No doubt about that. Out here manure smells like money
We have a herd of about 12 deer that travel around and visit our property every couple of days. Usually have a couple fawns born every year. I kind of like having them around, but we are putting in an apple orchard, so have had to try a lot of things. Each tree has a 5 feet steel fence around it when we plant it and a plastic guard around the trunk. This has worked pretty well for the last three years, but the trees are getting bigger and it takes about 15 feet of steel fencing to make a 3 foot diameter fence (not cheap). Last year we tried 100 feet of 7 foot plastic deer fence on 7 foot T posts to enclose a half dozen trees. We added another 100 feet this year and have about 15 trees enclosed. Between the posts and the netting this isnāt cheap either, and we arenāt sure how long the plastic will hold up. So far this has worked as well. Our deer are curious, but also seem very lazy. This has worked as well, and when we added the extra fencing they just strolled around it. We also tried fishing line around a smaller area, but it didnāt seem to work very well. This area had mash in it (from our local distillery) and I guess it was too tempting.
Just got in a Messina Plotsaver system and put it up around a large tilled field that we are going to put pumpkins in. The field is bare right now so I canāt tell if it is working, or if the deer just have no reason to cross the line.
Revisiting this topic. I currently have no fencing around my trees. Near the end of last summer, I moved my scare crow motion triggered water sprayer to the area where deer are mostly likely to enter.
ScareCrow Motion-Activated Sprinkler
This option will cost you some 20 dollars less but the area it covers is significantly smaller compared with the previous product ā no more than 1,200 square feet. The unit is smaller in size, about 12 x 7 inches, so you should better use it against medium and small-sized animals like rabbits, raccoons and birds.
What is wrong with ScareCrow device?
On the other hand, there is a problem related to the distance at which the device can operate. If you need it to work at a close range, this motion-activated sprinkler will hardly cope with the task. It is angled to shoot upwards about 45 degrees to reach a distance, therefore, if the intruder passes in front of the device within some ten feet, it will not be hit by the water spray.
In general, the device works the same way, driving unwanted animals out of the area by a sudden noise and jet of water. It also consumes a small amount of water for sparing and targets all sizes of animals, from critters to deer. There is also āat night onlyā option so that you can adjust the sprinkler depending on your needs.
Read more https://gadgets-reviews.com/review/832-best-motion-activated-sprinklers.html#ixzz6EKMQLgmM
It covers a half circle for about 3 of my 4 rows with a quick and fairly strong spray. After I installed it, I did not see any additional rubs or grazing on my trees. Iām sure there are better but this one fit my budget. In between, I use it when raising grass. The chickens like to eat the seed, and I am tired of them raking through any straw or covering to get at it. They steer clear of the area for the most part. When they dont, the seeded area gets a quick blast of water. I have gotten some of my best grass seeded in this way.
Does anyone have success with solar electric fence? I read somewhere that if you add a piece of foil with peanut butter to various areas, the deer learn pretty quick to stay away. This area is far from my house, so currently solar is the only option. Any recommendations?
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I used those sprinklers for maybe five years. I have a dozen of them. The problem I found is the deer can become acclimated after a month or so if there is something they want to eat. So I ended up having to both use sprinklers and repellent and even that didnāt always work if it was raining a lot.
ā¦ I donāt think I followed up on this thread but I feel I have finally solved my deer problems with raising the fruiting area on existing trees and fencing in new ones. It is taking several years to get the fruit higher and I sadly had to cut off a lot of great fruiting wood, but production should pick up this year.
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@scottfsmith
Growing tall pear trees works great for me. Iāve caught deer in the act of jumping on their hind legs like a kangaroo trying to reach my pears lol. The effort was futile on my large standard trees. I must admit i felt very satisfied but do wish i could have got photos. Itās exceedingly difficult to sneak up on deer let alone take their picture. With modern trail cams i suppose we could start a thread on what worked with photos. Deer eat windfalls in my orchard and im ok with that because i have so many anyway.
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We water our orchard off a well with a pump so I donāt think the Scarecrow system would work for us. Interesting idea though. Iāve looked at the motion activated noisemakers, but didnāt try them. My deer just look at me if I wave my arms and yell at them.
Also I wasnāt too impressed with the Messina Plotsaver system. This is basically just a white tape. You can put some smelly liquid on it and it worked on our pumpkin patch until the pumpkins got ripe. Once the deer found out there was food on the other side of the tape, they just jumped over. Also the smell washed off if it rained.
As I said above, my deer are very lazy. If there is an easier place to get food, they would go for it. The plastic fencing about 6-8 feet high seems to keep them away from our apples trees, but tends to sag during snowstorms. Probably has a limited lifetime anyway. Still pretty much in good shape after two years, but we are probably going to start spending the money for a permanent steel deer fence.
I feed deer for 2 months, a 50 ā bag, same with the birds, March they are on their own. These are the 6 Amigos, a coffee can, twice a day.
Hit the can 6 times and they come out of woods like clockwork.
Sometimes I get about a dozen or more.
My value trees and veggies are fenced in with 60ā fencing from Lowe, raised a foot with inground figtrees planted along the fenced.
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Bob, do you have any ticks issue from all the deer.
I am using the 3D fencing recommended by deer hunter to protect their food plots until fall. Some local nurseries are using it. This is my first year. Been using metal cages , but my orchard is getting two big for that many cages. We shall see how well it works once the trees leaf out.
I walk around the fenced in yard with no problems at all, not even chiggers. More problems with raccoons and squirrels, my brother Ruger takes care of them.
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John - Iāve read about 3D fencing and am considering installing one this year.
How have you set yours up?
I set 4 corner Tposts in the perimeter of my orchard. I then took a 1 inch electric fence tape about 18 inched of the ground around the perimeter. I used step in electric posts between the Tposts. I also twisted the tape a few turns to give it more of a 3D appearance. Then used a second set of set in posts 36" inside the first fence. Then ran two stands of poly wire one at 12 inches and one at 24 inches. I have not electrified it yet waiting to buy a solar fence charger. But from what the āexpertsā at Texas A&M say this is enough to confuse the near sighted deer. Since it creates a visual barrier they canāt judge they will not try to jump even though they could easily. Time will tell. The deer hear will annihilate anything that is unprotected. Fortunately I rotate my cattle with portable electric fence so I had everything on hand except a solar charger.
How long have you had this up and what is your experience so far? I saw a video with a similar set-up to yours and they said it worked really well. Have you had it during the summer when you have to cut grass? Iām thinking about how I would handle all that weed eating.
Thanks for sharing your set-up.
No results yet to speak of. I have only had it up for a week and it isnāt electrified yet. But when I leave for work early before the sun comes up I havenāt seen them in there. I would normally see them in there occasionally. I will let everyone know about my results once the trees get something for them to nibble in. I am still leaving half of the trees protected with Wire cages until I see if it is working or not.
The beekeepers who have bees on my place during the summer use 3 strands of wire and a solar charger to keep bears out of the hives. It has worked for a number of years now.
This fall, when they removed the hives and solar charger, deer ran right through the wires breaking them in a few spots. I believe it was chasing during the rut. Iām not sure if that would have happened had the wires still been hot or not. Iām guessing it would have.