They love them!

Go to Home Depot for a battery operated electric fence kit. No idea what a CAUTION tape is so won't make bad joke about deer can't read much.

WHAT?

You mean the deer up there don't read? Well, they need some help, then, don't they?

ROFLOL!

Thanks for the good laugh! Thanks for the information about deer loving peppers...great. I had hoped the hotness would deter them.

Thanks, too, for the advice about the fence. We've got one around the perimeter of our yard, but it hasn't worked since before we bought our house two years ago.

The CAUTION tape I used is exactly pretty much what you're thinking. It has the word, "CAUTION" in black. I strung three rows of the tape all around my garden and I don't know if it was the color that the deer didn't like or if it was the fact that there was a boundary there. They stopped coming into the garden after that.

I just walked around my yard and found that deer have eaten the tops of my hosta and Monte Negro Lilies, so I've got to do something before setting out my peppers and other plants. Looks like the electric fence might be the best bet!

Beverly

I don't know if they'll eat them or not, but I can tell you that the rabbits that live around my parents' house at all the leaves off of one of our HABANERO plants at one point. Even saw them doing it!

Beverly,

Sorry to be so flip. (kinda) I'm a chile-head and have heard many tales of deer problems from my friends. Not fond of pepper wax sprays and don't care to argue about it. Dried hot powder is a deterrent if you apply often and have lots of powder at your disposal.

A chickenwire fence takes care of rabbits and an electric fence takes care of deer.

My problem is with brer possum. They eat only the ripest of tomatoes and hot peppers. Usually the very night before I was going to pick the next day. Uncanny! When damage starts happening I set my home-made box trap with cantaloupe bait and then plant them after catching.

Good luck with your deer 'problem'. It's nice to be in an area with wildlife. Groundhogs can be a real problem too.

Happy growing,
jt

Beverly
i agree with jt powder does work but like he said you have to have lots for every time it rains or you water and enough for the rest of your plants, or they will just walk to them. it works on groundhogs but like he said the only way to stop possums is to plant them. the powder will also bring in the birds they love hot.

dan
let it burn

JT,
You absolutely have no reason to be sorry for being flip; I thought it was funny.

I do enjoy the wildlife, but between the deer eating so much of what I'm trying to grow and the squirrels eating the rest (tomatoes are their favorite), I'm starting to feel a little bit defeated. Talked w/my husband tonight and he said he's going to look at the fence tomorrow. Hope it works!

Dan,
Thanks for the information, too.

Bev

Yep they aquire a taste for them! They even ate my
Trinidad Scorpion plants/pods! Talk about some preseasoned
Vension!LOL

Butch

Beverly,

Have you actually seen a squirrel eating a tomato? Only ask because I never have and spend a lot of time on the deck overlooking my pepper and tomato patch. Lots of squirrels because my garden area is carved out of a dense woods with a mulberry and white oak at the edges.

Some have speculated that squirrels eat tomatoes during a dry spell just to get moisture.

jt

Actually, I haven't seen a squirrel eating a tomato. I have heard of other people around here who have, though, and since my tomatoes that were eaten were too high for a rabbit and the teeth marks certainly weren't from birds, I figured the culprit was squirrels. I suppose I should go with the "innocent until proven guilty" thing!

Sounds like your garden area is beautiful.

Again, thanks!
Beverly

> Sounds like your garden area is beautiful.

Beverly,

I rather like it. Nice and tidy early in the year. Here's a partial view:

Come mid-summer it gets to be a jungle. Look at the size of those C. baccatums to the left:

Several years back I sent a photo of teeth marks on a tomato to a professor in Colorado (I think her name was Peg O'Halleran) who had a website on squirrels. Can't for the life of me find that site now. Anyways she ID'd as not a squirrel and probably a possum.

More evidence:

The perp:

I built this trap from plans on the MO Dept of Conservation. Much better than my Havaheart trap:

And finally a deer nibble:

jt

Last year I put several dozen habaneros(rotting or extras) around my garden and I was lucky enough to witness a deer just after eating one. He started snorting loud and kicking and soon snot started pouring out of its nose. The other deers just watched, not knowing what was going on. This lasted for several minutes before they ran off.. Very entertaining

Bev the question should be, do you like venison?

