There are some mint-based sprays that are not as stinky as the rotten egg/garlic sprays. One brand is called "I must Garden." Propelling objects at the deer will do no good (unless you are propelling a bullet). He will only revisit during the evening and you have to sleep sometime. You either have to put up deer-proof fence or use some other type of repellant, such as the sprays.

Frankly, I wish someone would invent a substance that when ingested would interfere w/ the deer's ability to reproduce, so that we can get the herds down to a more manageable limit.

I agree that there should be something better than shooing them away. Have no clue what that could be. I did find that temporary black deer fencing works while they figure out another way around. But once imprinted to where the food is, they pass that knowledge on to their whole clan and they'll be back with their relatives for generations. We could outlaw the planting of willows, azaleas, roses, pansies, tulips, and hostas but they'd only find something else to chew on. As turpentine of a smell lantana has, they even eat that toxic plant's flowers.

I'm in favor of much more aggressive hunting, longer seasons (like everyday), and use of small darts or something propelled with force in the city/'burbs, or a corral setup by the homeowners association with a "humane" way of putting them to sleep and to get them hauled off to a packing company for food. When I see all that meat on the hoof I think of how many people are hungry.... And how many families are hungry because one of them killed the breadwinner by running into the car.

Nancy the nancedar

The two deer who wwere born in the woods next to my house are so brazen about eating my garden that I could kill them with a baseball bat if I were so inclined. They don't even run when I yell at them and wave my arms about like a crazy woman and throw sticks and rocks. I can get to about three feet away from them before they slowly move to another part of the garden. Maybe I WILL get a baseball bat. Venison anyone? Denise

What they do at night they do..I can't stop it and I mainly want to teach them that if they see us..they're going to get hurt or at least scared.

May have to practice my golf and tennis swings.

hemlady - you made me laugh - I imagined you with the arms flailing, yelling and throwing... and then with a helpless look on your face... I know exactly what you all are talking about - saw a huge buck this morning eating our new grass but somehow he took one look at me in the morning and took off - try rollers in your hair and no makeup

Carrie

Sorry you're having this trouble. Ice cubes would be better than golf balls since they will melt, LOL. That's what my mom used to use for squirrels.

Oops, they're made from water. Scratch that.

Can't somebody start a business of trapping nuisance deer and use the most kind method to put them down and offer them for market? Sell good cuts with recipes using herbs to tone down the flavor. Sell pre-made venison stews with organic ingredients like parsnips and navy beans or something. Organic dog foods made from local deer. Create a buzz. I'd buy it. I think the only danger from venison is the brain and spinal fluid have to be avoided.

Using a baseball bat ends up bruising the meat something awful! So does using the car or truck.

Trip wires kinda work and the only thing that really does the job is properly installed deer fencing. Deer evidentally have an underground newsletter where they fill each other in on which yard has which plant and which human has the best aim... So, you may think you can outsmart them but it seems that nature always gets the prize.

I have connections to some elder hippies that moved to the country to organically grow produce and herbs. When they first moved to the wilderness they were total peace-niks, blessing their newly planted trees with pyramids, smudge smoke, and rythmic beatings on a tom-tom. Nowadays their conversations have an entirely different flavor. They are advanced marksmen and giggle with glee while they chase wildlife into corners or up a tree to blast away at them. One most disturbing story is when they were both driving down the gravel driveway and came upon a young buck. The wife (who was driving) pulled the truck off the road and rammed the deer up into the pasture fence where it got its hooves and antlers entangled. She jumped out and started wrestling with the beast while her husband stood by the vehicle with his jaw agape. The true sign that things had changed for these two was when she immobilized the traumatized deer with her bare hands by wrapping his back legs around each other and yelled back over her shoulder for a something to bash its head in with - a hammer! a shovel! anything!!!

I'm not that coarse. And I like venison, but for some reason they haven't found my unfenced backyard.

Alamance Co. has a Hunters for the Hungry plan. Take your field dressed critter over there, and they will package it and get it to those who want it. It is almost time for gun season...after bow and muzzle. Maybe the state could issue more "tags" so that people who want to hunt could legally take them out. But you cannot hunt near most residential areas, of course.

It's been deer season here (Spartanburg Co.) for about a month, maybe 6 weeks. The man I let hunt my 11 acres on weekends has taken a doe and 2 BIG spike horns so far - I just wish he could shoot about 8 more!! There's a man about 2 miles away, in a conservation development that does not allow hunting, who feeds about 50lbs of corn/grains per day to the local deer herd, despite having been told by several people that it is a BAD idea! Eventually, they are going to have to allow controlled hunting on the 1200 acres, which is only a few properties over from me, as the herd grows and grows!!! Someone, between me and him, told me a few years ago that she heard her dogs (4 Jack Russels and a hound mix) barking loudly one afternoon - she looked out the window to see a deer grazing on her shrubs, surrounded by frantic dogs. He would look at them, but continued to eat, until she went out and called the dogs! You need a ferocious dog to scare the local deer. My blueberries have deer fencing around the patch, and the garden has electric fencing - and may get deer fencing next year - I got 2 - that's 2 individual ones! - beans this year, out of 4 successive plantings!

Whooboy...the big buck arrived this morning. Neighbor two doors down has two enormous ancient oaks in his back yard. They hang over his house and the noise of the acorns on a copper roof is like the dinner bell to the deer.

Haven't seen the big buck in years. Counted 10 points and I think I missed some.
I caught his attention with the flash on my camera(300' away) and that spooked him off.
Tempted to buy some out-of-drought-region acorns via eBay
(what am I thinking!!??) I want them gone but I don't want them starving.

I have started putting in the posts for an electric fence. Should have it done by the first of the year. I intend to bait it with aluminum foil covered in peanut butter. Irresistable! One lick and POW - a real shock to the dear deer lips! That should discourage them a bit!

If it doesn't get the deer it will do wonders for your overpopulation of squirrels!

Whoa!! Triangle John...your story of the woman wrestling the deer down is amazing!

I live WAY out in the country. My place should be overrun with deer but it's not. I can only say...we have stock fence around the front end of our acreage where the house, yard, flowerbeds, chickens, garage, and veggie garden are. Plus a lot of woods. And we have two Australian Shepherds. Bless their hearts. They sure do the trick. I haven't seen even a deer track in the sand since we put up the fence.

And they are around. There is a buck down on our dirt road - about 3/4 of a mile from us. I don't know if he was shot and wandered or if somebody hit him (no skid marks). Somebody hacked off the rack and left him there. I wish the buzzards would get busy...we don't exactly have road crews out here.

Well, I live only a stones throw (well maybe about a mile) from Uptown and my neighbor said he saw a doe about a block from my house. This is really an urban neighborhood! If she comes to by eat my roses, I hope she eats the rose slugs too!

Eliz. in Eliz.

I think Dottie stumbled on the answer. If the flash of her camera scared off that big ol buck, just think what would happen if you could get a bunch of flash bulbs to go off at once.