Whistles, Urine, And Mums: The Guide To What Keeps Deer At Bay

Posted by | Posted on 2:14 AM

By Tad Distin

You have enough trouble with a home garden; the last thing you need is a deer munching on your flowers or vegetables. But what is the best way to enforce your boundaries without hurting the animal? Many people think fences would be enough, but a fence that reaches chest height on an average sized person is still low enough for a deer to easily jump. Therefore fences and 'guards' do nothing unless you build them 14' high. You can use a deer repellent, preferably a taste based deer repellent like Deer Guard.

Smell is the most commonly sensitive sense in animals; deer are no exception. Since deer are not great fighters, they use their sense of smell to discover hidden predators and run away before they, themselves, are discovered. Urine is a very sharp indicator of a predator's property and you can use this to your advantage.

But how are you supposed to go about finding wolf urine? Should you use your dog's urine? You don't have to. Special sprays are made now as impostor predator urine. If the deer smells something that indicates danger, they will not venture forward. This can be found in any gardening aisle.

They also hate high pitched noises. Blowing a dog whistle is enough to drive them crazy, or you can invest in an automatic whistle that will sound every time a deer comes around. The latter option is best, since that way you won't have to run to the window every time you imagine a noise in the back yard.

For more inexpensive, household items, use anything with a sharp scent. Chopped garlic has been said to work, along with chopped hot peppers. Dove soap, which smells so good to us, is enough to make a deer retch. Moth balls and ammonia (understandably) keep animals at bay.

One other way to go is to plant plants that deer find distasteful; if you surround your valuable plants with these, the deer may not even get close enough to your garden to find the palatable plants. This technique is called 'deeroscaping, ' meaning your yard has been fashioned to deter deer by the usage of plants. These plants include any ornamental grasses, sage, verbena, spearmint, or mums. There are plenty more.

These are all good steps for summer months when other food is readily available; deer won't bother with your heinous yard when there are plenty of other peaceful, nice-smelling places to eat. In the winter, though, deer do not have the luxury of being picky. They can and will eat anything they can find. You may have to use ALL of these steps in the winter.

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