How to protect your garden from prying deer

In this article we will share the experience of foreign farmers and tell you by what signs you can identify the presence of deer in your garden, and how to protect yourself from them. Although they seem harmless, animals can do a lot of harm to your plants.

Deer in the Garden

Thanks to strong legs, deer are able to jump over any obstacles, except for the highest fences, and devour stems, leaves and buds of many plant species, including alfalfa, fir, thuja and roses. They also eat fruits and vegetables.

Although pests can visit your garden in every season, spring is the time when deer bring the most problems, devouring delicious shoots with maniacal passion. At this time, the females either carry or feed the deer, and the males grow their horns (about, cm per day) and try to get the weight back. For a deer tired for a winter, your garden in the spring looks like a vegetable restaurant, beckoning with fresh products.

Most comfortable animals feel themselves in the hours of twilight (before sunrise and sunset) and like to feed on the outskirts of forests and in gardens bordering with dense trees. Being very selective eaters, deer concentrate only on those plants that are currently most nutritious.

How to identify a deer

These beautiful elegant creatures are very thin and stand out with their gray-brown skin with a reddish tinge. Males have horns, females do not have them. Male individuals weigh 90-130 kg, while women weigh about 55-80 kg. Their growth reaches 120 cm, and deer live about 16 years in the wild. A distinctive feature of the white-tailed deer is a long tail with white hair on the lower part, which they begin to move in fright.

As a rule, the animals are calm. Sometimes you can hear the grunting of the female with the deer and the grumbling sound produced by the male if he feels danger. Prints of forked hoofs and bean-shaped droppings also indicate the presence of uninvited guests.

Damage from reindeer

The jaws of the pests leave torn marks on the leaves. Animals have certain preferences for some types of flowers, so they can suffer more than others. Plants that seem soft to the touch, contain a lot of water and are favorites in the deer menu (for example, hosts, rhododendrons, roses and kidneys). Pests do not like rough, bristly and prickling leaves, as well as intense aromas of flowers. Nevertheless, the deer will eat anything, if its hunger is strong enough.

Methods of struggle

There are many methods to deter uninvited guests from feasting in your garden. Try using some of them:

1. Treat the planting with repellents containing dried bovine blood, egg powder and garlic. These mixtures are usually available in most garden stores, are harmless to plants and are effective for containment of pests.
2. The recipe for another natural repellent contains 1 raw egg, half a glass of milk, 1 tablespoon of detergent for dishes and, l of water. Lightly spray the mixture on the plants and repeat the procedure after the rain. Or mix 2 tbsp. l. sauce Tabasco with, l of water and sprinkle the leaves and fruits (repeat also after the rain).
3. Use the tactic of fright. Set a few steel bars and tie them to the rope metal forms for baking pies. Even light gusts of wind will cause the construction to make sounds that repel deer.
4. Put the radio in the garden and keep it on all night. Animals will stay away from the source of noise.
5. Put an inexpensive motion sensor among the landings. When it works for the presence of an outsider, the noise will drive the harmful visitor back into the forest.
6. Pull the mesh fabric over the plants, and most deer will pass by.
7. As a natural way of restraint, you can use human hair or dog hair. Spread them on the territory or hang in sacks on the trees.

To keep the deer away from the apple trees, hang up the nylon stockings stuffed with human hair at a height of about a meter above the ground. Regularly change the contents.

A good option is a cheap soap (for example, from a hotel), scattered around the garden. Do not remove the wrapper so it lasts longer. Either mix rotten eggs with water and spray around the perimeter of the territory (12 pcs. for 20 liters of water).

One experienced gardener found a way to protect tomatoes from harmful animals. He hung old unclean shoes on a supporting pole and watched the deer describe more circles around this place, while not coming nearer. This effect persisted from mid-May to the end of August. Depending on the amount of rain and the power of the smell, this period can either increase or decrease.

Some use wolf's urine and cat litter on the borders of the garden. These scents repel the deer best. Tattered underwear hung on the fence gives a similar, albeit lesser effect.

Preventive measures

Trim the lower branches of the trees so that the animals do not have shelter. No deer will feed on open space if there are lush bushes next door. Always clean the yard of fallen acorns, rotten fruits and leaves, which for hungry deer is like an invitation to a feast.

Choose shrubs that do not like deer (for example, forsythia and lilac bush), as well as calendula, lavender, narcissus and snapdragon. It is possible to decompose the strong-smelling plants on the border of the garden or near the plantations, which need more protection. Pests tend to stay away from poisonous and fragrant crops, as well as plants with fluffy leaves.

Now you know a little more about these elegant, but bothersome animals. Despite all the grace and beauty, it is better not to let deer get to your plants and seriously approach the issue of protection from pests. Of course, the best way was and remains a continuous fence, height, meter.