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Re: Deer problems!!!

Jessica, Nancy, Judy, et al,

The white string is close but I doubt it will work.  A four-foot fence with
a 1x2 wood strip (or perhaps a tightly stretched 1" surveyor's tape) 12 to
18 inches above the fence does work.  In the dim night or dawn light the
white line confuses the deer about the height she has to jump so she avoids
it.  Other than that you need a seven foot fence, the kind of a dog you
don't want around a farm, or a rifle (or a shotgun if you want to be saver
and messier), and with the gun you'll probably have to sleep out there.
Even sleeping near the garden (I'm slept a lot of nights in the orchard,
but I snore so loudly the deer just stay away and the next time it rains
they're back again) you'll likely have to set up motion-detector operated
lights - not that they'll scare the deer but they might wake you when the
deer approach.  Some company here (British Columbia) recently marketed a
motion detector that turns on an oscillating sprinkler for a few minutes, I
don't know if it works or not.  I've given up in the orchard. The deer
clean off everything up to about four-and-a-half feet (but our Vancouver
Island deer are a lot smaller than your Montana mulies).  Once they get a
taste of that tender young broccoli they're going to be hard to discourage,
short of putting them in the freezer.  After all, if you've fed them
perhaps you have some right to the meat.  For us, later in the summer the
problem are the black bears.  They range around looking for folks who leave
their wind-fall apples on the ground.  Problem is if you happen to keep a
few bees they take tem also.  Not only eat the bees and honey but turn the
hives into kindling wood.  We have to bring the hives in and put them right
against the house when the fruit ripens.  But, maybe life would be dull
without these little challenges, eh?

Don Maroc
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