get one of those motion activated fish plaques and post it on a stake. Billy Bass is one brand I believe. Somewhat annoying hearing "Take me the water" over and over but it works.

It could be anything. In my garden, the deer usually snack on the corn and tomato plants first, followed by sunflowers and then artichokes. Then they move on to the bush beans, melons, squash and pumpkins. In a good year when they have lots of wild stuff to eat, they may only nibble. Other years they chomp things right down to the ground. They especially like to eat the sunflower blossoms right before they are going to bloom. I gave up cool season crops long ago, because the deer love, love, love broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, etc.

The best, most permanent solution is a fence of some sort. You would need a fence 8' tall to keep them out, or two fences 4' or 5' tall and about 4' to 6' apart, because they can either high jump or broad jump, but they can't high jump and broad jump at the same time. However, a fence is the most costly solution. (My fence is 4' tall, so it doesn't keep them out. I am about to add 4' more feet in the hope I can then keep the deer out of the veggie garden.)

An electric fence is a good option, and if you happen to have any electric fencing on your property to contain your livestock, it wouldn't be hard to add more to protect your garden. It, too, is costly, though, if you don't have the material sitting in the barn already.

There are some deer repellents you can buy or make, but most of them contain rotten eggs and are strong enough to repel YOU from the garden too.

Some gardeners put a strongly scented deodorant soap in the garden, hanging it from tree limbs or fencing or whatever and believe the strong odor repels deer. I have had only moderate success with this, using Irish Spring soap.

Some people hang survyor's tape, free internet CD discs, etc. from nearby trees, fences, etc. hoping that the movement will scare away the animals.

There is a rather expensive sprinkler you can buy. It has a sensor that sets it off when an animal or human is nearby. I don't know if it is effective or not.

Some people put a battery-operated radio in the garden (under a bucket or pail to keep it dry) and leave it on,
believing it scares away the deer.

If it isn't deer, it could be almost any animal that is hungry. In the past I have had plants and/or veggies/fruit eaten by deer, racoons, rabbits, possums, turtles, bobcats (in my garden they love tomatoes) and coyotes (they love melons of all kinds, and any kind of fruit). For all of these pests, fencing is the ultimate solution, though costly. Some birds will devour plants of all kinds, and there's the insects too. Caterpillars are voracious and can eat a lot really quickly.

If you live near a river, lake, wildlife management area, or just in an extremely rural area, you will ALWAYS have the wildlife around so you have to look for a permanent solution. Some years even a short fence is a pretty good solution. Other years the animals are so hungry that they can't be stopped. Don't forget that to them, eating is about survival, and they can literally spend their whole day or night trying to get into your garden to eat your crops.

Something I am going to try this year is chicken wire (the kind with the largest holes). I read somewhere, maybe it was osu ext, to lay them on the ground. it said the deer are afraid to walk across them for fear of getting their small feet/legs tangled up in them. I think we are going to lay down two widths so they might be afraid to even jump them. Am also going to put rocks about the size of softballs under the wire so it won't be completely flush with the ground. They destroyed our garden last year, so anything is worth a try.

Rebel One,

Let us know if it works for you. I have tried to use chicken wire and it was a disaster for me. If you have bermuda grass underneath the chicken wire, as I did, the grass will grow up through the chicken wire and eventually entangle and overwhelm the chicken wire to the point that deer can and will still walk over it. And, at that point, you can't remove the wire because of the bermuda runners. Of course, you can move the chicken wire periodically, mow, and lay the chicken wire back in place but that is a LOT of extra work.

If I had tried the chickenwire over a surface other than bermuda grass, it might have worked and I might have been happy with it. But, since I am stuck with bermuda grass, it was just one more problem complicated by the bermuda.

Dawn

Well Dawn, you have certainly burst my bubble, lol. We are "blessed" with bermuda grass and I can now see where that might be a problem. Thanks for saving me a lot of work. Never thought about that angle.

Rebel One,

Sorry. I just wanted to warn you that if you have bermuda grass, it and the chicken wire are a horrible combination.

The worst mistake I have made in my garden since moving here also involved chicken wire.

Shortly after we moved into our house in the late winter of 1999, our neighbor across the road had his ranch cleared of almost all the trees and underbrush. Of course he had every right to do that, and he is a GREAT neighbor, BUT we had a huge influx of wildlife move onto our property because their habitat was destroyed.

