Gonna try again to garden, but have a deer problem...

This year I'm gonna try again..I live in the country and deer are a huge problem..every year I plant and every year they eat. When I get up the money, I want a 8' fence all the way around with electric on top..I am thinking if I plug a radio into a motion sensing light. It may work for a while..or a tape player or something with gun fire. I have to think of something or I won't have a garden again this year...

Until you can afford the 8' fence, why not just use three strands, like a cattle fence of barb wire, though use electric wire or tape?

This has worked well to keep deer out of our garden.

I had deer and other critter issues here as well.  I use a three tiered defense:

1.)  I finally got sick and tired of my half-assed efforts over the years that never worked and trying all the dumb supposed solutions out there that also do not work.  I put up 7 foot tall fences around the garden areas using steel posts, lumber post extensions, multiple electric fence wire spaced at 12 inches, and chicken wire at the base to keep the bunnies out.  It is designed with the first electrified wire at the top of the chicken wire in such a way that squirrels will climb the chicken wire and will grab that wire with front feet while they still have their back feet on the chicken wire, thus shorting to ground and tripping the current.  The wire combination has also done well at keeping raccoons, skunks, and woodchucks out.  The raccoons are heavy creatures and climbers so I ran rebar along the top of the chicken wire for added support and wire tied both together.

It is my understanding that if deer are going to jump a fence they will always want to see their landing spot ahead of time (unless they are panicked).  Makes sense to me, so I also place tall poles (full length PVC thinwall pipe sections placed on vertical rebar stakes) inside the fence perimeter with lengths of flag tape at the tops which act as distractions.  Winds move the flags and also cause the thinwall pipe to bend and move, I assume this combination of poles, flags, and movement makes for questionable landing spots.

2.)  During the gardening season I inspect the fencelines every other day, and if I see any sign of larger critters like raccoons, skunks, or woodchucks then I set up and bait a minefield of live traps and leg traps in the area showing activity.  I have become very successful with this as I have become more experienced.  I do not use poisons of any kind for any number of reasons.

3.)  I engage in constant, continuous, perpetual population control.  The populations of these creatures are out of control due to the near extermination locally of native wild predators so I engage in active reductions by hunting.  I cannot shoot deer out of season in this state, the fencing is my only protection from them.  The deer populations are out of control here due to government incompetence and mismanagement but I figure they will disappear pretty fast if a serious food supply crisis occurs, at that point laws will not matter much to people with empty bellies and decent hunting skills.

Any creatures I kill I use to feed the few foxes and coyotes that are still around (except for the bunnies, which I eat).  I welcome these predators, unlike my neighbors who shoot on sight.  The way I see it I need more natural, wild predators and fewer neighbors.  The carcasses also feed crows, hawks, and bald eagles.  I put them far enough away from habitat that the skunks and other unwelcome omnivores do not get to feed on them.

Gardening is work.  Protecting the gardens is a continuous part of that work.  The results of my efforts is that I have had zero critter issues in the gardens since the fences have been installed.  The fences are ugly but I no longer care about such asthetics.  I want functionality so I can reliably produce my food, and the fences meet that criteria.

The critters I have problems with are deer, porcupine, wild pigs, and monkeys.

Here's what I've done.
For the monkeys: A big dog that takes care of that.

Deer, porcupine, and pigs: I've built a shoddy junk pole fence around the garden. It's probably 3 or 4 feet high. Around the outside of the fence I've piled up all my brush, the thornier and nastier, the better. Probably 6 feet deep . I had a big thorny bush that had to go. The great thing is that the thorns don't only poke, they burn for a good while after you've been poked. The animals know this. I know this since I had to cut the beast down. It's a big pile of burning nasty thorns. My veggies have been untouched since.

Hi,  My garden fence is 4 strands of fishing lines around it. In 6 years I have not had a deer problem. Last fall I noticed way after it was too late that the wooden corner post rotted at the base and broke, deer tracks and munching happened until I put in another post. So we'll see this year if the 4 strand fence continues to keep the deer out.  

Predators ... pests ... critters ...

As so many before have said, I think the answer is fencing and LGD's ... my large guard dog keeps the deer on the other side of the fence. The deer will almost come right up to the fence on their side ... but the dog is watching them and they are watching her ... the deer always back down. She gets to practice her stalking and ambush tactics, and scare the scat out of them. The fence keeps her from chasing them across several counties.

For fencing (with an LGD), I tend to use t-posts and cattle panel sections. Takes about a minute to drive t-posts, and then wire the cattle panels in place. Cattle panels aren't cheap, but they are nigh-indestructable. Plus, little to no maintenance ... no post-holes to dig or concrete, no wire to monitor or repair. No batteries ...

Most other small critters don't stand much of a chance either, so even if they squeezed through the panel holes (squares), they'd get eaten ...

Need to reconfigure the fencing for some reason? Takes a few minutes with a t-post puller, and then set the same materials back up in another way.

About the only issue you might have, other than initial costs, are sloping ground ... there should be solutions out there with this t-post system for slope as well.

Hope this helps ...

Deer can jump HIGH and they can jump LONG, but they don't like to do both on the same fence.  If you can't build a tall fence, try a 'double layer' approach.  If you can 'cant' a top wire/line outward (and make is visible to their eyes) or run a fishing line perimeter 4-3 ft in front of the fence it may keep them from jumping.  I don't know the magic number on how far from the fence the wire would need to be to keep them from taking another jump once inside the wire, but I would think 3/4 of a body length would make them uncomfortable enough making the first jump that they would stay out of the both perimeters.  it helps if your outer wire has flashy things like cd's or tinsel blowing around reflecting any light.  It makes the anxious.  

Arthur Angaran wrote:Hi,  My garden fence is 4 strands of fishing lines around it. In 6 years I have not had a deer problem.
 

The forum has several threads on fishing line fences, string fences, double fences, etc.

One year as a temporary measure, I used one strand of string to protect rose bushes and it worked until the golf cart that I was using for a post was moved and I had no way of putting the string back up.

Mike's wavy fence is a neat idea:



Wavy Deer Fence

I have 5 foot fencing with three strands of wire above that up to 12 feet tall. That's on 14 1/2 foot tall posts which I cut back in the woods. One problem is the posts that are oak are rotting out from what looks like mushroom growth. I also had a corner post break as above. It amazes me that the deer can see the wire, even at night. I assume they'd see heavy monofilament fishing line also.

I also added 24 inch fencing at the bottom to keep out the small critters. If I made fencing I would make fencing with small gaps at the bottom and 2x4" above that.

I’ll second what JT Lamb said and recommend a livestock guardian dog. If a dog is feasible for you, a LGD will eliminate any deer damage. They’ll also keep out other predators (raccoons, skunks, etc - hugely valuable if you have poultry).

The downside to LGDs - or at least, to Great Pyrenees, the only breed I have experience with - is that they like to wander and you’ll have to take some steps to prevent that. Mine tended to go on walkabout, but eventually we topped the fence with an electric wire and since then they’ve been perfectly content to stay on the right side of it.

My property has a pretty large deer population. In fact, I provide mineral/salt licks for the deer to encourage them because I also hunt here. But there’s never so much as a bite out of the garden.