Well your probably going to get a few anti hunters after you now that you posted this . I should know , I have people who dont like what I do as a part time living ( taxidermist ). Some of the biggest deer are in peoples back yards , at least the people with the big gardens . Isnt hunting season over in a few days ? Rick

Glad to see your sensible approach to the deer problem. I know the people rage about killing Bambi, but I say, more power to you. I even think the same when I pass a huge flock of canada geese fouling up a sports field or park.

just out of curiosity, what is the smallest backyard you have ever hunted? not that my town allows it in where I live, and not that my children would ever forgive me, but believe me, I am tempted.

In the spring sometimes I see the fawns that are too little to follow their mothers left in my yard - I don't hurt them, I don't spook them so their mothers can't find them again, but I watch at those sweet little spotted things from a safe distance, and think, in a few months, I will hate you.

Oh, well.

I wonder if I could get away with scaring them with a slingshot (the bigger ones, not the babies).

Deer Man, I've got two people hunting my property - and so far they've only taken two deer! I was so hoping that they would be able to clear out 7 or 8 this season.

I allow only bow hunting and I have permission from one neighbor. The other neighbor refused permission but the hunters have set up stands at the edge of my property which is just about the required distance from his house.

But kudos to you!!

Dear newjerseytea: I am sorry that your hunters have not helped you as much as you wanted! I took 8 deer off a single back yard this season. The lady was thrilled! If you want me to give it a shot(no pun intended)just contact me. Good luck and thanks for the positive words. Deer Man

Dear newjerseytea: I am sorry that your hunters have not helped you as much as you wanted! I took 8 deer off a single back yard this season. The lady was thrilled! If you want me to give it a shot(no pun intended)just contact me. Good luck and thanks for the positive words. Deer Man

Keep up the good work, Deer Man.

I run around my property like a lunatic chasing the giant rodents. Yesterday I had to actually hit one to make it run (yes, my hand touched it.) I purchased a wrist-rocket, but I rarely hit my targets. And when I do, it does not seem to scare them off. Banging pots sometimes creates enough noise to make them run for twenty feet or so.

Nothing works. The problem is out of control. You could hit a dozen in my small yard, and a dozen more will be there in the morning. All that said, keep shooting!

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And I thought my problem was bad but sounds like nothing compared to you...I'm up in NW Bergen county.. they seem to avoid the yards with dogs...am I imagining that???

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New Jersey Audubon has finally come out with a statement that says that part of the degredation to our forests is caused by deer and they need to be controlled.

I would get on my soapbox and urge all from NJ to write to the Fish & Game Council to urge a 150' limit for bow hunting of deer. That would open up a lot more land to hunting and help to control the deer.

Here is a link that might be useful: NJAS and deer

My neighbors on either side each have Golden Retrievers, and directly across the street they have two Labs. Down the street there are no dogs and thicker woods, though my neighbor there claims she never sees deer, and they never touch her plants. Go figure!

NJ Audobon announced their official endorsement of the deer hunt. They plan to open some of their properties in the Fall for the hunt. It's probably too little to late. Very old trees die off naturally, while the most beautiful trees have been mutilated for the sake of the power lines. But the problem with this picture is that the understory has been devastated by the grazing deer. There is no new growth to replace what is already gone. The only surviving growth is in the form of invasive species. Never mind the birds and other native wildlife. Most have left for greener pastures.

I long ago accepted the fact that I cannot plant pretty flowers, or nurture lovely shrubs or trees. But it's the bigger picture that concerns me. If only more people would wake up to the magnitude of this problem and push for appropriate legislation. We may no longer be known as the Garden State!

I was reading (or saw on TV)about a beautiful manor home in Essex County which has some of the loveliest gardens and land anywhere in NJ... BUT... that the deer had eaten almost everything and had so destroyed the land that only a very few of the really ornamental plants and groupings had survived because the deer ate everything and what they didn't eat they ravaged...

I would pay to shoot them, not with arrows, but a contraceptive or sterilizer dart. It'd be win/win. You'd get to shoot at things and I wouldn't have to watch them die.

Deer Man,

This is a great idea!. My neighbor bowhunts behind my back yard in south Jersey. He sets up his stand about 1/4 mile behind my house. In 2003/2004, he took seven deer and I have noticed a difference - a lot less deer activity in my yard. (as a side note - he is very efficient and has been able to recover every deer he has hit).

