Deer/coons in the garden

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by Crandrew

That moose just wants to cuddle right?

A moose is the meanest animal known to mankind. I would rather cuddle with a grizzly bear or a shark!

[FlyingZ]

We use slivers of Irish Spring bar soap mashed onto plastic mesh fence. It has worked really well, no deer since we started using it last spring. The fence is just to remind the kids where the garden is and to hold the soap nose high. We place a sliver 1/4" thick every 3 feet or so.

[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.

[janezee]

A couple of years ago, I didn't have a fence, but I got shiny helium balloons and tied them to the trellises holding the tomatoes. The only time the deer bothered the tomatoes was the night we had the wind storm that blew all the balloons away. The best is when they deflate a little, and make crinkley noises in the breeze.

Now, i get fish guts and bodies, put them into kitty litter buckets, and put them in the sun. Nothing likes the smell of them but the neighbor's dog. Every now and then, I spill some around the edges of the garden. The deer haven't even bothered my raspberries, which they really love. Don't do this until after weeding.

No raccoons or skunk or possum here. Just two dogs for every household.

j

[OldHondaNut]

I wish there was something I could plant around the garden to deter pests. I tried onions and garlic and one day I found all of them eaten overnight.

Any thoughts about an organic deterent (besides wolf stink) that can be planted in long rows?

[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.