i got so much info

Mark traded for a muzzleloader a week or two ago. Looks like we need to go learn to use it now!

you can pick up a CVA Bobcat .50 cal muzzleloader for $50-85 most places. I want to say mine was around $75 new, and my dad got one at a gun shop for $50 cause the stock was a little dinged up. about $30-50 should buy you enough balls, caps, and powder to shoot for a long time. and remember, you can hunt with it during regular gun season as well in most places.

Another nice feature I didn't mention about this solution is the fact that it's battery powered, which might function as a good back up to a mechanical deer deterrent system like the ones I blog about here that require 110 volts of electricity.

ya

Re: F*** you (above)

I love deer, too!

Especially the young, tender ones!

Tasty!

To the author of the comment F*** you: you are an imbecile. Deer are the biggest (sized) pest known to man. I shoot them for fun. One can only take so much - they're cute until they make your kid cry, then it's time to "adjust" the deer population. So sorry. You are welcome to come and get as many on the tick-infested vermin as you want. Dead or alive. Let me know, K?

Oh, maybe that's why it works!

You're not raising special Attack Chickens, who instinctively hunt deer, like their dinosaur ancestors? :^)

i did not know that much about deer.there cool.

Interesting idea --- I assume you mean splice the rope back onto itself to make a loop without any kind of attachment? I don't know enough about rope to know if that can be done, but it does sound elegant.

I remember at some point (in my childhood) reading a bunch of detailed instructions about how to splice rope. I have never actually personally done this, of course. :^) Would it work with this nylon rope, or not really?

I think that what I like the most about this most recent incarnation of the deer deterrent is the way you've got the tin bent so that you get such a complex range of sounds with each rotation of the motor. That's probably why a mere three deterrents have been keeping our whole sprawling garden safe this summer (until the outage, that is.)

i love deers that i have bambi 1 and bambi 2

...since those were scrap pieces from my quick hoops.

I know....I know....it's kind of on the ugly side, which is why I now use the plumbers strapping tape that can be viewed in a future post.

You're totally right --- movement is key. I think the effectiveness of a trash bag would depend on whether you get enough wind that it moves at least every minute, but not so much regular wind that the deer get used to the movement.

For years I've had problems with deer liken my flowers more then me . I'm a hunter and I found one thing deer look for is movement day or night. For years now I've been using a large BLACK trash bag hanging on a 6' plant hanger pole right in there trail or from tree limbs . And to top it off some human scent ( wee wee ) to help it out some . It has worked for me . Love my flowers now .

My father swears by them, but I'm with you --- they're expensive and just don't work! Thanks for sharing your experience.

I think you're probably on a very different gardening wavelength than we are. We're not going for beauty here, but for keeping the deer out of our garden so that we get to eat homegrown fruits and vegetables. Thanks for commenting, though.

That is SOOOO ugly. I would be so embarrassed to have that in my yard besides being the talk to the town.

I purchased ten of them and tried them at various heights and locations to ward off deer, bear, mountain lion, fox, etc. (Several stopped working right after the one-year warranty expired). They didn't work for any of these animals. However, they do seen to threaten humans, who think I have cameras installed.

I have to admit that I find this geekily intriguing. I'd probably try it if I had one bed of prize petunias to protect.

Hi, I'm reading up on deterring deer, to drive the deer away from the purchased hay i have for my horses. I live in the prairies, canada, and the deer out here are very fat and happy and way too plentiful... and yet, they have made themselves a big nuciance in my horses pasture, coming in and eating and soiling the hay i pay much money for. I can not afford to feed dozens of deer. I have now started a one-woman war to repel them from my 10 acres. They are very bold, and have no problems jumping my electric fence ( or busting it!) and scaring my horses off they best hay, eating the salt licks and drinking from the waterer. Very expenisive pests they have become, and very unafraid. The other day, i had to run a few off, and had to get quite close before they left the hay. Very maddening. In the summer they eat our cultivated trees. I've never seen them so bad. Makes me wish i could hunt, and i've never felt that.

I think the video makes it sound louder than it is since it was filmed right beside the deterrent. I don't have any problem living and sleeping next door to ours --- they feel a bit like wind chimes. We're growing 100% of our vegetables and are starting to grow a lot of our fruits, so we figure a bit of noise is worth the nutrition! Definitely less noisy than living in the city.

that clanker would keep humans away too, hearing that clang all day would drive me and my neighbors nuts.

I know what you mean. Around here, mountain lions would probably be a good solution too, but people seem to shoot more predators than they do deer. I'm pro-predator, but I know that's a really hard sell for most folks.

Nancy --- We are lucky not to have a big problem with rabbits --- they pass through, smell our dog, and move on out. If you do try out the deterrent and it works with rabbits, I'd love to hear from you!

Mark has been experimenting with all kinds of noises, and wind chimes don't seem to be serious enough to send a deer scurrying. The metallic thud we use has been the most effective option so far, and even that needs to have a bit of volume to it or the deer move in.

I'd love to see a photo or video of your friend's deterrent!

Naomi --- I never considered that deer would be such pests around horses, but it makes sense. I have to admit that I took up hunting after the deer moved into our garden one year. Luckily, Mark's deterrents seem to do the job better (and less messily.) I hope you give them a shot!

