AHA! I caught him!?

Question

2 - 3 weeks ago, I asked on here why anyone would steal unopened rosebuds.

Around 3 AM today, I got up. Happened to look out the window, and caught movements in my flower garden. I turned on the porch light.

Young deer there, maybe as big as a yearling. Eating flowerheads off a tall plant. He looked up at the light, then went back to eating. Today, I see that he has again eaten one rosebud. Tiny ones on other bush still there.

In the past 2 months, he (she?) has eaten my rosebuds, our green beans, the tops off the beets. I think he may live in the heavily wooded spare lot we own behind the house.

Now what? Can't afford a fence. Can't lay out poison (wouldn't, anyway.) Can't shoot a deer in town. How do I deter him?

Upper Michigan, Wobbly.. Small town, lots of woods. Often see Deer in the evening, or early morning, heading down to Lake Superior for a cool drink.

Answer 1

My parents have had some problems with deer eating their tulips in the spring. They put down shavings of Irish Spring soap and it seems to do the job. I'm not sure how well that would work in your garden though. Be careful if you have a dog though. Their dog loved the soap and she ate it and then had the poops from it!

Answer 2

For the single rose bush you could make a circle of wire mesh, larger and higher than the rose bush. Some tomato stakes would be enough support.
If you had my little blue heeler dog, the deer would not have any peace. He would love to have a deer to chase. The point of course is that a good farm dog would chase away the varmints and deer.
There are any number of ways to scare the deer with noise makers. These only have a temporary effect however, the animals get used to them after a while. If you are in town, your neighbors would not love you either :) .
On a large property you can plant food plots away from the area where you do not want deer (cow peas work well). But on smaller acreage you would probably only encourage the deer to stay around.
I have seen people hang bars of deordorant soap, spray pepper spray, and even knew of one guy who went to the zoo and got some lion manure to scatter around. Strange smells work about as well as loud noises.
Deer seem to be pretty specific about what they like to eat. Strawberries and apples are high on their list, as well as your beets and beans. Some wire mesh to cover those things that they want to eat is my best suggestion. Good luck

Answer 3

if you have a cat sprinkle it's old litter around the base of the plants or use it's hair (human hair included). the scent is enough to make the deer stop. There are many easy remedies try to google "deter garden pest"

my mom had a great book about safe easy around the house things used to deter deer. I would recommend human hair from your hair brush to mark the plants as "MINE!". also you can try spraying them with diluted pepper and water mix though i can't be sure of the outcome to your plants.

Answer 4

the mystery is solved.... down in the hill country of TEXAS the deer are really thick and will eat your garden your fruit trees , people use wire, sprinklers, but what I would suggest kiwi is that you go down and get a nice puppy dog to live outside your house in the fair weather months he or she will shooo that deer away and will be a life long friend

Answer 5

Deer are browsers, and once your garden is 'on his route`, he's going to be hard to deter.
Active measures like chasing him off will only work when you're awake & around.
They're faster than you, they know it, and they're arrogant about it.
There are infra-red sensor directed water sprinklers
that might work, also motion detector activated ultra-sound deterrents.
Good luck.

Answer 6

Aw a deer in your garden!

Where do you live if you don't mind me asking? Not after address or anything - just roughly!

Answer 7

Sorry, I in basic terms however Dr. Michio Kaku have been given form of previous. i understand you despise Stephen Hawking, yet i think of he's amazingly smart. it incredibly is approximately me watching his documentary, impressive?

Answer 8

A scarecrow? or maybe one of those water spray thingies!

Answer 9

Run out screaming loudly at it that should scare him off

Answer 10

is there any sort of netting you could put up and hang over it at night so it can still breathe but he/she cant get to it... hope that didnt sound too daft!