Oh Deer!
It was bound to happen sooner or later…the local deer finally found me. Well, to be exact, they found my garden. They’ve completely eaten the hostas and impatients in my front yard and even were bold enough to venture around the house to chow down on more hostas.
Since they seem to come by night, I’ve become finely tuned into nighttime noises....any sudden or new noise could be them and I rush to the window to check. I’m ready at a moment’s notice to run outside to scare them away, but so far they’ve only returned after I’m asleep. This is probably just as well because if I were to run outside late on night yelling and clapping my hands, I’d probably scare the deer AND the neighbors and would probably very quickly have the police at my door.
Realistically, it’s almost the end of the growing season and losing these plants now really isn’t the end of the world (at least that’s what I keep telling myself). What I am concerned about is next spring. What can I do to discourage these nighttime forages once the garden starts growing again? Here’re a few possibilities I’ve thought about:
Fencing…Deer are able to hop over low fences so it would have to be a high one and who wants to live barricaded behind a high fence? Not me.
Scare tactics…I’ve already discovered I’d have to stay up all night, every night for this to work. I think I like sleep too much.
Urine….coyote (too expensive), human (I foresee problems with neighbors and the police with this one), dog (too messy to try to collect it and then spread it around the garden).
Other, even odder options to be hung or placed around the garden….bars of soap on sticks, bags of human hair, bags of animal waste. Who thinks up these things and who really wants these hanging around their yard?
Spraying…I sprayed a friend’s garden once and it was messy and smelly. However, people do swear by it. Definitely a maybe.
And finally, deer resistant plants…I have looked at a few different lists and of course no two lists completely agree on which plants are resistant to deer. They all do agree that ferns and ornamental grasses are good bets (but then again, I’ve always heard that if they’re hungry enough, deer will eat anything). I’ve also heard that deer may eat a particular plant in one area and other deer will turn their noses up at the same plant in a different area. Obviously the deer are not paying attention to these lists!
So for now I’ll go with what I know so far…my local deer love hostas and impatients. Next year I’ll lay low on impatients and will try to move the hostas out of the deer zone and replace them with some native ferns or ornamental grasses. I’ll spray the plants along the driveway and walkway to try to keep the deer out of my yard. And in case that still doesn’t work, I’ll have to have a chat with the dog to see what he can do about the spreading his urine around.
Darlene Sneden
7:48 pm on Monday, September 26, 2011
Oh boy, you have my sympathy! I am 'lucky' that the deer haven't found my garden yet, but I hear from friends how frustrating it is to try to have a garden when the deer are hungry. . .and aren't they always hungry?!
All I've contended with this growing season is a young groundhog. Yes, s/he eats a lot, but nowhere near as much as deer! I don't mind sharing; it's when the animals eat it all that I begin to have a real problem.
Dennis Hillerud
9:07 pm on Monday, September 26, 2011
Good luck battling the groundhog!
We have a lot of them in the gardens I work at and they do an incredible amount of damage...but they are cute animals (at least the young one are) and interesting to watch (in someone else's garden!)
Pucci
11:24 pm on Monday, September 26, 2011
Don't forget, the deer were here first. Also, if you don't feed them, they will die. You surely don't want to be responsible for that.
Joanne Smythe
11:19 pm on Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Hopefully this is sarcasm?
Fran Hopkins
2:25 pm on Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Your hostas look exactly like mine! I have lots of them; the deer ate them all Spring and Summer and all I have left are stubs like yours. The deer jump my fence easily, so you're right, a normal-height one is no deterrent. I even tried the soap trick: I was told to sprinkle pieces of Irish Spring soap around the plants I wanted to protect. I think this helped at first, but eventually, the deer ate those plants (all my beautiful daylilies!) too. I love the deer, though, and I really do think we should be able to coexist with them peacefully. The problem is that I love my flowers and plants too. Maybe it is time for some coyote urine (my dog's isn't keeping them away either). If you find something that works, let us all know what it is!
Dennis Hillerud
10:45 pm on Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Fran, The gardeners working in Anderson Park have been using the soap-on-a-stick method. I asked them about it once and they said it was an old-time method to keep the deer away....but they also didn't know if it was really working or if there weren't any/many deer around there at that time.
