Re: Hostas

I have  the same problem.  Unless I use Bobbex or Deer Off, my hostas get
eaten by the deer.  Yes, they will produce more leaves, and come to look
fairly decent, as long as you can prevent the deer from munching.  I find
that I have to Bobbex all the new growth.  Rain doesn't seem to wash it
away, but new growth that hasn't been sprayed is vulnerable.  New growth is
also much tastier than old, it seems.

I've been intrigued with a gadget that appeared in the catalogs a couple
years ago at $120.  I'm now seeing it for $90; when it gets to $60, I may
try it: a sprayer you attach to a turned-on garden hose, with a motion
detector.  When it senses a presence, it sends out bursts of water, similar
to the kind of sprinkler that pivots around a central point.  It requires a
couple of batteries.  And I can imagine that it takes some getting used to
so that humans don't get sprayed inadvertently.  

But they say deer are so adaptable.  I'd be curious to know whether this
would bother them enough to discourage them!

A friend who writes the garden column for the local newspaper received a
copy of a book entitled "Deer Proofing Your Yard & Garden" by Rhonda
Massingham Hart (Storey Publishing).  She (Hart) seems to think this a
successful approach.  She suggests that if you have a sprinkler system you
can set it to run intermittently during the hours they tend to feed, but
comments that you need to make the timing random because the deer will
learn a fixed schedule.

Wyn
   


At 11:31 PM 7/1/98 +0000, Kate wrote:
>
>> I am new to the group and need advice,please.Today deer ate my hostas to
>> the ground-left only stubs.Will they come back if I protect them?
>> 
>
>Well, probably, but why would you want to protect something that's 
>eating your plants?  Oh, you meant protect the * hostas.*  <g>   They 
>should come back if you can protect them from the deer, which is not 
>easy.  Tall fences work.   Diligent dogs do, too.
>
>Repellents don't work for everybody.  One person will report 
>that human hair keeps deer away, another will swear by Irish Spring 
>soap, another by dried blood or garlic, etc.,  but I know people 
>who've tried those with no success.  One even observed a deer eating 
>Irish Spring!   It is said that changing repellents every week or two 
>(alternate hair, soap, blood, garlic, for example) works much better 
>because the deer don't get wise to the trick.  
>
>Peter Loewer wrote in one of his books that he gets up very early on 
>a random basis and walks through his gardens so that the deer never 
>know when he might be there.  I used to have my husband go out and 
>fire a gun (not at the deer, mind you) but concluded I could get the 
>same results by talking loudly to them,  so save your ammo.
>
>One type of repellent I haven't tried yet, because we put in a tall 
>privacy fence which keeps the deer out, is predator urines.   You can 
>buy coyote urine, fox urine, etc.   I'm pretty sure there's a web 
>site for a supplier so try a search.  Good luck.  They're pretty 
>animals but they become ugly when they're eating gardens.
>
>Kate Lykins

Wyn Achenbaum
Stamford, CT, 10 miles from Long Island Sound
Zone 6

w*@ibm.net
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