CULT: Deer
- Subject: CULT: Deer
- From: J* S* &* B*
- Date: Thu, 4 Jul 2002 07:06:54 -0400
A few tricks for keeping deer away.........
Walk a dog around the areas deer frequent. Let the dog mark things just like
dogs do. You can alternate areas and places so the plants don't get burned.
The deer won't really know if they are smelling poodle or wolf.
I know of a few humans that will mark their gardens this way too. I suppose
it would work. Man is the most feared predator going.
Hair clippings from dog grooming salons and barber shops sprinkled around
will leave predator scent around. Both are usually very happy to give you a
bag full of hair for nothing. You might get a few strange looks but so what!
My father used to have a bad deer problem. He used both those tricks and it
helped for a while. He also would put an article of clothing in the garden
that he had gotten all sweaty from working each night. I've seen him drive
his old truck down to his lower garden and put the yucky clothing on the
hood and let the heat from the car let the scent do it's thing.
Radios set on a timer that goes randomly for a few minutes if you are in a
remote area.
Sprinklers on a timer. Only takes a few seconds of water blast to run them
off.
I've seen coyote, wolf and assorted wild cat urine's for sale in our feed
store. Not sure it's something I would want to use in areas I frequent
though. Stuff is concentrated and really tough on the nose.
Since your problem seems to be limited to early spring I think I would go
the assorted hair route. It may fool them just long enough. It also has the
added plus of rotting and adding to the soil.
My fathers problem was all growing season long. He had to rotate tricks
because the deer would eventually figure it out. He did eventually go to a
battery operated electric fence on the lower garden. I do have to admit that
for a while I was sympathetic to his problem but I was there one day and saw
him spread scratch feed at the edge of the woods for the deer to eat. The
spot was only about 15 feet away from his lower garden so he was pretty much
shooting himself in the foot.
I don't have much of a deer problem. I have a very large coyote population
here. Keeps them too jumpy to stick around. The eastern coyote is much
larger than it's western cousins. Little bit of left over wolf blood I
think. It also hunts more wolf like. I have had moose walk through electric
fences like they weren't there. Not a thing works to repel them.
I've had bears in my car twice and in and around the yard and trash on
numerous occasions. They have dug up my daylily bed before too. Happened a
lot when they first woke up in the spring until I moved the dog chain closer
to the bed. Lot of Japanese beetle grubs in the soil in that part of the
yard. Only thing I can figure because the daylilies were uprooted but pretty
much untouched. Skunks and raccoons do the same thing but on a much lesser
scale.
I don't have a lot of modern type irises here just a few but they don't as a
rule fair as well as the smaller ones over winter. I don't think it's the
temps as much as the miserable month of March and early April with their
cold wet rains..
I didn't get many of my more modern types blooming this year at all. I had
an unheard of heatwave in April at a time when I'm still generally snow
covered. Plants took off growing and then the weather returned to normal and
cooler temps. Had measurable snow twice in the end of May. Had two killer
frosts at the beginning of June. Pretty much did in the bloom on the big
flowers. The historics took it in stride and bloomed their heads off. In
fact the last blossom on Gypsy Queen finished last week. Queen of may
bloomed early and strong. All the other historics really put on their best
show for years because it stayed so cool for so long.
Now we have gone from night temps in the upper 40's to muggy mid 70's. Been
in the upper 80's and lower 90's during the day for a week now. Not
something that generally happens here. I still have 2 sibs left to bloom and
my ensata types are just having the bloom stalks clear the leaves.
Versicolor is still putting on a show but it's dwindling. Right now it's 80
inside the house. Should be lovely by this afternoon. Takes a lot of heat
but I broke down and let hubby put the two AC units in windows. Most years
they go unused.
Sue in NH
The cold end of zone 4
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