Deer Control Using A Deer Fence

Where it is permitted and desired, a tall sturdy fence is the ultimate deer barrier. For information about deer fencing please click here.

Deer Control Methods Using Biological Odor Deterrents

Odor deer repellents are area treatments for keeping deer out by making the whole area smell bad. These types of deterrents being biological in nature are usually very gross. Even if they would keep deer out they will make your yard and garden smell horrible. Some biological compounds sold as deer repellents include dominant buck urine, Milorganite (sewage treatment plant byproduct), and putrefied meat scraps. Also touted as effective deer repellents are other gross substances such as, predator urines and human urine, lion feces, fermented blood, feather meal, and bags of human hair. These things might work if you don’t mind the awful smell of some of them. To use these compounds to keep deer out of your vegetable garden would be very distasteful. Predator urines are collected under inhumane conditions.

Deer Management Using Deer Resistant Plants

Hungry deer will eat almost anything. The principal classes of deer resistant plants are aromatic plants, milky sap plants, very thorny-prickly plants, and rapidly growing plants, which may outpace the deer damage if the deer population is not excessive. The Internet has many plant lists rating plants from rarely damaged to frequently damaged, but there are not too many plants that are completely deer proof especially if the deer are starving.

Deer Damage Prevention Using Guard Dogs

Dogs can be effective in many cases but the dogs should be large and you should have more than one. Click here to see a video of what a deer can do to a dog (painful to watch).

Deer Control Using Birth Control Methods

Deer management techniques using contraception remain expensive and only practical in isolated areas such as islands and fenced areas where the individual deer can be positively identified and closely managed.

Baited Electric Deer Repellents

A baited electric fence is much more effective against deer than an ordinary electric fence. Often called a peanut butter fence, a baited electric fence entices the deer to touch the wire with their nose instead of just jumping the ordinary electric fence.

Deer Control Methods Using Taste, Odor, Or Contact Deterrents

Organic deer repellent sprays to make the plants taste bad, smell bad, or to burn the deer’s nose are often made from hot pepper, garlic, rotten eggs, glue, and castor oil. There are many deer deterrent sprays that are commercially available and, on the Internet, there are many recipes for homemade deer repellents. While successful to varying degrees these deterrents usually require constant reapplication. These compounds must be washed off of edibles.

Keeping Deer Out Using Chemical Odor Deterrents

Moth balls, lime sulfur, Thiram, shredded deodorant soap, creosote, nicotine, ammonia, and many other chemical compounds have been used to keep deer away with variable, and usually temporary, success. Some of these substances are toxic and you certainly would not want to use them in your vegetable garden or your yard even if they would be effective for keeping deer away.

Deer Damage Prevention Using Water Spraying Devices

There are several deer deterrent devices available that spray water when triggered by a motion sensor. These devices work well in many situations. However, they require a high-pressure water supply and temperatures above freezing to operate.

Deer Control Methods Using Scare Devices

Deer scare devices include fireworks, propane exploders, strobe lights, mechanical devices, ultrasonic devices, stretching VHS tape or monofilament line, and many others. Deer have adapted very well to living with humans and it doesn’t take them long to figure out that these scare devices will not hurt them. Also, many of these devices are disturbing to nearby humans.

Deer Management Methods Using Trapping

Deer are flighty, high-strung animals and often die when trapped and relocated. Also, since more deer are not wanted anywhere, relocation is not an option. Trapping deer and shooting them in the traps would be a useful technique but negative public opinion limits this option.

Deer Management Using Off-Site Feeding

Feeding deer is strongly discouraged for many reasons. Feeding deer will bring more deer into the area and the resulting congregation of deer will contribute to the spread of diseases like tuberculosis and chronic wasting disease. Feeding deer will make the deer dependent and interrupt their normal movement.

The Wireless Deer Fence® repels deer in the same way as a baited electric fence does.