I have actually seen squirrels eating tomatoes. One sits in my front window eating the neighbors tomatoes. Calm as can be while my cat on the other side of the window is jumping out of his skin.
However, I think most tomatoe damage here in the city is from the possums.....they are all over the place.

kendra

Kendra,

I rather figured that squirrels would eat tomatoes, but you are the first to confirm it. They are omnivores. So what do you think they are doing out in the middle of the road licking the cracks in the pavement?

Remembered the professors name in Colorado... Peg Halloran. Nothing like a few brews to jog the old rememory!

jt

all mammals get a bad taste in their mouth from the capsaicin.

Birds, however, do not taste capsaicin, and therefore can carry the seeds (eat them and poop them out, drop them in flight, etc), to propagate growth of the plant. It's the plant's defense mechanism....lo and behold, the plant never knew that humans would be acquiring quite a taste for hot stuff ^_^

all animals should be able to eat the leaves without harm (funny side effects such as described by the deer eating the pepper above), although I've never eaten a pepper leaf, so I do not know if the leaf in and of itself is spicy. (although probably not, is my guess).

plant defense mechanisms are always interesting ^_^

Deer do seem to prefer the foilage, but they will eat
the Hottest peppers you can imagine, last fall they ate
everything except the real "woody" parts of the plants.
For some reason they don't like tomato plants tho.
Squirrels eat a varitey of things, mushrooms, blackberries,
lead roof flashings, wire insulation, well you get the idea!

ButchT

Scroll down on link to "Biological Reasoning"

as stated with a deer above, it may have eaten the pepper, but it sure as heck was NOT happy about that endeavor ^_^
I had a cat that ate my pasta all the time, regardless of the heat. She'd hiss and spit and make all sorts of racket, walk backwards, etc, and once she recovered and saw me eating again, she'd beg for more. :-/

*cheers*

Here is a link that might be useful: wikipedia Capsaicin discussion

Thanks, everyone, for retelling your experiences. I don't feel quite so much that I'm losing my mind, now!

JT, I haven't seen any possums around here, but again, since they are nocturnal, I wouldn't. Can they climb up a tomato plant? I don't know why, but I thought they would weigh too much for the plant; I know they climb trees.

The pictures of your garden are wonderful! Do you do all your gardening in containers? I've never tried that, but rather just stick it all in the ground unless I put things in containers on the deck. I do admire the neatness of yours, though. I try to keep my garden neat by putting down the weed-prohibiting black plastic and then a layer of pine straw

As for the deer...Hendrick, even though I'm a Southerner, believe it or not I have never had venison. I'm beginning to consider it, though, with the targets being the culprits who believe that stealing from my yard and garden is perfectly fine. :)

We have gotten our electric fence working, but is in a temporary location until we get the time to pull it through the woods and around the perimeter of our yard. We are also thinking about tying in another line to go just around the vegetable garden, making the bottom line low enough to keep the rabbits out. I saw one rabbit eating my impatiens last year, so I feel certain that they will be salivating over the spinach I've planted!

In regard to other critters, I had a summer phlox growing in a container on my back deck. I was waiting for it to be large enough to transplant to my perennial garden, but the other day, the top was chewed out. The next day, the whole plant was dug up. Yesterday morning, I found the culprit...it was a ground squirrel--chipmunk. He had managed to squeeze between my window screen and the window and couldn't figure out how to escape, the little devil!

I'm setting my pepper plants out probably today or tomorrow since the ground temp is possibly in the 50's. I can't wait to harvest those hot peppers and make salsa!

Again, thanks!
Beverly

I got a "Scarecrow" motion detector sprinkler last year but it proved to be most effective on drinking buddies. This year I'll try to put it to use on the deer.

Deer would strip all the leaves off my pepper plants until I started spraying the leaves with buttermilk.

The repellant effect lasted exactly one week. After that I had to re-spray or bye-bye leaves.

I guess the deer didn't like the 'animal' smell of the buttermilk, being strict vegetarians.

Gary

Hi Bev,

If you're in my area of NW GA, you have lots of possums and raccoons. They sometimes get on the deck and turn over flowerpots, but so far I haven't seen any evidence of either eating pepper plants or flowers. Those are my only "crops". Hornworms strip the pepper plants bare a couple of times a year if I don't keep an eye out and destroy the first wave fast.

