Even though we are smack in the middle of town we have regular whitetail and muley visitations in our neighborhood, and the other night I spotted a nice doe bedded down right in the middle of our yard. They've gotten pretty acclimated.

Scott,

I do have a minor deer and turkey problem, but your was a bigger problem. I have been using deer liquid fence and that help alot, but Jerry Lehman showed me another way that also works well but a lot cheaper than liquid fence. He used bounce dryer sheet and taped to the lower branches and the deer hated that smell. The results were amazing. I have no more issue with the deer. Now I need to work on the turkey because they peck a bunch small holes all over my green lawn. The good new is I may not have to pay the lawn guy do my aeration next year. LOL!!

Tony

Good to hear it works. What about squirrels? Do they set them off or are tree rats just too small?

A family friend wants to start an orchard on his 11 acres. First thing I asked him was about the deer and his response was that his land butts up next to some Amish and they make sure there aren't many whitetail around! Obviously this guy lives in the country where any problem deer could become a pot roast very quickly :)

I assume you tried an electric fence in the past. Why did it not work?

Scott,

Before I fenced my yard I also used the scarecrow and it is a good product. Same as you I debated whether to get a few of the scarecrows or fence the yard and went with the fence. I still remember the first night I had the scarecrow set up in the round blueberry bed in the middle of our circular driveway. The doe came in an hour before dark as they are fearless and when that water went off she literally tumbled over backwards. After a week of having the scarecrow in that bed the deer went out around that bed and gave it a wide birth even after it was removed. In the end I would have just needed too many of them for it to be cost effective.

Yes squirrels will set them off and even robin sized birds but they have to get pretty close.

Why do you not have much deer problem in the winter? That is when they are the worst here, and neither electric fence nor sprayers would work then. I have ended up having to use cylinders of wire around each tree, which is a real pain. I could fence the entire area, but I have had fences breached or downed on a couple occasions, so I prefer to do the individual trees. Northwoodswis

I expect they would also scare squirrels and I may try that at some point, in particular if they are stripping one tree aim a few sprinklers at that tree. For protecting a large area I don't know how well they would work, squirrels are not as easily spooked as deer. Since the squirrels are active in the day I would have to manually turn off the sprinklers before going into a particular area and then remembering to turn it back on when all done.

Glib, since I am in suburbia I am reluctant to put up an electric fence. I did look into putting up one which would be live overnight only but decided against it. If the orchard was in an area only in the middle of my lot then I would do it in an instant, but I have about 50 trees needing protection that are within 10' of the street.

I did nearly fence in the whole lot with 8' deer fence, but after putting it up on one side noticed how much of a pain it was to get around the yard. In general I don't like completely fenced in yards at all. Keeping the critters out is generally a challenge in the "edible landscaping" approach of my orchard -- I have ten separate plantings in my yard.

Northwoods, the deer just eat back a few low shoots in the winter. The bucks also rub against the young trees, they seem to like peach trees in particular. I don't know why they are not doing more damage but I'm sure not complaining.

Scott

I took the kids to a corn maze plus pumpkin patch plus orchard place over the weekend. You would not believe the deer fence they had around the orchard. It looked like the fence from Jurassic Park!

Yeah....if it's this bad one has to go all the way!

What I did for my garden was the 4' rabbit fence, then strung a very visible rope at the 7' height above the fence. With this, the deer know in advance that if they're going to jump the 4' fence they have to also get under the 7' rope.
It works well as long as I remember to shut the gates. :)

Mapler, I tried something like that with fishline, I put lines at 2, 4, and 6 feet. It did provide some deterrent, but if there is a clear path for several feet on both sides they will jump right through it. I even added more lines to make them 6" apart and they still jumped right through. My friend had a small garden he used it on and the fishline worked great for him. I think if its a small enough area with no clear area on both sides of the line for takeoff and landing they will not risk it, so in many settings it is a cheap and easy method.

Scott

Scott, When I was looking into fencing my garden I read a number of accounts that double fencing works with deer. That means that two short fences do the job of one really tall fence. The trick is that they need to see that there isn't enough room for them to land and then jump again between the fences. I forget the spacing, just remember that it was said the the two fences didn't need to be horribly sturdy, just visible. What you said about the fishline made me remember that. I only have a couple of trees, so I decorate them with little baggies of Irish Spring. Seems to work, though I think it's because they just idly browse through on my land, it isn't their best or only option for food hereabouts. Sounds like you've found your solution, must be a relief!

Sunnibel, I have also read about the double fence method and have heard of good results. For me I can't do the two fence solution since the second fence would be running between trees and would be pretty much impossible to set up and maintain. I did try running a second piece of fishline from trunk to trunk to give a similar effect as two low fences and it appeared to be somewhat helpful but not completely so. My guess is the two-fence solution would also fail in some cases, especially if the deer are hungry enough. All it takes is one deer to get through and "spread the word" and soon there is a crowd.

Scott

Tell me about it! My fence solution turned out to be a baited, single-strand electric with the proper charger and grounding to deliver a good jolt. It's been running for 21 months and nary a deer... Except a month ago when I accidentally left it off and the gate open for a week while on vacation. Then apparently the whole herd came in through the gate and discovered the sweet potato vines while aerating most of the rest of the garden. Shutting the gate and rebaiting did the trick, but they are not shy once they find a weak spot!

I agree, if the deer are hungry and resources are limited (as in suburban settings or in deep winters up north) then good luck! I feel very lucky that my deer have acres and acres of other fodder so that what I have is merely convenient for them, not neccessary. And me and the dog do what we can to make in inconvenient.

I have 3.5 acres and fought deer for years - and finally bit the bullet and put up an 8 foot high mesh fence all around with a gate I can close at night.

I wish I'd done that week one.

Hi, I was hoping to get by with a 6 ft fence.....no? Just whitetail deer here......but have no idea how high they can jump?

6 feet is too short. You need 8 feet

The height you need depends on how much of a running start they can get and how clear it is around the fence, they can even jump 8' in rare cases but on the other hand in most cases 6' will works. 8' is a good compromise.

Scott