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Montag, 4. Januar 2010

Keeping Your Plants From Being Deer Snacks

By Tad Distin

Protecting your garden from unwanted snackers is a full-time job. Animals are quiet and can strike at any time. Deer look innocent, but they can wreck havoc on a garden in minutes. So how do you keep them away without doing anything to harm them? How do you find a a way that to keep the deer away? It is not easy. They can jump fences at very tall heights and can be fearless when they are very hungry. You must therefore play their own instincts against them and learn what things they have an natural aversion to.

As with most other animals, deer are very sensitive to smell. They are a comparatively docile form of wildlife and run away at the first sign of a predator. The urine of a predator is the best way to mark your territory--but there is something about walking around with a spray can of urine in your hand and spraying it around your garden. How about the edible stuff?

There are scented chemicals that are similar to the smell of real animal urine. Few animals would be willing to risk getting food that is clearly in the middle of a predator's territory. These can be found in any hunting or home care department. Still there is something about spraying stuff that stinks on to the plants.

Deer, much like dogs, can hear sounds much higher than a human would be able to hear. While dogs express their displeasure at these noises by barking, deer will simply go away. Whistles can be bought which you can blow if you see the animal stalking your garden, but one cannot be expected to be on watch at all hours of the day and night. There are automatic whistles which can play when something in your yard triggers its motion detectors. You can go about your own life with no inconvenience whatsoever, but deer will flee from your area.

For more inexpensive, household items, use anything with a sharp scent. Chopped garlic has been said to work, along with chopped hot peppers. Dove soap, which smells so good to us, is enough to make a deer retch. Moth balls and ammonia (understandably) keep animals at bay.

A new wave of deer-resistance has started. People call it 'deeroscaping' and use the term when they organize their property to be unpalatable to deer. This typically involves growing certain plants that deer find disgusting very close to ones they find delicious. It should hopefully keep them far enough away from your garden so they don't even notice plants they might want. Any decorative grass is one example, along with sage, verbena, spearmint, and mums. Full lists are pages long.

The important thing to remember, though, is that in winter, deer will eat almost anything. In the summer, any one of these tricks will work, but in the winter you may have to employ as many of them as you can when the deer are starving.

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