Bambi is cute but NOT when he brings the whole family and considers our orchard his personal smorgasbord!
If you're wondering what works to keep the deer out, this one is for you.
We've found several methods that deter, and by implementing more than one, we have successfully kept deer out for 4 springs! After they destroyed 80 trees that first year, something had to give! And I do mean destroyed: they tore the tree branches horribly, beyond what new growth would correct.
the deer seem to favor our cherries the most!
Our first inclination was to install a 'pretend' fence using cheap orange plastic construction fencing just to make it difficult for the deer to walk right in, without breaking the bank. Bambi just jumped straight through it, leaving a big gaping hole.
We've since learned that deer won't jump a fence if you have two fences spaced about 5' apart. If they can't see a wide open area to jump to, they won't try it. But that wasn't one of our options here.
Bambi jumped right through it on the way out!
Nobody had the pretty green fencing in stock -- and we needed to do something right NOW !
plain white twine to the rescue!
Part of our area didn't make sense to put up an entire 'pretend' obnoxious orange plastic fence.
So we innovated.
Deer are spooked by what they can't see, and we'd heard they can't see fishing line strung between two trees. So we actually used three rows of thin cotton string between two trees to deter them from entry on one side -- it sorta worked for awhile until they figured it out in the daylight.
Or the smallest of them simply did the limbo right underneath it --- just 20" off the ground! We could tell because everything was eaten off just up to about 24" height and there it stopped -- so it had to be a baby. Yep, they brought the whole family and the in-laws too!
We needed something more effective. And fast!
Just make sure you keep the batteries up to date.
Our most effective tool is the motion sensitive water sprayer by Orbit: specifically Orbit 62100. Sensor head can be set to a wide angle, separately from the setting for water spray angle. If your spray angle is too wide, the deer will simply walk between two sprayers if each is spraying in opposite directions. To solve that issue, we installed two circles of sprayers, an outer circle and an inner circle.
I should note the sprayers are designed to be hooked up to a garden hose. So the fittings have to be adapted if you're going to assemble them in tandem, and or feed them from a 1/2 inch poly pipe as we did.
Orbit model 62100
There's also merit in using the wild animal scents to mark the territory, scaring deer away. But with our daily summer rains, that option doesn't last long.
But the 3 layer concept of pretend fence #1 and #2, and the motion sensitive sprayers saved mucho $$$ in property damage. No more shredded, broken cherry trees to toss on the burn pile.
And it's made the Green Genie smile again!
