I am tellin y’all, try a few bags ties low in your trees or on posts near them…i wouldnt bet the farm on any one thing but that free fix has done more for me than anything else, dumb as it seems. Deer like apples, they like plums, they like all sorts of things. But plastic bag “windsocks” is not one of them…
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I believe that has worked for you, but can tell you it wouldn’t work here. Thanks to some slobby neighbors and to living in a windy area, I end up with plastic bags in trees. Some of those trees are wild crabs, and the deer continue to eat fruit from/under those trees.
I bought a bag of milorganite and spread it around the outside of our orchard. Im also peeing in a jug and spreading that around the exterior. Only time will tell if this work!
IME…human pee has zero repellent impact on deer or other critters. In fact, I have repeatedly witnessed deer checking out fresh human urine (mine) in the woods with only curiosity. No “spooking” impact whatsoever.
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Deer here have not bothered my currants, gooseberries, seaberries, goji, or goumi. On the other hand, they love elderberry and aronia plants.
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Solar powered electric fence with 4 strands. Can they jump over it? Yes. Do they jump over it? No. I’ve been using this since 2012 and only replaced the battery once.
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ditto on this, I have seen deer tracks walk right up to where I peed in the snow rifle hunting, many times.
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Rabbits? Or do you have dogs?
Rabbits are an entirely different challenge! Apparently rabbits don’t find snoring Basset Hounds intimidating, but she’s since passed and perhaps the crazy spastic Labrador will be more effective. I have been live trapping the rabbits, but will have to move on to something more effective/permanent. Now that the neighbor got rid of his beagles I expect he won’t object to a dwindling rabbit population. They don’t do too much damage, targeted the beans last year.
Nothing beats small terriers for chasing down rodents! Well, except maybe snakes.
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All risks can be compared statistically. Given all the safety precautions we currently take with automobiles and the very limited set of protections many schools have today, the chances of injury or death from a school shooting is a tiny fraction of the chances a student has driving to school. Some things seem more risky to us be cause they are rare and sensational. Others which are common place are generally underrated.
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I use Irish Spring Soap, Ultra Sonic Solar Powered Pest Repeller, On amazon, seems to work for now. hope this helps
Does the Irish Spring soap actually work just by itself?
I used the milorganite bags for two years, great results.
HOWEVER, I replaced them this spring and I noticed deer damage this last weekend. Mostly low branches, probably the smaller young deer. They ate some apple tree branches with the blossoms on them. A few trees were small enough that they ate all the blossoms so no apples from those trees this year.
I need something that I do not have to put up fencing since these apple trees are in my front yard area.
Get an ultrasonic deer repeller or get one of those motion detecting water soakers that attach to the hose.
Any good suggestions as to what brand of ultrasonic deer repeller. I cannot use the water soakers, my orchard is in my front field too far away from my house.
Mike did you see this:
I am now using the Plotsaver tape discussed in this thread and so far it looks good. (EDIT: well it did look good until about an hour after posting this…)
I don’t think either motion activated sprinklers or ultrasonic repellers are good long term solutions if you have very high deer pressure like I do. I spent a lot of money on motion-activated sprinklers and they only work for half of the summer. Look at the reviews of the ultrasonic devices on Amazon, you will see more unhappy reviews even compared to the sprinkler reviews.
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I too used a solar- powered pest repeller… It worked great until the little boys down the st. stole it. Milorganite worked; too. Until we went home from our cabin in N. Mn.;and it broke down/ dissolved w/ time. Plan on getting another solar repellant soon. Milorganite till then.
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Julie
Which repeller did you use?
Thanks
I got a Bell & Howell solar pest repeller from CollectionsEct.com. Only 19.99 for the 30 foot range unit; and $ 29.99 for the 50 foot range.Not much to it mechanically; but it sure seemed to work…
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Hey guys, just an update— I surrounded my garden with a fence made up of deer netting and t posts (positioned at a 70° angle, and hung cloth bags of milorganite on each post. I’m actually surprised at how sturdy it is.
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