Sir:
Deer, rabbits, and squirrels are a real problem where we live in western Canada. The deer and rabbits love our fruit trees and the squirrels have a penchant for strawberries. (Yes, up here we can grow many varieties of apples, plums, cherries, pears and even certain varieties of kiwi, peach, grape, etc.)
When we first moved to our farm we had several of our trees seriously damaged by deer and rabbits–not just fruit trees but trees in our shelter belt as well. The rabbits were the worst because they stripped the bark (several inches high) all the way around the tree and killed it. The damage from rabbits usually occurred in the winter while the deer preferred to eat the ripened apples in the fall–this of course caused some collateral damage to the branches. The deer also loved the taste of the leaves and branches on our young cherry bushes and thoroughly chewed them up. Squirrels really only hurt our strawberries. There would be no sign of them until the berries were just about ripe…and then we would check and the freshly ripened strawberries would be one-third eaten away.
We have relied on three effective means to prevent damage to our investments: guns, pets, and blood meal sprays.
(1) Guns are pretty self-explanatory. I used my Ruger 10/.22 to significantly thin down the rabbit and squirrel populations. Used to see sign of rabbits weekly but now I haven’t seen one for about 6 months. The squirrels are more persistent and elusive but I have significantly decreased their numbers. Deer are off-limits without a license and only hunt-able during certain times of the year.
(2) We bought a young dog when we first moved to our farm and he helped to keep the pests away but unfortunately contracted the Parvo virus and died. Apparently, the Parvo virus is persistent and the vet advised us to wait a year before getting another dog. During this time our cat stepped up to the plate in defending our fruit trees. The cat had been relatively effective at killing squirrels (ground and tree varieties) but we were shocked the first time he got a rabbit! The rabbit was juvenile but was by no means a baby. Later, the cat was somehow able to kill an adult rabbit–maybe we weren’t feeding it enough! We now have another dog that will help keep the deer away.
(3) Blood meal-based sprays are what we use to protect our trees in the winter when our fruit trees are the most vulnerable. Blood meal is dried, powdered blood. Some companies have incorporated blood meal into sprays that can be applied directly to the tress/bushes. We buy products such as Plantskydd but have used others as well. These sprays adhere really well and provide protection for up to 6 months. After the harvest and just before it starts to freeze, we spray down our trees with the spray and it has thus far been 100% successful for us. The smell of blood supposedly scares the deer and rabbits away. We make sure and coat the trunks of the trees thoroughly up to the height that rabbits can reach in the winter. We also douse the branches to keep the deer away. I have read that some people have found these sprays ineffective but given the success that we have had I can only assume that they didn’t use enough. An enterprising person could probably make their own spray from blood meal. It is inexpensive and readily available but I haven’t personally invested the time to try it.
The main drawback of the blood meal spray is the time that it takes to thoroughly treat all the trees. We have about 50 trees and it takes a while to spray them all with a hand sprayer. We are enlarging our orchard this year and I will need to buy a larger sprayer. Blood meal sprays can be purchases in concentrated form and are more economical for treating larger amounts of plants.
Using these three tools we have managed our first full year with no animal damage to our trees. Hope this is of some help to those struggling with these type of pests, – Ryan from Canada
Sir:
Jason provided some good information on pest and varmint control, but I’d like to add one that I rarely see listed in recommendations: big dogs.
Our garden is usually 1/4 acre or larger and we live out in the country with plentiful deer, rabbits, raccoons, etc. Given it’s size, the garden would be costly to fence so we’ve had to take our chances with the creatures of the night. While we do occasionally find deer tracks or nibbled veggies in the garden, it’s not the problem I think it would be if not for our night patrol. Our two mixed breed dogs go tearing across the yard barking several times a night to chase intruders away. They occasionally catch their own dinners and quickly rid the yard of moles. In addition, we keep our poultry in movable coops to fertilize our pastures and rarely have predator problems as long as the coops are in the dogs’ territory. And many a visitor has waited in his car for us to come out over concern about the friendliness of our dogs. We never tell them they wouldn’t bite- I’d rather they wonder. We jokingly call our dogs “porch ornaments” since they loll around most of the day, but to our way of thinking, they are invaluable as pets and protection from all kinds of things. – Laura in an Unnamed Southern State
Hi JWR,
I’ve been reading your blog for a while now and have enjoyed the many useful and insightful articles.
The article on garden defense caught my eye as it’s been a perennial thorn in my side.
On the advice of an elderly rancher who lived nearby, we constructed two fences— a barb-wire outer fence about 4 feet high and an inner fence of #4 mesh about 6 feet high. The space between the two fences is about 5 feet all the way around.
The reason this fence works is that deer are unable to leap both fences at once and unwilling to jump into the tight space between the fences. And the smaller animals can’t get through the mesh of the inner fence.
This works pretty well to keep humans out as well and costs less to maintain than a single, taller fence. Thanks, – Thomas
James,
I would like to add some personal perspective on controlling deer predation. I read the article that Jason wrote : Garden Defense — Repelling Four-Legged (and Two-Winged) Pests, by Jason , and he makes some excellent suggestions. Having tried virtually everything ever suggested to me, I would concur that scents, irritants, and other non-physical barriers are ultimately of limited effectiveness.
We garden year-round and the local deer population is big. To make matters worse, we have neighbors down the road who enjoy feeding the deer in order to watch them. A fine pastime, to be sure, but once the kiddies are bored with the deer the feeding stops for awhile and the four-legged residents forage elsewhere. Being the closest, the critters always stop by to see what we have on the menu.