Good luck with the coyote urine...some people claim it works, others say no. I'll keep my fingers crossed!
Dennis
mtc parent
4:20 pm on Tuesday, September 27, 2011
The deer, who eat everything else in my yard, left my big planters by the front door alone until the past week. Now those have been severely pruned. I wonder why they waited so long.... The deer are nice to look at, but between decimating my plantings and leaving their Lyme-disease-carrying ticks around, I am totally sick and tired of them!
Dennis Hillerud
10:50 pm on Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Sorry about the planters (and the rest of your garden!). It is interesting how they will pass by some plants over and over again but then suddenly decide to eat those plants. Maybe those plants didn't taste as good as the rest of your plants so the deer ate all the good stuff first.
Dennis
ragman420
10:26 am on Wednesday, September 28, 2011
It probably depends on how starved they are.
Don
5:02 pm on Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Its amazing how persistent they are. Why now?
It seems to me that this didn't happen like this in the past.
Dennis Hillerud
5:56 pm on Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Probably a lot or reasons are pushing the deer more and more into our gardens. Increasing over-population, loss of habitat or a change in habitat come to mind.
(Or maybe we're just planting more and more tastier plants than the deer can find in the woods.)
Don
2:54 am on Thursday, September 29, 2011
Watch out when you garden. Lyme borreliosis is potentially a lethal disease..and its spreading. Wear long pants. Put heavy, tight rubber bands around your pant legs. Check yourself for ticks after you garden.
If you garden. watch out.Tick nymphs are almost invisible. The media is intentionally understating this problem in a major way because they dont want to depress real estate prices in the Northeast. Aspergillosis from spores in compost is another issue gardeners need to be aware of. See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2116523/Gardener-killed-by-fungus-in-his-compost.html
Don
3:05 am on Thursday, September 29, 2011
Deer have eaten all my bulbs too... Looks like a "pattern".. *sigh*
Noreen Brunini
7:18 am on Thursday, September 29, 2011
Spraying against deer, rabbits works well UNTIL you get lots of rain -- in a month like August you would have had to spray repeatedly, every few days, to be effective which would be prohibitively expensive. I have found nothing effective against groundhogs.
mtc parent
8:08 am on Thursday, September 29, 2011
Shotgun. (Just kidding. Kind of.)
Don
10:23 pm on Sunday, October 2, 2011
You know, it would not be hard to make some kind of fear-inspiring device for deer. I think a bright flash would scare them quite a bit. It would be easy to build it using off the shelf components. PIR devices cost around $5, the electronics to build a monostable or flip flop costs pennies, and you can get flash tubes and the associated DC/DC converter, etc, out of used disposable cameras, they just throw them out. look for the trail camera schematics on the net. Its the flash without the camera part. A flash would not bother neighbors as much as noise would, and it would be more effective in the night or early morning hours. But- be aware you could end up with an injured deer if they panic too much. Also at night the flash will blind them for a minute or two at least.
So don't do that if you live near a busy road.
STEPHANIE WOOD
9:22 am on Thursday, September 29, 2011
Instead of worrying about DEER overpopulation
problems, why not start thinking about HUMAN
overpopulation & overdevelopment that is driving
them into your garden? How about everyone trying
some HUMAN BIRTH CONTROL?
PS: A friend of mine saw land cleared for MORE
DEVELOPMENT in Cedar Grove & lots of deer
wandering about there. Seems those cleared
woods was their home!
John Loconsolo
10:26 am on Thursday, September 29, 2011
The problem is that the deer have no natural predator to keep their numbers in check. So it falls to us to control their numbers so that we can lessen the property damage, health risks they pose (lyme disease) and vehicular danger they cause.
PS: The land clearing your friend was probably referring to was at the old hospital grounds along fairview avenue. It is not being cleared for development, it is being cleared for a county park.
Pucci
7:03 pm on Saturday, October 1, 2011
Good thought Steph!
Maybe we should encourage smoking, riding bikes without helmets, DIY electrical repairs, and overeating? That will help control human population.
I am sure you may have even better ideas.
