I tried to grow some fall peas this year in a small field that was about 150 yards from the house. I thought the dogs would keep any deer away, but I think the deer are no longer afraid of our dogs. So they made a significant dent in the peas.

Deer fence seems like the wisest way to go.

I've been told that they need to be eight feet tall. What kind of fencing stuff should I use? I have an auger for my tractor and I can probably cut my own poles from some forest that needs thinning. I don't think barbed wire would work, so I'm guessing that I need some sort of mesh.

I feel pretty underqualified to take on this task - any suggestions?

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), October 29, 2001

Answers

around here, deer fencing is 10 to 12 foot high, usually the 4x6 wire, barbed wire will only injur then when they try to jump it,electric might work, on top of a 8 foot fence, but would bet that it would only keep the smaller ones out

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), October 29, 2001.

Some folks around here claim hanging sacks of human hair keeps deer out of their peas. Others say to use bars of Dial soap. Haven't ever tried it but its cheaper than a fence.

-- VickiP. (countrymous@webtv.net), October 29, 2001.

For this particular field, I need to be sure that the deer are not a factor. I have to put in deer fence.

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), October 29, 2001.

Check out in Archives below, Wildlife / Game threads; several possible solutions here. Good luck.

-- j.r. guerra (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), October 29, 2001.

I have seen effective deer fence that is about 8 ft. high, but the trick was how it was put up. You angle the top of the fence out about two feet. Without a "verticle" reference, the deer are hesitant to jump the fence. Should be 4 x 6 inch field fence.

-- Rickstir (rpowell@email.ccis.edu), October 29, 2001.

I hired my son to put up about a quarter mile of six foot high chicken wire. He did this by clearing a path through the manzanita, back about ten to twenty feet from the "clearing" where we have the house, garden, etc. He just stapled the fence to the remaining manzanita; it is really a pretty funky installation, but it worked for three years. The first year two trees fell, knocking down the fence, and we weren't aware of it until a couple of grape plants were stripped.

While walking the perimeter, looking for the problem, I put up another strand of very thin galvanized wire (from a leftover roll) at about eight feet high, with flagging every five or ten feet, just to show Bambi that the wire was there.

Then we had three years without Bambi.

This year, Bambi has figured out how to lift the chicken wire and crawl under, so I'm going to have to put stakes down in places.

The best part of this method, however, was cost. The chicken wire cost $80 per 1000 foot roll. It took my son only five hours to install it! (I was actually figuring DAYS to do it; he's a go-getter!

Part of the way this works is that there is no room for Bambi to get a run, or have a place to alight, as there is only about a two foot wide path outside the fence, and no path on the inside.

Good luck. If I weren't a veggie, I'd just be out bagging Bambi.

JOJ

-- joj (jump@off.c), October 29, 2001.

Temporary hot fence, strung chest high, and two foot off the ground should do it, deer have a real aversion to hot wire, they can "sense" it is on without even getting too close to it. Works for folks here in "deer heaven" and in deer over-run WV.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), October 29, 2001.

6 foot fence?? what kind of deer do yo have? Around here, they are 5 foot deer, easy, ,can do 6 foot without trying. And they will crawl under a fence also. only thing 6 foot fence will do here,, is make em chuckle

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), October 29, 2001.

I too have a 6ft fence around my veggie garden. The deer here in W,Wa are not very big and this seems to work. I have 2ft of rabbit wire then 4ft of sheep fence. We do have trees and brush on the other side of the fence so there is no running room on three sides, but even on the clear side they seem reluctant to jump the fence( thank goodness}

-- Judy Schumacher (TootlesTheBrit@aol.com), October 29, 2001.

We live next two an game land and have had problem with deer regularly. When we put in our orchard this spring we cleared the necessary acreage, leaving saplings/trees that could be used as "fence posts". We added others by making fence posts out of other saplings we cut down. For fencing we uses the plasic fencing/mesh you can buy for covering berry bushes, cherry trees, etc. to keep the birds out. You can buy it in 50x7 ft or 50x14 ft lengths. (the 14 ft fencing was cut in half.) We used a staple gun to attach the fencing. Where ever two sections joined at a fence post we put a thin piece of furring strip, etc. over the joint to make it stronger. We screwed those on with decking screws. If we had problem with the fence sagging we tied a length of gardening twine to a fence post and threaded it through the fence top and pulled it tight, tying it to the next post. It gave us a fence that is 7 ft tall. To the fencing we tied the florecent tape builders and hunters use for marking spots. We did this at various heights through out the fencing. We left them about 6-8 inches long at each end. The wind blows them and it spooks the deer. Because it is difficult to see exactly how high the fence is, they have not tried to jump it. In fact, one reason for the florecent tape is to make sure YOU don't walk into it.

