They eat everything, seriously. Even with a fence they find a way to tear it down. There are woods behind my house and there is no underbrush. I can’t get any harvest from my acre yard because of deer. I’m at my wits end. What do I do? Please help.
To be honest I’d say you need a better fence. I’ve had mine about 15 years with zero entries except a couple of times I left a gate open. There is no other way that you’ll find effective long term.
What’s needed is something solid meaning strong and 7 feet tall.
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I’ve had to fortify my fence. I put cross beams between the posts.
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I use literal sticks and fishing line lol. It works 
I’m in the middle of the woods as well
Agree with @fruitnut. I have roughly 100 deer within 1 mile, and they are dropping fawns right now so soon it will be 200. These deer as so hungry that they eat fig foliage, holly, rhododendron, iris. There’s only a small handful of landscape or garden plants that they won’t touch. 4-5 years ago I erected a 7 1/2’ fence around my apple and berry orchards. Since then, I’ve had no deer problem there. The only other alternative is to grow a tree with scaffolds high enough (7’ minimum) that deer cannot reach.
Note that when I had a 5’ fence, deer jumped it daily. A community garden across the street was ravaged despite a 6’ fence. So the fence has to be at least 7’ high.
I agree that a buck in rut may run through a plastic fence. Ditto a deer that has been shot. I once shot a big buck with a bow and it ran straight into a fence, tangled its antlers, flipped 180 degrees, landed on its back and died. The fence was demolished. But you do what you can do – repair it and move on.
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I use 8 ft T posts and Dalen heavy duty netting. The only times they have gotten in is when a tree blew down and fell on the fence. If there is heavy snow, it sags and you have to shake it off. Not very visible. This is my 8th season. Get the heavy duty… the lighter netting they also sell tears and catches small animals and birds.
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realize its a big commitment up front, but training a farm dog to be up on night patrol is a sure way to keep cayotes and deer away. I can see why they are known as mans best friend, its their natural job to defend acreage from wildlife. We do use fencing also, but not as much as we would need otherwise. Our dogs defend about 20 of our 25 acres. I usually do nightwalks with them around the farm
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I posted pics of things that help us deter deer.
Also we have solar powered motion detectors that make loud gunshot and barking dog noise when they detect motion.
We have an adorable toad that sets them off sometimes.
Also, you can spray your trees and plants with things like garlic.
You can apply for a depredation permit from fish and wildlife, if none of that works.
I just got covers that say they are for “deer and squirrels”, I will post pics tomorrow as it is too dark now.
They fit nicely over my largest tomato cages and look to be good for bugs too.
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We have LGD here. No deer issues here. Just rabbits. But after 2 weeks I think our new Wiener dog will be our answer to Rabbits. She chases anything that moves. Now we have to improve her listening issue. She is stubborn.
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Was going to comment a LGD but several have mentioned it already. In addition to a fence, hard to beat a dog or two in keeping animals out of the yard. Even an untrained dog will keep a good amount of mammal pests out. If the whole yard is fenced (dog can’t escape) a hound would naturally chase most things out, but I wouldn’t want a hound. However the spca is usually full of them here at least.
I think a better permanent fence is probably the best idea, but maybe expensive, if you have it done (or difficult to source/handle 10’ posts). I am having success with a 4.5 ‘ three strand electric fence, which I combine with a cold masonry string a few feet behind and a foot higher. This creates a 3 D effect that deer can’t judge. The electric fence is easily adjusted for more clearance on the bottom, when I want to mow under it and can be moved/expanded easily. Premier1 has some diagrams on 3D fencing, but in my experience the second fence behind does not have to be hot and multi string.
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Farm dogs are the best. I would put my old hunting dog in the corn patch at night a few weeks before corn ripening, no racoons raided our corn. My new pup a golden labrador (1/2 golden retriver, 1/2 labrador) chases off deer, rabbit and any other 4 legged critter that wonders onto the farm.
You might could weve a smooth wire through that fence and clip it to the t-posts to prevent sagging. I really like that fencing, it’s inexpensive and made specifically for deer. Thanks for posting.
I bet that’s a great dog. We had one of the same when I was a kid.
Yes he was, he was a little over 18 human years when his back side went out and I had to have him put him down. I burried him under his favorite shade tree. i miss him still, even with my new pup to keep me occupied.
Yep. We’re between dogs now. It hurts when you lose ‘em. Our last was a Bernese Mt Dog… went everywhere with me.
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I had that ole boy for so long, it just seems stange not seeing him around. He had a good life though. When he wanted go hunting he would wonder off and catch a rabbit and bring it to me. That was his way of saying it time to go hunting, he loved to hunt rabbits. I got the pup about 2 months before we had to put him down. So no laspe, still hard though. Dogs just have a way of getting in your heart. When they leave it takes a while to fill the hole. That means your human.
This is my pup I got him when he was 6 weeks old and like yours, he follows me everywhere I go. Actually I think he believes I’m his best friend.
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We have a few different tactics depending on the part of our property…
- The 7 foot deer fence like mentioned earlier in this thread. We used 9 foot t posts and UV/cold resistant zip ties. This is good for enclosing a large area with a smaller expense.
- 5 foot tall welded wire circles for individual trees that aren’t otherwise fenced in. Will let them branch above browsing height.
- Liquid Fence spray every few weeks
- We only have a 5 foot welded wire fence around our vegetable garden, but since it’s tight the deer don’t try to get in. They like to see a clear landing spot.
We have moderate to high deer pressure and any time a tree has fallen victim it was due to thinking the deer wouldn’t bother it for one night or letting the deer fence sag enough that one took a chance getting inside.
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