Don
10:38 pm on Sunday, October 2, 2011
Similar things happen with people. I just saw a show on how in Panama, where hundreds of thousands of American retirees have bought property, (Americans are moving there in droves because healthcare is affordable there)
So, it turns out that a similar number of Panamanians - who lived on that land previously, were evicted and in some cases even killed by land developers working with the local (corrupt?) politicians. Their homes and all their property in some cases, destroyed. What a mess.
Robert Thiemann
9:48 am on Thursday, September 29, 2011
In my 45 years living in the Caldwells I have noticed two related issues. A rise in the number of native animal sightings and a rise in the number of people with allergies. In the 60's and 70's my friends and I lived almost every hour of every day running, hiding, biking, searching and learning about the woods (there really was a lot around here back then) and RARELY saw the native life, though it became a passion of mine to seek them out! Our gardens would attract them though. At this time and up into my 30's I had no allergies either. Then the alergies started and tests showed nothing specific. Over the years I have found I only get allergies around here but not at the shore or camping near the Delaware or anywhere in rural NJ or even rural PA or NY. I met a doctor who had a theory about all the non-native plants causing such in people. I think it is so. I also think when we plant all those beautiful edible plants we create a "Hansel n Gretal" scenario for the animals. Between the lure of those easy pickings and the over development here and loss of habitat, we/they are forced to see each other more and more. They can't stop eating and we can't stop planting, where do we go from here?
Don
11:48 pm on Sunday, October 2, 2011
The other day I saw this web page on environmental triggers of asthma.
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/csem.asp?csem=18&po=9#tocbookmark11
Also, something like a death in the family or a divorce, if combined to exposure to something like mold or BPA causes potential for sensitization to allergies.
Dan
2:55 pm on Thursday, September 29, 2011
I had a problem with Deer eating my grapevines. I started applying "Liquid Fence" a substance that can be found out garden supply stores. It is made with rotten eggs, garlic and other miscellaneous (safe and non-toxic) substances and adheres for about a month after application even with rain (yes it smells when applied but after it dries it is barely perceptible, except to deer). It has been absolutely 100% effective in deterring deer (or any other animal) from munching my vines and shrubs.
Dan
Don
10:08 pm on Sunday, October 2, 2011
Liquid fence.. Cool- THANK YOU for sharing that! I am writing it down. You should write an article telling people about it, I'm sure a lot of people here would like to know this!
Claire Sommer
1:37 pm on Monday, October 3, 2011
I wrote about Liquid Fence (and my own deer issues!) this summer. The West Orange Patch even had a contest to win two free bottles. It continues to be effective in keeping deer away from my front-yard hostas. Good luck!
http://westorange.patch.com/articles/win-a-bottle-of-deer-repellant-are-deer-devouring-your-garden
Sean Congdon
1:58 pm on Thursday, October 6, 2011
Maybe the reason why the deer are coming around your yard is because they are getting pushed out of the hilltop due to construction and all Essex county reservations due to them being hunted. If its such an inconvenience for you to have deer in your yeard, get a fence.
Robert Thiemann
3:19 pm on Thursday, October 6, 2011
To Sean, I agree with you that they are being pushed out of their natural habitat, as I believe others have stated, and I agree with you about a fence; but I can not agree with your statement about hunting. Hunting, whether by man or natural predator, would not make the deer leave, only relocate and then return. Additionally there are very little areas for legal hunting in New Jersey, and those locations always have deer return, with in days. Hunting will cull the herds as natural predators and disease would have. Although I do not like hunting, I realize it can have beneficial reprecussions such as decrease of herd size, monies for the state and county, liberal excercise of Americans rights, food for tables, revenue for animal control and welfare, just to name a few. One thing it doesn't do is add to the habitat situation facing the animals at large. Please check into these facts. Thanx
Sean Congdon
8:39 am on Friday, October 7, 2011
That may be true, but ever since the hunt i have had more deer in my and my friends backyards then ever. I think they are cool to observe when they are so close. As for the hunting being beneficial, there has been a bacterial disease infecting deer in northern New Jersey lately, and many have died. Now think about it. If some smarter life form decided there were too many humans on earth, so they killed half the population, and then the Plague hit, we may be extinct right now. I just dont think it's right.