After a few years of random devastation (one night we had 33 out of 80 tomato plants eaten down from four feet high to eight inches low), I decided that we needed to enclose our plots with fencing. We have two plots, each about an acre, so a full deer-height fence with a rabbit barrier down low was going to be a serious expense. Since the valley we live in has a few native residents, I decided to do a little brain-picking. I figured that since the deer have been here a long time, those born and raised in this valley might have a trick or two. A half-dozen loaves of homemade bread later, I had two “sure-fire” strategies. I decided to test them, one on each plot, and gauge their effectiveness.
Both methods take advantage of the same characteristics that all deer seem to have. Those being their inability to perceive distance/depth of field accurately, and their poor vision in general. While deer are very good a detecting movement, they are very much color blind and see things in shades of gray. Blaze Orange is a testament to their vision deficiencies.
The first suggestion was to put up a “standard” 4 ft. garden fence using steel t-posts, burying a 3-ft high rabbit barrier of galvanized roll fencing (same method as Jason detailed using chicken wire), then adding three strands of fence wire above the rabbit fence. This sort of fence by itself is useless for repelling deer. The trick I learned was to add a second fence line, outside the garden fence and 18-24″ away. This needs to be a single strand of fence wire about three feet high. Done. The theory is that the deer will come up to the first strand and decide to go either over or under it. But, they will first see the second fence and not be able to determine how far away it is. Since the way deer jump a fence is to get right up next to it and go basically straight up and over, they are hesitant to go past the first strand, not know if they will trap themselves.
The second suggestion was one I had little faith in, I admit. I was already preparing for the loss of this garden before the fence was even up. In short, the “fence” consists of a single strand of monofilament fishing line, approximately 3-ft above the ground, stretched between posts as far apart as feasible. The idea with this method is that, due to their poor vision, the deer will walk into the mono strand and stop. Since they can’t identify what is impeding them or how high it might be, they can’t figure out a safe way past and so they give up and leave.
So here we went, one garden plot fenced with each method, and deer food coming up nicely. Since they absolutely love heirloom tomato plants, I put some in each plot. Time to wait and watch. It did not take long to see that the single strand of monofilament had no effect on rabbits. They came fast, and, being thwarted by the buried fencing on the first plot, went after the unprotected one. This was manageable for awhile, but the monofilament I used did not hold up well to stray dogs, nor to sunlight. While it stayed in place, the deer came up to it and left most of the time, but when it started to deteriorate and became opaque it lost it’s effectiveness. The mono required replacing several times during the summer growing season to remain effective.
The multi-strand fence with the outside single wire did a much better job. No rabbit penetration, one incident of a raccoon getting into the melon patch, and twice a deer apparently got caught between the fences and tore up the single strand a little. No deer got into the garden plot however.
We have not had issues with fall and over-winter predation, so I took the mono down and left the dual fence up. Planning for year two over the winter, I decided to try mono again, but add a second strand. I found some “clear” mono that was UV stabilized (it said). I strung it with high hopes and waited. The new, improved, mono selection worked a bit better at resisting the effects of the sun, but two strands was twice as much work when dogs tore it up. I would have tolerated them better if they would occasionally get a rabbit but they are too domesticated to be true alpha predators anymore. After a second summer season, the mono method clearly works, but upkeep is time consuming.
The original double fence stayed in place during year two as well. I had to double up on a few posts that loosened, but otherwise held up well. Functionally, rabbits were still denied access and a few incidents with deer getting inside the first strand resulted in a couple deer incidents. One deer was caught in the garden and provided a winter’s worth of stew meat in exchange for two cabbage heads and six tomato plants, three of which recovered and yielded plenty of tomatoes.
After another winter of contemplation, I decided to abandon the mono strand fence. Maintenance and lack of rabbit protection were my main motives. So I replicated the basic garden fence from the first plot. I decided to experiment again, and made it five feet high instead of four. Then, when I put up the outside fence, I went looking for mono stranding again. My theory was that the mono had worked so well by itself, it might be even better in conjunction with the inner fence. Maybe over thinking it, I know, but having a deer get into the garden fence made me think that I might be able to improve it somehow.
In searching for a tougher mono, I stumbled on a roll of bright orange trimmer string in the tool shed. It was enough to run down one side of the plot, so I put it on the side the deer favor. I had a bunch left over from the previous year, so I did the rest with a single strand of regular clear mono. Well, after the season was done, I was amazed. The dogs no longer ran through the mono, I guess because they could see the wire fence inside. And I didn’t have any deer get inside. The clear mono still had UV issues and had to be replaced mid-season, but the orange trimmer line was a little stiff, but held up all season.
I have continued to use trimmer line since and have had good results. (The best price seems to be on Weed Eater .080″, usually around $16 for a 2,000 ft spool). I have seen commercial deer fencing go to poly and PVC coated wire in recent years and know of commercial growers that swear by it. I will try it if I have to completely re-fenced at some point, but it is very expensive for a smaller garden solution. It also relies on height, and keeping up with a 7-10 ft fence might be a lot harder than a 4-5 ft one for the average gardener. One note: In our case, deer average around 90-100 lbs. If you are in an area with bigger (taller) deer, you may need to adjust the height of the outer strand somewhat. And if you are in elk country, scale will need to adjust too, I would imagine.
Now, if someone has a way to keep galvanized fencing from rusting out every five years or so…
Many thanks for your wonderful site, – Paul E.
and The Mother Earth News magazine.