Hi all. I'm new here to the forum AND to NY. Just moved up here from Florida last summer, and at first i thought the deer were soooooo beautiful on my lawn, THEN they ate my new pansies right off the front steps of the house, before i'd even gotten them planted. i have a new house with no plantings yet, and a very healthy neighborhood deer herd that wanders from yard to yard day and night. i searched online and found something called "wireless deer fence", and tried them. they are stakes that you place in the ground around, and in your planting areas. they have a place for 2 AA batteries, and they have electric contacts on the top. when the deer touch them with their soft, wet nose, they get shocked. there is a place on them where you can put deer baits, which come with them, to encourage the deer to sniff then get shocked. Long story short... they worked for me this past fall/winter. i had yews and rhodys still in pots that i'd buried in the ground to overwinter, and the deer were getting into them until i got the stakes and placed them in the pots. the deer came, because i saw their hoofprints in the snow, but they didn't eat anymore, and i can only assume they got shocked and ran off. my neighbors had bought the same yews and rhodys at the same end-of season sale, and theirs were all eaten to the ground. my rhodys are beautiful and in full bloom right now, and the yews are bursting out with new growth from the stubs where the deer had started munching them :o))

if you do a search for 'wireless deer fence" you will find them i'm sure. if not let me know and i'll find my receipt. they were $20 each, and i think they were worth it for me anyway.

susan