[SustainableTompkins] deer

[Joel and Sarah Gagnon]

When the deer pressure was more moderate, I used to be able to keep them at 
bay with balls of dog hair hung about the yard. Having dog smell all over 
the place meant they couldn't sense a real dog in the vicinity. As the deer 
population increased and they got hungrier in the winter, that no longer 
worked. Pepper spray, applied religiously every 3 weeks, worked for a 
while, but eventually even that failed 3 years ago when the deer were so 
hungry they resorted to eating the bark off the sumacs and browsing such 
deer-proof stuff as forsythias and honeysuckle. They even learned to ignore 
the dogs that were tied in place, gnawing on the apple trees in my yard 
just across the street from the neighbor's barking (but chained) dog. A dog 
with the freedom to move will keep them at bay, but only when it is out 
there, which has to be all night. We finally put up electric fence. It is 
not 100%, but coupled with pepper spray, it provides adequate control. Some 
key features:

It takes a pretty good charger to jolt a deer enough to dissuade them, 
because they have hollow hair (a good insulator) and long skinny legs with 
poor ground electrical contact through their hooves. I have found a minimum 
of 8000 volts at the fence is required.

The fence needs to have depth. Deer have very poor depth perception because 
their noses prevent true binocular vision. They can easily jump a 4-foot 
fence, but generally will not do so if they can't get close enough to it to 
judge the jump. Even a single strand of electric wire 3 feet away from the 
fence and at nose height (30-32 inches) works pretty well. Deer were used 
to transiting across our property, so it took a while to break them of the 
habit. They took the fence down multiple times by tripping over it trying 
to jump over it (I used aluminum wire, which is easy to mend but also easy 
to break, because I wanted to repel them, not hurt them)) or walked through 
it without seeing it at first. Eventually they learned -- but they also 
learned that they could jump it. I had to add a very visible rope 5-6 feet 
above the ground over the fence. That they have not tried to jump over. No 
fence will stop a deer in panicked flight. They will run right through it. 
After a while, you can hear the difference in the fence charger when it is 
shorted out due to a broken wire someplace I check frequently during the 
growing season just to be sure.

More details off-list if any of you want it.

Incidentally, for you more urban dwellers, the deer won't jump a fence if 
they can't see where they will be jumping into. That means a fairly short 
(5 foot) fence will keep them out if it is not a see-through barrier -- 
provided they can't see the yard from another vantage point like a higher 
elevation. Solid fences should keep them out in the flat land of the city.

Joel

At 01:33 PM 2/29/08 -0500, you wrote:
>Yes, our two Border Collies have kept all deer away from our garden for more
>than 7 years. In fact, the deer don't even come within hundreds of feet of
>our garden because they can smell DOG all over our yard.
>
>Last winter, though, the squirrels climbed over the 5-ft high chicken-wire
>fence surrounding our garden, and munched on the garlic we had planted in
>Nov '06. So in Nov '07, we outsmarted them by covering the raised garlic bed
>with black mesh netting. We plan to cover our strawberry beds with the
>netting too, as part of our on-going participation in the ancient
>"Mammal-Rodent Conflict."
>
>- Jan
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Margaret McCasland" <mmccasla at twcny.rr.com>
>To: "Sustainable Tompkins County listserv"
><sustainabletompkins at lists.mutualaid.org>
>Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 11:59 AM
>Subject: Re: [SustainableTompkins] deer repellents: waste stream thread
>
>
> >I know fox urine is sold commercially as a deterrent.  I also know
> > that hungry deer get bold and will ignore LOTS of things (like shiny
> > pie plates, Irish Spring soap bars, etc), jump high fences, eat what
> > they are not supposed to like, etc.
> >
> > From some research I did in the past, I was told that the only
> > consistently good repellent is having dogs in your yard.
> >
>
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