Pests are pests. I'd break out the crossbow. If you can't break them from feeding, not only will they destroy this years crop but will come back next year to do the same.

I wish I had a crossbow, or something to shoot them with. Technically double illegal though, because it's not deer season and it's in city limits so firing a weapon would be illegal.

If I can find a spray bottle I'll make some egg based spray this evening and maybe top it with cayenne.

You could also drape some deer netting over the plants.
It's light weight, and it does a remarkable job at keeping
the deer at bay.

Lee

When they start destroying your garden they have become a varmint and there's no season on varmints. I could see how city limits would hinder you though.

Accursed forest rats!

Been there. It really sucks, but when you're *this* close to production, it sucks even more.

I think I would go with a barrier, if possible, especially since you don't have the lead option. I don't know if cayenne is effective or if it's effective for long, and I would think that hot substances might injure birds (don't know for sure, but it's something to consider).

Sometimes the deer would come into my garden, top the tomatoes and gnaw on the roses, then didn't come back for the rest of the year. In other years they were regular visitors. I even caught them lying down in my garden one night. The nerve! I swear they were taunting us.

Maybe you could borrow a good-sized hunting dog and leave him/her out for a few nights. :-)

Even so, most critters are crafty, and once they figure out there is no real or long-term danger, they often come back. This is why things like predator urine are not terribly useful; being highly motivated by food, they eventually figure out that there is no imminent threat and they start feeding at the trough again.

Plus, that urine stuff smells so bad you'll want to hurl when you open the bottle, let alone pour it on the ground on a warm summer night. Katie bar the door (and close the windows). :-)

In summation, they may not come back. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. You don't necessarily want to take the chance that this was just a random strike and they won't be back. I used deer netting; it's reasonably effective and won't cause collateral damage.

If you do try any of the pepper preparations or Irish Spring soap, let us know how it goes. Of course, if the deer don't come back we'll never know if it's effective or not. :-)

Just my $0.02. Good luck with whatever you try, and sorry about the carnage.

Big cat manure is another option. Most large independently owned nurseries carry it. It will keep all furry pests away.

thanks lionheart. I've seen several sets of deer tracks and I saw the first set before my tomatoes were chewed, so I know they're coming back. In fact they're even vaulting the fence between us and a horse farm, because I know they aren't vaulting the creek (or maybe they are?). Either way they are crossing an obstacle to get into the garden, and more than once, so I suspect they'll be coming back for more. Not many deer though judging by the few tracks.

This evening I went and sprayed everything with some water/egg/dish soap/cayenne/garlic powder spray that I made. Smells a lot like garlic, and even though I strained out the powder, it was stained deep red so hopefully plenty of the heat from the cayenne was retained with the help of the egg and liquid soap.

Last year I had a rabbit eating all my beet tops at home, so I just sprinkled plain cayenne on the leaves and he never ate them again. Hopefully the deer will stay away if they try to eat my sprayed stuff. If not then I'll buy a big cheap can of cayenne powder and dump the stuff right on the leaves. I don't want to use deer net, it's not aesthetically pleasing and would just be something else I would have to pay for and I'm trying to keep it cheap.