posted on May 21, 2006 12:50:42 PM
Hi, all. We have an awful problem with deer eating every living thing in our yard. Our yard is mostly forest floor, and we're on the edge of the wilderness, windswept ridge, some barren ground. I've given up, after 4 years, trying to grow anything from a nursery--if it isn't the ground squirrels, it's the deer.
I'm pretty sure three lifelike rubber snakes, preferably rattlesnakes, strategically placed, could discourage the deer. I've looked everywhere--Archie McPhee catalog, google, shops, etc. I know they're out there somewhere. Anybody have an idea?
posted on May 21, 2006 01:06:18 PM
Never mind! I just googled (last time I googled, found nothing), and I've found a couple of versions of the rattler that will do.
Crossroads: Thanks for the idea. I've seen that before--but up here water is very scarce (I'm assuming it's a sprinkler that's motion activated?).
Believe me, we've tried red pepper on the leaves, sprinkling garlic, mothballs in net bags, and all sorts of ploys. Oddly, the only pretty flower I can plant (in a tub, though, not in the ground) that nobody eats is the impatiens! Who would guess.
People have said plant marigolds (nope), plant yarrow (nope), try sage (maybe, sometimes). Being on the edge of the wilderness, and down the hill from some people who FEED the deer with hay all year round, makes us part of their regular route. We've chased 6 or 8 out of the driveway at times, and once my husband looked up from his home office and two young deer were at the window staring at him.
posted on May 21, 2006 04:54:10 PM
Hwahwa, refer back to Classic's post. Your suggestion of cat sh!t with all the odor is in essence exactly the same thing as his suggestion and it is what he meant.
posted on May 21, 2006 06:41:07 PM
Can't you just shoot them with a bullet or arrow? Deer are a pest here too and there is no "deer season" - it's all year slaughter outside city limits. Otherwise you have to get a ranger to kill it within city limits, but you can keep the venison.
posted on May 21, 2006 07:56:10 PM
agitprop: We're in a gated community on the edge of the village and the "rules" are no hunting of any sort. We aren't hunters, anyway, and don't own a gun.
Those danged deer come through and eat just the succulent tops of little struggling manzanita bushes, the leader candles off the tops of reachable pine and fir trees--even the daylilies I planted will be eaten to the ground. And my ONE tulip in a tub was neatly bitten off this year. Luckily they won't touch daffodils, any part of them; so lots of people here grow lots of daffodils.
posted on May 21, 2006 09:11:03 PM
Get a big dog, one that barks a lot. Or try this stuff. I have no personal experience with it, but I've read some good reviews.
posted on May 21, 2006 11:29:51 PM
Both good ideas, guys. Our yard isn't fenced, and we can't keep a dog cooped up all day, let alone run in the yard. Here in the mountains a coyote would get him in no time flat--or a mountain lion. Dogs have to be on leashes at all times, or restrained behind a fence.
Does human pizz really work????? I suppose I could get my husband out at night to do the deed. . . .
posted on May 22, 2006 12:05:46 AM
I'll bet he already does pee outside. He's a man ain't he? All of us men pee outside regularly, we just don't usually talk about it, we just do it. I mean why walk all the way inside just to pee, when it's so much easier to just whip it and and let it fly but of course whenever possible, through the fence and into the neihbors yard.
It contains enough human "scent" to warn away the deer.
Also, next time one of you get a haircut, pick up the trimmed hair from the floor & throw it around the area, it too will ward off the deer.
"“More Iraqis think things are going well in Iraq than Americans do. I guess they don’t get the New York Times over there.”—Jay Leno".
[ edited by Bear1949 on May 22, 2006 07:58 AM ]
posted on May 22, 2006 08:44:03 AM
Thanks, Bear! Wow about the hair. I'll collect a bagful next time I'm near my beauty salon. They're always sweeping up the floors and throwing it away.
OR. . . should the scent of the hair match the scent of the pizz??? Hmmmmmmmmm.
posted on May 22, 2006 08:58:27 AM
Roadsmith, I envy you seeing deer on your property! How much prettier they are than the armadillo and snakes that come to visit us.
