when the one large buck kept jumping from that area to get in the back yard at the bird feeders and my tasty plants, well that didn't work, he jumped that with ease, that's when we started using the blood meal spray.

Good to know about the blood meal spray. That's one we haven't tried.
Maybe it will keep the rabbits from chewing holes in the fence too.

We tried just about everything, and the only thing that has worked is the deer fence.
Although, we do have to keep checking the fencing for holes chewed by deer and rabbits.
The deer will scoot under the smallest spaces to get in. They will also eat plants and shrubs
that are known to be toxic to critters. They'll eat anything, and we were here first. We certainly
did not intrude on their space. They have mostly changed their routes for food since we put
up the fence.

Shirlee, the first few years we were here there wasn't a problem with the deer either, now, 10 years later we have groups of 5 to 9 that browse the town on a regular basis to see whats new on the menu for them, I can no longer put flowers out front, they will just eat them.

Margaret, I think there is an overpopulation of deer in many many places.
Guess there are no predators around.

Shirlee, we do have cougars, lots of coyotes, I'm sure they must take the fawns.

Margaret, I think your deer must be a lot bigger than the ones that my Dad has at his place! Either that, or they just don't bother jumping the fence, since they can get over the gate. The gate has been dented by them though, so they don't always make it over without a bruise or two. I've seen his deer, and to me, they are small. They sure aren't the mule deer that I'm used to.

Polly, when you mentioned the scarecrow, I thought you meant an actual scarecrow! I wonder if one of those would do any good? Have any of you tried that? I do like the water one too, but I'm kind of curious about a plain old scarecrow. I may have to give that a try!

This is a great thread! I'm getting a lot of great information from everyone!

Natalie, we have the mule deer, he did scrape a lot of hair off his belly jumping that gate though. I love seeing them as long as they stay our of my back yard.

Natalie, nothing I've had other than the water scarecrow has worked.

The 9 volt has lasted 2 years now.