We had so many armadillos, possums and skunks that it was just unreal. They constantly tunneled under the garden fence which was only made of chicken wire at that point in time. Their digging destroyed everything. To thwart them, I redid the fence, burying 6" of it underground so the animals couldn 't get underneath it and into the garden. And it worked. But, guess what did get into the garden...the bermuda grass runners!

Once the bermuda runners had grown into the chicken wire fence buried beneath the ground, it was almost impossible to get it out. I have removed 75% of that buried fence and it was incredibly difficult to get it and the bermuda grass runners out of the ground. This week I am working to remove the 25% that remains. The chicken wire fence has been replaced with a woven wire fence, and NONE of it is buried underground, because I learned my lesson with that!

I don't have the huge problem with animals burrowing under the fence much any more. Within 3 or 4 years of the huge influx of wildlife, the population finally leveled out.

I still have a problem with bermuda creeping into the veg garden. I am combatting that this year by tilling up a 4' swath of land OUTSIDE of my garden fence. I am raking out the bermuda stolons/runners, laying down a good-quality landscape fabric, and mulching over the fabric. Anything that comes up through the fabric/mulch is going to be treated with round-up. Using this method, I hope to keep the bermuda grass out of the veg garden.

And talk about stupid mistakes.....yesterday was our local high school graduation and it was a hectic day, getting the gifts for some of the kids we know, etc. I forgot and left my garden gate open, the deer were inside last night when we arrived home, and I am sure they had a good time eating stuff while we were gone. I sort of dread looking at the garden after sunrise. It was my own fault, though, because I forgot to close the gate.

Dawn

Our border collie "limits" the amount of time deer can spend in the yard. They usually show up at night and don't stay long unless it's winter and Sticks is sleeping in the garage. That's when they loadup on acorns in the front yard.

They will sneek in soon and start thinning out the plums every chance they get.

Randy,

I wish that leaving a dog out overnight would work for me, but we had neighbors lose a large Australian Shepherd to something....either coyotes or a cougar, so I keep my dogs inside at night!

The deer have been thinning my plums and peaches for 8 or 10 days now, but there are so many on the trees this year that it is not as upsetting as it would be if we had a smaller crop.

Dawn

I used to have a dog that I brought with me from California. But he was himself more destructive than any other animal out here. I had to fence off half my backyard in California just to keep him out of the garden. I had to take him to a shelter here in Oklahoma after he broke his chain and ran over and attacked the neighbor's dog.

I don't see a dog as a solution. That may be one of those cases in which the cure is worse than the disease.

A dog may not be a solution for you. No problem, but not all dogs are destructive. Some are actually very intelligent and can learn a lot of things if trained. :-)

randy

Was making the 10 acre walk to my vegetable earlier today. Following the trail through the woods. Heard something moving. Turned my head to look and saw two deer running away. They hadn't been in my veggies... this time.

We have a family of deer who live way back at the back of our property. They have been here longer than us and really aren't afraid of us at all. When they have new babies, they come up very close to the house and eat, and leave the babies on the edge of the woods where we can see them. They only do this once or twice while the babies are really tiny. I think they are bringing the babies to show them off.

When I am in the garden in the summertime, they come by periodically in broad daylight to see 'what's up?'. When they see me in the garden, do they run off? Do they hurry to get away? Do they seem at all afraid? No. No. No.
When they see me, the just continue walking slowly and cautiously across the yard like they haven't got a care in the world.

They probably think I am growing the garden for them.

I love the deer. I love watching them out in the pastures, on the edge of the woods, and even drinking from the pond.
I feed them all winter long. Sometimes I put out salt/mineral blocks for them. I DON'T love having them nibble in the garden, though.

I do my best to balance feeding/caring for the deer in the winter months with keeping them out of the garden the rest of the year. It is a delicate balancing act.

The only time I worry much about the deer is when the male deer are out aggressively seeking females with whom to mate. Sometimes the males stand on the edge of the woods and snort at me and stomp their feet, as if they want to scare me off. It does frighten me as I know the males can be dangerous to humans at this time. So, I turn loose a dog or two, and they chase off the deer.

There is one plant that the deer want desperately and they will do anything to get it. That plant is okra. Why they love it so much I do not know. I try to hide it in the interior of my garden. I surround it with taller plants like sunflowers. I plant it late. No matter what I do, though, they will find it and eat it. Most years the deer get more okra than we do.

Still, I'd rather have deer in the garden than raccoons.

Dawn