WHERE TO BUY PLASTIC DEER FENCE(AND DOES IT WORK?)

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I once saw plastic deer fencing at a reasonable price but now I cant find the source(es). Anyone know hwew? ansd how effective? Deer MUST be stopped if we are going to have ANY crops this year. Thanks-buzz

-- BUZZ SHINN (SHINNBUZZ@BIGFOOT.COM), March 01, 2002

Answers

works sort term,, but not long term,, how about standard fence with a hot wire across the top? Where are you.,, and what kind of crops?, How large of a feild/garden ?

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), March 01, 2002.

(just jumpin in here, I'm assuming you're wanting it to keep out of gardens or orchard)

A suggestion if you get it: My neighbour had a garden getting raided by deer no matter how high the fence. Someone told him put another row of fence about 4 feet around the first row, deer don't like to have to jump inside the enclosure. He tried it, it works like a charm. You can also run chickens in the resulting enclosure, they will pick off a lot of insects like potato beetles that are headed for your plants.

-Chelsea

-- Chelsea (rmbehr@istar.ca), March 01, 2002.


No personal experience, but deer can jump a 10' fence if they really want to. As they lope along, electric doesn't do much eaither, they are airborn & won't notice, or are through before it stops them at any rate. If food is short & you have some good stuff, they won't stop for any regular type fencing.

If they just kinda graze through you can stop them with regular fencing.

The reply with the 2 sets of fencing is interesting, that would mess up their regular loping strides...

--->Paul

-- paul (ramblerplm@hotmail.com), March 01, 2002.


I don't know if this will work because I've never tried it, but I have heard that if you run a couple of strands of 40# test monofilament fishing line about 2-3 ft. off the ground around the garden it will help. As I understand the deer can not see it and when they walk into it they kind of freak out. They won't jump it because they can't see what to jump. We don't have much of a deer problem so I never bothered to experiment with it. What the hey, it could work. At least it would be cheap.

-- JJ Grandits (JJGBDF@aol.com), March 01, 2002.

If you live near a coast with an active fishing community, used net is cheap. At 12 to 15' wide, no deer is going to jump it. Nor will they run through it. You may have to patch some of the bigger holes.

In the same areas you can find 100lb monofilament. I've used that on posts around trees to keep the deer away. You can splice the stuff with stainless cinches and a tool that looks like a set of pliers.

I've yet to have a deer break the stuff.

-- Darren (df1@infi.net), March 01, 2002.



We've kept the deer out of our garden for several years with a 4 ft. tall wire fence. We tie flourescent orange or yellow plastic tape at various locations on the fence and leave it long so it flaps in the wind. I've seen deer grazing around the outside of the fence, but they've never jumped it. I think the tape confuses them and by the time they get close enough to check it out, they're too close to jump!

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), March 01, 2002.

I don't have much hope in the plastic fencing, but I agree wholeheartedly with Chelsea's suggestion. I've seen it work!! A neighbor who couldn't grow rosemary for the herds of deer now has a lush green garden. Kinda' neat how she did it ~ the garden was about 100 feet from her house, so she built the second outside fence all the way to her house so her dogs could run in it. It was like a big rectangle with her house at one end, the fenced garden at the far other end inside and a yard between the two.

-- Wingnut (wingnut@moment.net), March 01, 2002.

Buzz, Deer are a real problem where I live in N.C. Pa. I put up a 6 ft. tall woven wire galvanized fence around my garden, and so far no deer have made the leap. Expensive, but permanent. Our garden is 'bout 1/2 acre out in a field.

-- woodsbilly N.C. Pa. (coleenl@penn.com), March 01, 2002.

Deer fence has to be at least 8 feet tall to be effective. The other option is to cant the fence at a 45 degree angle or maybe even 30 degrees with the high side out. put several strands of wire along the canted posts so the deer will get tangled in the wire if they try to junp in. They are generally smart enough to realize they are in a dangerous situation and will move on.

-- Paul (treewizard@buffalo.com), March 02, 2002.

Our property line ajoins the state games lands so it is visited by many deer. Last year we put in an apple orchard and used the fencing made from the same type of material as the netting to keep birds out of fruit trees. It came in rolls 50x14 feet. We cut the rolls in half and made 7 ft fencing. It ran us about $34 for a roll of fencing. And it was called deer fencing. We also tied florescent tape with long tails onto the fencing. Because the tape makes them skittish and they are not quite able to see where the top of the fence it, we have had no trouble with them jumping it. We have had them run into it in panic and have had to rehang it but there has been little deer damage to the trees. I guess tangling up in the "invisible" fenceing made them really glad to get out of there. We also took twine and threaded it through the top of the fence and tied it to the posts. It kept the fencing from sagging and made the fence appear taller.

The best part is that other than the flags, we don't see the fence so it doesn't spoil our veiw.

-- Chris in PA (CLMngs@aol.com), March 02, 2002.



I have been told that deer can jump high or wide but not both. A fence about 6 feet high with a 3 to 4 foot extenshion out side ways at the top will seem impassable to them.(imagine a cross section to be an upside down letter L with the short legg pointing out at the deer. I am told that the deer come a fence and then jump and comming to this fence they have an overhang over their heads and can't reason to backup and take a run at it..just a note..I have seen for myself on countless barbed wire fences the hair evidence that if it can a deer will go under or through a fence rather than jump it(these fences were no more than 4 feet)unless chased.

-- Bee White (bee@hereintown.net), March 03, 2002.

Another check in from deer country...

If the deer are already visiting the area you want to protect regularly, chances are that it is only going to be moderately effective, if that. The deer around here figure it out pretty quickly and lift it off plants, root it up with their noses, push it down and several other variations and start eating.

If you are on a regular pathway, and string the cheap plastic stuff across their travel area, chances are very high that it will not be there for long. I've only had real luck with 8' permanent metal fending to keep them out (they still poke their heads through the mesh to eat as far as they can reach inside). When I strung a new section, a couple days later I found that part to be dented in and knocked the framed gate loose from where one crashed into it at full speed. The common deer net wouldn't have stood up to that.

My brother lives a half mile away and doesn't have his yard fenced -- he uses the water-spraying scarecrows offered for sale in cataloges and hardware stores. They seem to work pretty well too, the only deer damage that I've seen are to plants not covered in the spray pattern. Something to think about.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), March 03, 2002.


Google got me to this site: Deerbusters The 8 foot fencing is about a dollar a foot, so I wouldn't call it cheap. I have put this in for someone else before and it's no picnic to deal with. She had a nursery and a bad deer problem. This stuff pretty much licked it. You have to stake down the bottom and fortunately we were able to follow a tree-line so I only had to put in posts for part of the perimeter. (VERY rocky soil! blah!) We also ran up to a barn from either side avoiding the necessity to build an 8 foot high gate. Hope you find something that works.

-- gilly (wayoutfarm@skybest.com), March 04, 2002.

I want to thank each of those who sent me responses to my question about deer fencing,I got a big bunch of answers and suggestions. I am going to try several that sound good and are attested to work. Will post results at the end of the season. Thanks again wonderful folks. I never thought I WOULD GET SO MANY ANSWERS> What a great bunch countrysiders are. Buzz

-- JOHN "BUZZ" SHINN (SHINNBUZZ@BIGFOOT.COM), March 10, 2002.

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