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Deer deterent

Tigahb8

Tigahb8

I have a lot of problems with whitetail deer in my garden in Mississippi, Last year I had a 4 strand 6 1/2 foot electric fence
with a tattle tail string at 7 foot to see if they were jumping the fence, They weren't. Somehow the deer (I think it was a individual going by the tracks) was getting through my electric fence and destroying my crops. I was using the 4 strands as energized and the earth as ground. I think when it was really dry the deer wasn't being shocked enough to keep them out. Now to the point, has anyone here used a staggered electric fence, where you put a hot wire, a ground wire, a hot wire, a ground wire and so on? Seems that it might be a bit more effective? Any experience's would be great!
 
I dont have too much electric fence experience, helped a friend set one up and it sounds like you did it right, so Im not sure how the buggers are getting thru.

I can always come to your house and will glady shoot them for you and dispose of the remains, there is plenty of room in my freezer :)
 
WickedMojo, bring your ice chests and your night vision goggles, hell I'll even help you clean the sob's, I've got my gambrel
hanging in my garage just waiting! LOL
 
If there are enough deer, I will be standing in line right behind Mojo...

Someone suggested human hair to me. Thats what I am going to try. Im just gonna buy a few thigh-high stockings,fill them with hair, then hang them up around the garden. Im sorry, but Im not going as far as setting up an electric fence. I cant afford that!
 
Hair will not do much from my experience. Even coyote urine only works for a short period. Deer seem to quickly get used to almost any deterrant. Now they even come up and eat right beside my half crippled husky dog :(
 
I haven't set one up but my uncle used a lot of fence to keep cattle in. IIRC, one wire went to the positive side of the charger and the other end to the negative.

When I visited my cousins, and me being a city-slicker, they decided to have fun with me. Told me to go up and grab the wire. I did and nothing happened. So Steve tried it - got the crap shocked out of him. He had me try it again - same thing: nothing. His brother tried it - ZAP!

I didn't have work shoes made for being around milking chambers and fields, so I wore rubber boots. They didn't!

Mike
 
Butch...one of the "tricks" I learned in Wildlife Management school at AU for bothersome deer was to plant a crop they like better than what they are eating and let them have it...CatJang Cowpeas were the crop of choice...and there are soil building benefits to the peas also...

http://www.mbsseed.com/catjang_cowpeas.htm
 
Hey wait a minute! These are plenty cheap.

Ammunition+Sales+Reach+Record+High+KT7_L2DUZu-l.jpg


Or you could just try coyote urine. Which ever you prefer.
 
I plant a large area so the hair and coyote urine would be a very interesting control, these deer even come up on my elevated deck and eat my wife's roses! Alabama Jack, you may have touched on one of my problems, I plant okra in the same garden as I
do the peppers and tomato's. They always go for the okra first. I plant peas in another area and it has very little pressure, even without a fence. Maybe if I planted a couple acres of okra I could keep the deer out of my peppers and give the hunters on this forum someplace to help control my crop depredation! :beer:
 
tigahB8-
when we first moved to the untamed wilds of eastern Washington (the State) 12 years ago, we put Zest soap in a nylon stocking and hung one on all of the 38 fruit treas that were on the property.

It seemed to work to keep the deer away from the trees. After that first year, we decided trying to keep up with 38 fruit trees was a little much, so we pretty much bagged it for the fruit trees and let nature and the deer have their way. They do a great job of cleaning up all the windfall apples which is less food for the yellow jackets!

We did not do it again after that first year so I cannot say it is a tried and true remedy.

Last year, after putting the chile plants out, I noticed a few nibbled leaves. (I'd forgotten about the Zest soap until now!)My homemade solution was- 1 qt water, 3 drops dish soap. 1 Tbsp 16Mil Extract...mixed up in a spray bottle. This recipe can easily be doubled/tripled/quad..... ;)

From my observations, it did cure the deer from chomping on the chile plants. Shortly after spritzing all the plants with the 16Mil solution, I notices little burn spots on the leaves. I'm pretty sure it was the 16Mil solution, but it didn't seem to harm the plants and it cured the deer from nibbling so the flowers and pods were just fine.


We'll be doing plants in buckets again this year, and I think I'll try hanging some chunks of Zest soap in nylons around the perimeter. It was probably the scent that was the deterrent, so maybe a chunk about the size of 2 pink erasers spaced about 10 feet apart should do the trick. They don't even need the stockings, but it's a good way to get the soap up in the air and away from irrigation, etc.




BTW- for those of you who haven't worked with electric fences before- if you come upon what you think may be an electric fence and you want to know if it is in fact Hot or not...Do Not Touch It with your hand. Just pee on it, and that will let you know if it is energized or not.

;)
 
OK! just kidding...Don't pee on the fence!




anyway, keep posting if/when you find what works other than the brass.

We were very close to a brass solution a couple years ago with a couple of bucks who decided our orchard was their territory. Luckily (if you can call it that) the rubber solution took care of the bucks before we had to go to the brass....as in 18 wheels of rubber~
 
Well the deer managed to get past the electric fence (I am convinced it is 1 deer with a resistance to electricity, only one set of prints while 6 were in the area)it ate over half of my okra, all the tops of the habanero's, a couple dozen 7 pots, a few bell peppers, a few cayenne, and all the senorita jalapeno plants (same mo as last year) Today I put up a 7 foot deer deterrent fence (looks like a 1/2 inch mesh plastic hardware cloth) along with the electric fence, I hope this does it, if not maybe a 24hr guard with instructions to shoot to kill!
 
They just think your peppers 'ain't that hot' Butch. :) Gotta pump up the heat some to deter them more. I hope you get the issue squared away soon. It must be frustrating. How the hell can a deer be resistant to electricity? :) Maybe dead nerves?

Chris
 
I've had more one night stands with deer than I care to admit... they will sleep right next to you to avoid a conflict with predators(non grizzly areas). Then again... even a black bear will lick the face of a man who has drank too much one night... Find what the deer fear and you have solved your problem. I can tell you the answer is not coyote pee... ever!

Get an Akita... they are silent and deadly...
 
Venison and chilli are always a good combo! if not so keen on shooting them i found a good deterrent for foxes was using old tights (pantyhose i think in your country) filled with human hair as the scent keeps them away which may work for Deer.
 
The deer disappeared for awhile this year, more than likely due to a Florida Panther roaming the woods across from my farm, but since the Mississippi river has risen to the levels it is now we have a influx of deer, hogs, bears, and everything
else, looking for high ground and food. I'll know if my methods are effective by this weekend.
 
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