Barbara

Plant out time is the time to look for hornworm pupae. Certainly no mistaking what they are. I sift around in the old soil before transplanting into the final container.

jt

I found a product last year that (finally!) kept the squirrels off my tomatoes: "Repels-All", made by the Shot Gun company. Ingredients include dried blood, "putrescent egg solids", garlic oil, vinegar, cloves, vanilla, seaweed, et cetera... YUMMY. Just be sure to stand upwind while spraying!

One application got me the first tomatoes of the summer (in August!) - the bushy-tailed rats had been totally stripping my vines in front of my eyes.

Supposedly this product works for deer and a bunch of other critters, too. Unfortunately for me, it has become unavailable in KY and IN this year. Something about copyright red tape, my garden center says. I'm furious! Think I'll make a road trip to Tennessee and see if I can find a case of it... it's expensive, but if it means I can actually taste my heirloom tomatoes, well OK!

Jules in KY

My mom uses blood meal for her rabbit problem. Maybe that would work for squirrels? It's very effective she reports if applied liberally and often. Might even work for deer. Maybe not. Might be an urban legend, but I remember reading that deer will eat fish. At one time hanging up bars of soap such as Irish Spring was recommended as deer repellent. And human urine.

jt

I've used blood meal to repel rabbits - but you do have to reapply often (after every rain, at least), and it's high in nitrogen, so not so swell for tomatoes in containers, which is mostly what I have. The Repels-All was decently waterproof - I sprayed it on plants & directly onto my whiskey barrels, and it stayed effective for quite awhile.

Has anyone ever used "Liquid Fence"? Local garden center recommended it as a possible substitute. - Jules

Hi Barbara,
I'm in eastern Bartow county, about 3 miles from the Cherokee county line. We live in a wooded area, so I'm sure we do have possums and raccoons.

My spinach is up, so I'm about to go off to get some blood meal--thanks, JT and Jules for that advice...been wondering how in the world to keep them out of that little patch without putting a line of the electric fence down low. Didn't want to do that because my mini-doxie might get into the fence and that would break my heart!

So far, my hosta that the deer were eating has grown additional leaves with no more dear nibbles and what was left of my Asiatic lilies is coming out. I'm beginning to like this electric fence-thing, although it is a pain to try to remember to unplug it before going out to the garden. ZZZZT!!! It's much more attractive than the CAUTION tape, that I'm certain the deer could read! JUST KIDDING! Can you visualize deer wearing glasses, reading the word, caution, and saying, "Hey, Bubba...I guess that means we can't go in there!"

JT...I hestiate to ask because I feel so stupid, but what does hornworm pupae look like? I'm not even sure that I would know it if I saw it. My son planted all the pepper plants last Saturday, and as far as I could tell, there were not pupae of any kind in that area. I did find what I think is Japaneese Beetle larvae in the surrounding yard. I'm expecting their visit as adults very soon.

Thanks, again, to all of you; you have been so helpful!

Beverly

I tried to link a pic for you, but the computers at work are being retarded. Go to google and type in "Hornworm Pupae" and you will get more info than you ever wanted...:)

kendra

Beverly,

This is what the overwintering hornworm looks like, but beware as there are cagey imitators.

jt

Kendra, I Googled as you suggested, and yes, there's loads of information. Thanks for the suggestion; it helps to know what to look for.

JT...ICK! That thing's much larger than I expected. The pictures on the sites I found don't do them justice compared to yours. Thankfully, I haven't seen any of those, but I will certainly be on the lookout.

Thanks!
Beverly

My first post here...

I live in the woods about 3 miles North from the I-10 in Lower Alabama.

On a good night (in Season) there might be 30+ Deer bouncing on our 40.

Now this trick only works for Deer, you still should have a fence to keep the dillos and other creatures out.

Get your hair cut? Ask who ever to give you a bag of a days work of cut hair. Have some panty hose? Cut the legs off and stuff some human hair into each leg. Zip Tie them about every 12 feet, around the fence. Wind, Rain, whatnot. The hair stays and keeps the Deer away.