Deer/coons in the garden

[Skyking]

any suggestions for planting or planning the garden to help keep my 4 legged friends out .I'm fixing to put part of my truck patch in a river bottom full of these critters .
I don't mind sharing as I deer hunt and trap so all is well and I'll be stringing an electric fence on part of it.It seems I remember reading someplace about putting squash or cotton around the outside as nothing wanted to cross through them ..

[Hotwired]

I've heard that a mixture of potassium nitrate, sulfur and saltpeter will keep deer out of your garden.....

Nevermind .... that's gunpowder.

[Skyking]

Originally Posted by Hotwired

I've heard that a mixture of potassium nitrate, sulfur and saltpeter will keep deer out of your garden.....

Nevermind .... that's gunpowder.

[Boutique Tomatoes]

I'm curious about this as well. I've been looking at solar electric fence options but I'm not terribly convinced having watched deer jump fences. One of the remote options I have is a friends bottom land field next to a creek and a large pond on their property that the wildlife stripped last year. It sounded perfect with the pond for irrigation right there until he mentioned that he got nothing out of what he planted there last year.

I was going to call the owner of a large you-pick berries/corn/pumkin operation not far from here. This fall when we were out there for a cub scout activity I was feeling him out about asking for hunting permission and he told me that he had some spray that kept the deer away pretty well, but of course I've forgotten what he said it was now. If I find out I'll let you know what it was.

[Redbaron]

Best solution is a combination of a feathernet electric fence, motion sensor lights and guard dogs to keep them out of your garden and a food plot away from your garden to feed the wildlife.

This way they have food easy to get to, while your garden has multiple reasons to stay away.

[Skyking]

Originally Posted by Redbaron

Best solution is a combination of a feathernet electric fence, motion sensor lights and guard dogs to keep them out of your garden and a food plot away from your garden to feed the wildlife.

This way they have food easy to get to, while your garden has multiple reasons to stay away.

I've used electric fence in WV heavy deer areas with very good results and several rolls of the feathernet as well
I liked the idea of squash around the outside rows
coons on the other hand might be more agile at squeezing under

[Crandrew]

I have a trap coming in the mail to me, for the coons. We'll see how it goes.

[JohnWayne]

I was told to run a strand of electric fence wire about knee high then to move inside that 3 or 4 feet and place another strand about 6 feet high and tie streamers of something like crime scene tape off both.

The idea he said was to let the deer see the double fence. While he can jump either, He don't want to be between them and can't jump both. I might even go 3 strands.

As for the coons, A live trap and relocation would be my guess.

Good luck !

[Hotwired]

Originally Posted by JohnWayne

I was told to run a strand of electric fence wire about knee high then to move inside that 3 or 4 feet and place another strand about 6 feet high and tie streamers of something like crime scene tape off both. The idea he said was to let the deer see the double fence. While he can jump either, He don't want to be between them and can't jump both.

Seriously, I have a big deer problem here. I have a 6-ft wire mesh fence around my garden, which they jump right over. I installed a 2-strand electric fence 36" outside the mesh fence. They definitely will not jump a double fence.

Another thing that works really well is "Liquid Fence". It supposedly smells like wolf urine. I spray a little around my unfenced beds and they leave them alone. The problem is it needs to be reapplied after a rain, it's expensive, and DON'T SPILL ANY ON YOU. You can't get the smell off your hands or clothes. Be prepared to spend the next four nights on the couch if you get it on you.

[Patihum]

A good way to "train" the deer to stay away from the hot wire is to smear a little peanut butter on it. When they nose in on it they get zapped and will avoid it. It's worked here for us. Helps with the coons too!

[gggeek]

Originally Posted by Patihum

A good way to "train" the deer to stay away from the hot wire is to smear a little peanut butter on it. When they nose in on it they get zapped and will avoid it. It's worked here for us. Helps with the coons too!

Mouse traps on fence posts with peanut butter also work to spook them... though you may lose a few traps here or there.

I don't have to worry about deer, but I do get coons. I've found if I cover my tomatoes with the mesh bags that onions come in at the store that I can for the most part keep them out of the ripening fruit. Of course this is small scale and not valid for cherry tomato plants due to the size of the clusters.

We use Plantskydd, a spray that contains predator "smells". We have found that it protects our ornamental garden from the deer and moose that frequent our area. We simply spray it around the base of the plant (it's quite smelly) and it does it's job.

I've attached a few pics...one of the spray bottle itself, and a couple pics of the critters that we are dealing with (taken last fall).

The baby moose in the garden is a frequent visitor in the spring and fall. It loves the tender shoots of whatever we plant. The Plantskydd spray works well on our ground cover and shorter plants, but our "little" visitor has taken to eating the tips off our dogwood and evergreens.

The last pic is of Momma Moose, never far behind. In this case she's waiting patiently behind our greenhouse for junior to finish his grazing.

Enjoy!

[delltraveller]

Originally Posted by Hotwired

...and DON'T SPILL ANY ON YOU. You can't get the smell off your hands or clothes. Be prepared to spend the next four nights on the couch if you get it on you.

Somebody's awfully fond of you, letting you sleep in the house in that condition....

[OldHondaNut]

Originally Posted by JohnWayne

I was told to run a strand of electric fence wire about knee high then to move inside that 3 or 4 feet and place another strand about 6 feet high and tie streamers of something like crime scene tape off both.

The idea he said was to let the deer see the double fence. While he can jump either, He don't want to be between them and can't jump both. I might even go 3 strands.

As for the coons, A live trap and relocation would be my guess.

Good luck !

This is close to what I am doing. It is my second year with a solar panel/electric fence and I just set it up again about a week ago. Last year I twice tried and failed, I was having problems at the 90* corners where the wire would touch the Tpost and ground out even with the 2" tpost extenders.

The general idea is to have 2 fences to keep deer out (one charger) and each fence is 3 to 4' away from the other. The recommend height was 14" for the single strand outer wire and 10" and 24" on the inside fence. I added a top wire for most of it just to finish the spool.

If a cow hit it on its head, it will back up. If it gets shocked below its head, it will go through the fence.

I will know more after this year. Try it on a small area and learn like I am. I planted 4 rows of Improved Golden Bantam and if it makes it to harvest, you can grow anything cause all those critters (opossum, hogs, neighbors cattle, deer, rabbits, wild turkey) like corn.

[Doug9345]

Originally Posted by OldHondaNut

This is close to what I am doing. It is my second year with a solar panel/electric fence and I just set it up again about a week ago. Last year I twice tried and failed, I was having problems at the 90* corners where the wire would touch the Tpost and ground out even with the 2" tpost extenders.

The way you do corners is to treat them as 2 separate runs. Terminate the first run at the corner post, do the same with the run at the right angle and then just connect them with a piece of wire that is well away from the posts. Corner posts also have to be braced or guyed or they will pull into the center.