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Battling Bambi - Page 6

Page 6

Feb 5, 2004

5 drops liquid dish soap
5 drops cooking oil or dormant oil
20 drops essential oil of cloves
Top the sprayer off with water.
Lightly mist the plants, just to moisten, not to run-off. Apply when the leaves are dry and no rain is expected for the day.

20 drops of Essential Oil Of Clove mixed with water, sprayed through a tank sprayer.
A bit of oil (cooking or hort.)
Couple drops of soap (liquid).
Change oils periodically ....clove, cinnamon, eucalyptus.

Home made sprays. Several commercial products are egg based. Deer dislike the scent of rotting eggs. See sidebar for some recipes.

Electronic Repellents. ( HAVAHART® Electronic Repellent for Deer and Wireless Deer Fence are two of these). They do, indeed teach deer to avoid the shock, but only to avoid the actual repellent stake, not the plants growing around it. I had one in the middle of a group of Astilbe; every plant was munched around the stake. I have heard from those for whom this type of repellent worked, but they were totally worthless in my garden except as a method for observing the hoof print patterns made by a startled deer.

Milorganite. This is a sewage sludge product from the city of Milwaukee. It comes bagged in granulated form to be used as a fertilizer, primarily for grass. For some time, flinging it around discouraged my herd if I got out there and did it after each and every rain. After a few years, however, the herd got used to the smell (pretty strong) and ignored it.

Netting or enclosing individual plants or groups of plants. This can help, but it is unattractive, time-consuming to set up and take down plus it can fail in heavy snow that either weighs down the netting or fencing or permits deer to get high enough to get over it. For several years, I enclosed all my yew hedges and evergreen azalea groupings with heavy duty green plastic garden fencing in the fall, removing it in spring. I also used netting for this purpose (more about netting later). My husband said the garden looked like a concentration camp. For all the labor involved, I would have to rate this method a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10.

What Really Works - Fencing

The only method that is fairly fail-safe is fencing. It's not one hundred percent fool-proof, but nearly so. About three years ago, it became obvious that I either had to fence or give up gardening, so I bit the bullet and started clearing woods to erect a deer fence.

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6. Feb 9, 2004 1:21 PM
In response to message posted by biogardener:

Good; you're ahead of the game there, Traute. Once your willows get mature, the ...

-- posted by Marge_Talt

5. Feb 8, 2004 11:06 PM
Yes, I have been watching the wire mesh and snipping it where necessary to make sure that the trees can grow normally. I have even pulled some of the wraps off and used them on younger trees. I got ...

-- posted by biogardener

4. Feb 8, 2004 10:38 PM
In response to message posted by biogardener:

Yes, Traute, wire mesh will keep the blighters from eating trees. You may have ...

-- posted by Marge_Talt

3. Feb 8, 2004 3:46 AM
I have a lot of deer on my 20 acres of country property where I have been planting trees. Three years ago, they discovered my willows which I had grown in the low-lying areas by simply sticking branc ...

-- posted by biogardener

2. Feb 7, 2004 12:36 PM
In response to message posted by Howie:

LOL Howie...your traveling tag - eat venison - totally cracked me up!

Well, like I ...

-- posted by Marge_Talt

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