What, if anything, can I do about a critter?

[cloz]

Originally Posted by ddsack

I agree, the deer are a big nuisance for gardeners. The population cycle has gone up and down throughout the the years, and now with few natural predators (except cars and hunters) they are multiplying in urban areas. When we moved north here, in the early 1970's there were very few deer due to a couple of really harsh winterkills. A hoof print on the driveway was a rare sight and cause for excitement. Since then, the population has returned to a high level, even the nasty last winter didn't do much damage, although the deer this spring have looked unusually thin and scruffy. Some of the neighbor's do rifle hunt in the area, although we do not, since our property is too close to a road to do that safely. I don't hunt and my husband goes elsewhere for his venison. But if your deer are tame enough to get close enough for a sure bow shot, I would not blame you a bit for taking a couple in exhange for sharing your crops. The problem with hunting in smaller development lots is that an wounded deer often wanders away to bleed out before it dies, which means it might end up at a neighbor's house or a half mile away. Could get tricky tracking and recovering unless your neighbors are all aware and approve of what you are doing. We do enjoy our venison, very healthy and low fat meat. I usually have much of it ground to hamburger and never have to buy beef.

I agree with everything you said. I have spent some 25 years going up to Maine hunting in some pretty thick woods and marshes. Under those circumstances, if the deer doesn't drop right away, you will be doing some tracking to find them. I've spent lots of time tracking well hit animals that ran far enough to disappear since you could only see 50 yards or so. Tracking deer through people's yards is not something I would look forward to, but it is tempting. I was out practising with my bow a couple of years ago and when I looked up over the target, there was a doe standing about 40 yards away from me. She just walked away and I walked over to a spot where I was 17 paces away from the deer and she just stood there looking at me. Tail never came up and she just mozied on past me and walked off my property.

Anyways, I hope the Granny's Heart and Azoychka survive. Any others I have plenty of extras that I will be looking for homes for.

[tjg911]

Originally Posted by cloz

My Kitty has been busy the last few days. She is taking care of all pests. She has brought home 5 moles

whoa! can i borrow that kitty?

as to shooting deer with a bow i suspect you'd have to kill hundreds if not thousands. this state is over run with deer. a better solution for the tomatoes would be to make a cage from 3/4" schedule 40 pvc pipe, it's pretty inexpensive stuff and easy to devise a cage using tees and elbows. then but bird netting (black plastic with 1/4" holes) over the cage, lots of places sell it i got it at blue seal feed and grain. they sell 3 different sizes, typically it's used for blueberry bushes. i had to do this for my broccoli to stop the finches from pecking the heads and ruining them. i had to weight down the netting so the birds can't go under it cuz they will. i use 1 gallon milk jugs filled with water every 3'. for deer you can let the netting just go to the ground. it is very effect. when i want to pick broccoli i just open 1 side. i can spray neptune's harvest fertilizer thru the netting and even water thru it.

[cloz]

Originally Posted by tjg911

whoa! can i borrow that kitty?

as to shooting deer with a bow i suspect you'd have to kill hundreds if not thousands. this state is over run with deer. a better solution for the tomatoes would be to make a cage from 3/4" schedule 40 pvc pipe,

Agreed on the deer problem.
I do have a wire fence around my garden area that keeps the deer out but I had not put my tomato seedlings in there yet because I need to till the soil in there first. I was going to do that yesterday but got sidetracked.
Years ago I went to a picnic at a friends house. He had built a bird netting cage that was about 15' by 30' by 7' high. He had a door on it and his whole garden was inside. Kept all birds and animals out. My wife would go nuts if I tried to do that. I am already getting flack about adding space to the garden for another 30 tomato plants. I may have to settle for half of that this year. I'll just expand when she is not looking and see if she can figure it out.