-- Chris in PA (CLMngs@aol.com), October 29, 2001.

20' high, and electrified with 50,000 volts. But volts alone won't do it, so you need something on the order of 100 amps as well. Once you have this in place, you need only go out each morning and collect the cooked venison. Discard the innards, except the heart and liver. Keep the eyeballs for a neighborhood game of bocce'. If you are an absolute wimp, which I fear may be the case, here is a wimpy but time consuming system that has worked for me. Buy, or mopre appropriately grow, the hottest damned peppers you can find. In your (barn!) blender, make a solution that is almost self- incendiary. Put this in your sprayer, and spray all crops you wish to protect. Do this relatively early, and the deer will back off bigtime, and you will harvest the fruits of your labor after the hot has gone. Again, works for me, but maybe not anyone else. How about some who agree or disagree with this approach? GL!

-- Brad (homefixer@SacoRiver.net), October 29, 2001.

I second Brad's BBQ fence, hold the hot sauce!

-- Just Duckie (Duck@spazmail.com), October 29, 2001.

I love Brad's solution but I thought I'd share another Mainiacal solution. I double fenced my garden. I put my chicken run around the garden, which keeps bugs out (grasshoppers, etc., never make it through the chicken pen). I put the 4 foot fences, six feet apart. I used 1x2 wire mesh and cedar posts. The deer can't see the mesh well enough to want to do in and out jumps. I guess it's too much like work for them, so the go elsewhere (like Brad's house).

-- Sheryl in Me (radams@sacoriver.net), October 29, 2001.

brad can do this,, but I cant plug a fence in ??? COM ON !!!!!!

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), October 29, 2001.

Read this on a forum somewhere,where they are jumping over the fence sink a bar or wooden stake in the ground at an angle they come down, you will see their tracks where they land in the dirt, make the bar 5 or 6 foot high, pointed end up, then you have venison to go with your peas you are growing. Mary

-- Mary (marwel@microserve.net), October 29, 2001.

I agree with Brad, but I would try a deterrent with garlic. There is a site that has fountain pen shaped things that smell like garlic and you clip on trees or whatever and it supposed to keep wildlife away. Try plantprotec.com emory

-- Emory (NE PA) (et@hazleton.net), October 29, 2001.

One of our neighbours had a heck of a time with the deer eating everything out of his garden, til he was told to put in a second row of fencing about 3 to 4 feet out from the inner fencing. Now he has 2 rows of fence around his garden, only about 4 feet high, hasn't had a deer come near it. Apparently they don't like being "trapped" between the 2 rows of fence.

Things that are supposed to be effective to keep deer off plants: dog hair (works like a charm to keep them from nibbling our yellow ladies' slippers, but have to keep replacing in spring as songbirds pick it all off for nest material), human hair, and Irish Spring soap. That soap will repel a lot of human noses, imagine what a sensitive deer nose thinks of it. Just slice off a few shavings, tie to a stake just above your plants. Replace as rain washes it away, or put a margarine dish "umbrella" over it on the stake.

-Chelsea

-- Chelsea (rmbehr@istar.ca), October 29, 2001.

I also remember reading that old CD disks, hung from trees, fences, with string, also alarm deer enough to keep them away. I guess all the reflected bright light from them keeps them at bay. Now I know what to do with my wifes disco CDs, heeheehee.

-- j.r. guerra (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), October 30, 2001.

Some folk want fences to to keep deer out other to keep deer in ! So my advice is ask a deer farmer. remember if his deer get out he loses his stock and may be liable for any damage they create.

try this referance

http://www.agr.gov.sk.ca/docs/livestock/elk_and_deer/production_and_ma rketing_information/deerfencing.pdf

Julian

-- Julian (Julian_young@nl.compuware.com), October 31, 2001.

Around my 1 acre garden I used 6' dog & deer wire, (2x2" mesh) on 4x4 posts @ 12' centers, then at 8' I ran #14 galvanized wire inside of 1/2" PVC pipe, the deer can see the fence and the white pipe, they think the mesh goes all the way to the top. Around our house and flowers, about an acre we have just 6' stock wire on T-posts, from time to time a coon gets under the fence but the dogs put them in the trees pretty fast, the deer don't come in or over, the Elk might jump the fence but for the dogs.

-- hendo (redgate@echoweb.net), October 31, 2001.

sorry that should have been;

http://www.agr.gov.sk.ca/docs/livestock/elk_and_deer/production_and_ma rketing_information/

no space in marketing

-- Julian (Julian_young@nl.compuware.com), October 31, 2001.

last try

http://www.agr.gov.sk.ca/docs/livestock/elk_and_deer/production_and_ma rketing_information/deerfencing.pdf

-- Julian (Julian_young@nl.compuware.com), October 31, 2001.