Regarding the NJ Audubon Society, I believe their opinion on deer hunting is a breath of fresh air. While their position may have alienated some of their own members, one only has to take a walk in the woods of north and central Jersey and see how deer have changed the landscape for the worse. My work allows me to see the woods in all parts of our State, so I see this first hand all of the time. The first thing you notice when walking through the hardwood forests of north Jersey is the lack of an understory and native shrubs. There is usually nothing less than two inches in diameter growing in the woods. The second thing you notice is the invasion of japanese barberry - I guess the birds like the berries but who wants a monoculture. Lastly, erosion of topsoil even in heavily forested areas is evident.

In some places the deer are so thick that the woods smell like a dairy farm! I know if you are from the Princeton area you can relate.

I also support bowhunting on Sundays. I understand bowhunting takes a lot of time so an extra day in the field would be beneficial. Good luck to you.

You can have the deer just dont touch the turkeys :O)

I am from Titusville near the State Park. The deer have nailed my tulips so much I gave up on them. But when they were working on a different part of the garden, we tried urine--human. It worked---at least the damage stopped.
When we are having a deer problem, my husband collects his in a gallon milk jug, and we pour it around/on the plants we want spared. A little will not burn the plants---it's ammonia & they make fertilzer from that.
Maybe it works here because there are other things they can eat nearby.

We had a presentation in one of our master gardener classes on deer. It is a huge problem for the genopool (is that the right word? Too lazy to look up right now). Because the deer keep eating plants as they sprout, plants do not set seed. They say in 10 to 20 years, many of these plants will become extinct as all the seeds die off that are still present in the soil.

There is one forest mentioned with the three stories still intact. That would be in the middle of Manhatten where there is no deer. Ironic isn't it? Otherwise, they say they need to fence off areas of woods to allow the plants to grow back.

I have a new dog and have noticed that the deer have avoided jumping my fence since I got him. Of course, now that I have said that, tonight everything will be eaten.

He's big and his very presence is enough to make them think twice about coming in.

Unfortunately, he sleeps very soundly at night - unlike his predecessor prior to his getting sick - so unless the beasts are right up at the bedroom window munching on hostas, he'll be no good at night.

All that said, yesterday driving home I saw a deer who'd been hit, apparently suffering a broken hip/leg, valiantly trying to get up. I called the police to come shoot it. That made me feel not so good. But if it was a doe, that's two less.

I bought a house from people who had a dog. We moved in around June and, for the rest of that season, no deer. By the next year, they figured out the dog didn't live here anymore.

For the last 7 years, I have put an egg and a quart of water in the blender, put it into an old Windex bottle and sprayed my plants with it. They don't bother the plants I spray.

I used to be a strong proponent of fencing until I learned that fencing not only kept the deer out but in many instances fencing had an adverse impact on many other creatures also, almost no matter how small an area was fenced, i.e., you might inadvertently cut off a box turtle from a food source. Fencing a larger area could cut off other creatures from their regularly traveled pathways as well as food sources.

When other creatures of the land are excluded from an area, then the benefits those creatures bring to that section of land are also excluded.

Further, excluding deer from one's property is really a selfish act as it only drives them to someone else's property.

Out here where I live, an effort is being made to prevent landowners from fencing off large sections of their properties and especially from having fencing within a certain distance of a road. When fencing is erected close to the road, it serves only to increase the number of deer-car collisions, causing possible injury and death to humans and, of course, an increase in insurance costs. (I believe I read someplace of a driver who'd been injured quite badly in a collision with a deer and was suing a property owner who had a fence installed close to the road - unfortunately, I can't find a link.)

While many may not like it, the best way to control deer is by culling the herds, through hunting. In the northern part of the state, coyotes have begun to hunt deer in packs, just like their wolf ancestors, and I have heard that in some places that hunting is keeping the deer population levels down. (The coyotes here in the East, unlike coyotes in the west, have wolf DNA in them, and seem to be larger than western coyotes.)

Of course, there are now those people who are screaming for all the coyotes to be killed.....I'm not going there. :-)

By far, the best product I have found and I found it only last year is Deer Scram. I had deer walking along my dog fence nibbling shrubs as they went until about 8 weeks ago I put down a "barrier" of Deer Scram. The deer have not been along the fence since then - not one track in the snow.

Deer control is a thorny problem with no easy solutions, as we all know.

I wonder if I picked up a deer road-kill and deployed it on my property the deer who frequent my garden might get the message - ie dead deer so beware!

We live in Jackson and have deer in our backyard every evening. We decided to plant our tomatoes in big pots and just keep them on the deck. Anything else they want to eat in the yard is theirs for the taking. If they have the courage to come onto the deck to take a few bites, so be it. They were here first. We love having them here.