I used to love our deer too, until reality struck and I realized how overpopulated our region was. The deer are difficult for us to deal with, but the problems they present in the surrounding woods are worse. Oak trees, for example, are not able to regenerate in many parts of the eastern U.S. now because starving deer munch them to the ground. Like everything else in nature, deer are beautiful in moderation, but when the balance tips, problems ensue.

I love deer <3 ♥

THIS is the best idea and can't wait to try it out in my veggie garden and flower garden!!!! I assume this would work for rabbits too as they are skittish like deer? Just a thought, would it work with a "nice" noise like a wind chime or do you think you need a clanger noise to be really effective? Oh, I wanted to mention I have a friend who did something simiar with an old drill in a can with a motion detector (perhaps that would work with mice or chipmunks? I have EVERY type of critter in the garden you can image!).

I agree that ungulates are managed for hunters, encouraging overpopulation. Wolf reintroduction is starting to help with the elk overpopulation out west, but it is amazing how it brings out the paternal, anti-predator instincts in folks. I can guarantee you though that the overpopulated hoofed animals are doing far more damage.

It's been amazing to be able to actually grow a garden without feeding half of it to the deer. I hope you have equal luck.

this is a very good website, it as help me a so bloody much!!! thanks

Click where it says "free plans" on the sidebar (or just go to http://www.backyarddeer.com/freeplans/) and we'll walk you through the whole process, starting with a list of what to buy. Good luck!

How to make Deer Dterrent you are suggesting. Please email me the directions and what I need to buy and how to do it.

I should add that just because it's a mast year doesn't mean that the deer deterrents aren't also doing their job. In fact, without the deer deterrents, we get regular summer incursions in the garden, none of which have happened this year due to Mark's ingenious contraptions. But winter is the worst time, when deer get hungry, and the worst is yet to come. If our garden stays deer free through spring, then I'll know the deterrents have really passed the test!

I like it too! The only problem with all of our experiments is that it's hard to tell why a certain deterrent works --- is it the noise, the movement, the reflections? I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, though --- I love being able to actually grow things in the garden at this time of year!

This mirror might also help to chase of those winged seed thieves in the spring. I think this is a great addition.

I don't know if it's the season, the delayed bang, or the continuous whine of the motor, but this deterrent has lately being doing triple duty, keeping deer out of the whole front garden where we used to have three deterrents. Definitely a keeper!

I'd read that too, and we actually fertilize most of our garden by topdressing with horse manure --- no luck. I suspect that horse manure may work as a deterrent with certain deer and not others, or perhaps only where the deer population isn't overly high?

Just fyi...we've found that horse manure used on the garden works really well for deterring deer. My Mom and I had a market garden for years on our 40 acre farm, without benefit of deer fencing. We would occasionally see deer prints in the garden, but never really any nibbling damage. Then, 20 years later, we had neighbors move in nearby and had their fenced gardens regularly pillaged by deer. We wondered at the difference. Later, I ran across an article in Organic Gardening magazine, and one fellow made the comment that he'd fertilized his asparagus bed with cow, but ran out half way down the bed and had to finish out with horse manure. Well, as the shoots came up, the ones on the cow side were all eaten by the deer, but not a one on the horse side was touched! Wow! Eureka! That was our answer! So, if at all possible, top-dress with well composted horse manure!

We use our deterrents instead of a fence. We actually find the sound very nice --- you get used to it quickly, and depending on what you have the golf ball strike against, it can be almost bell-like. Probably not a good idea in suburbia, though...

Are you using this instead of or together with a fence?

I would consider it if the sound was more appealing to people (but still offensive to deer). Think slow wind chime...

Wm. Hovey Smith, the author of "Backyard Deer Hunting: Converting deer to dinner for pennies per pound," now also has a free radio program on VoiceAmerica Sports Internet Radio titled "The Backyard Sportsman."

This is a basic how-to-do-it program that takes the audience through the basics of hunting, hunting tools, wild game cooking (field dressing and packaging included) as well as 21 modules on starting your own home-based business.

It helps if you have "Backyard Deer Hunting" to follow along. However, the author also has videos up on YouTube "Cleaning a Road-Killed Deer" and "Cooking Deer Stew" among others.

The shows are archived on Smith's show page (two are up now on bowfishing and squirrel hunting) so they can be heard anytime and also on Apple's iTunes. "Backyard Deer Hunting - The Video" is in preperation and will also be available this Fall. Advanced orders are not being taken on the author's website. www.hoveysmith.com.

If you send him your E-mail address to hoveysmith@bellsouth.net by Sept. 1, you will be put in a drawing for a free, 3-day deer hunt with Smith, where he will guide you through the hunting, killing, cleaning and cooking of a whitetailed deer. All you pay for is the GA hunting license, about $150 for non-residents, and you must have passed your hunter ed. in your home state.

If you want basic deer killing, cleaning, cooking and processing info. Smith is giving it to you in book, video and audio form in various formats and prices.

We muddled through our first deer last year, with lots of hints from the internet. I suspect we'll get a lot better over time, but it's still nice to hear from experts.