Three More Deer Failures

September 27th, 2022

   Deer-plagued gardeners employ lots of tricks that supposedly work to keep deer from devouring the landscape.

This low-to-the-ground fishing-line barrier didn’t work for me.

   I’m here today to cross three more of them off the list.

   I don’t know if my deer are smarter, hungrier, or more persistent than the average deer, but my furry eating machines seem to be unstoppable short of everything but serious fencing and the religious application of proven repellents. Even then, I have to quality that with, “So far.”

   I’ve been trying all sorts of anti-deer measures for nearly four years now since moving from my deerless Cumberland County yard to the deer haven of the Pittsburgh suburbs.

   Despite selecting plants low on the deer-preference list and doing my best to discourage browsing, I’ve had a lot of surprising and seemingly random deer damage.

   My latest effort involved three strategies that at least some people say worked for them. All failed for me. Here’s what happened…

The fishing-line trick

   This one uses a line or two of strong but super-thin nylon fishing wire, strung at about ankle to knee height. The theory is that deer are confused by something tangling low on their legs that they can’t see. And rather than continue into the unknown, they retreat.

   I liked the idea because it was inexpensive, easy to install, and wasn’t terribly obtrusive for use protecting a flower bed.

   So I pounded in short bamboo stakes every five feet across the front of my front foundation gardens and tightly strung two strands of fishing line at about six inches and 12 inches.

   A few nights later, I happened to look out the front window at dusk and noticed a deer looking back in at me. He/she was having a snack in the front-foundation gardens, between the “protective barrier” and my front wall.

   When I moved toward the window, the deer turned and simply hopped over the fishing line. No problem, no confusion, no protection.

   I removed the useless barrier the next day.

   I’ve had better luck (so far) using four strands of fishing line strung three feet tall atop a brick retaining wall that’s also three feet tall. That’s giving me six feet of protection altogether, which (so far) has kept the hydrangeas in this bed from being eaten (again).

Irish Spring soap didn’t discourage my deer, as you can tell from the surrounding missing tree leaves.

The Irish-Spring soap trick

   I had read about how deer apparently don’t like the smell of Irish Spring soap, but I didn’t put much stock in that until my horticulturist friend David Wilson said he had been using bars of that soap to keep deer from eating hosta in his Lower Paxton Twp. yard.

   My wife, Sue, ordered five bars of Irish Spring online. We cut the bars in half and placed some of them on the ground under somewhat susceptible plants and hung the rest from young trees that deer had been browsing (a new redbud, a pair of three-year-old American fringe trees, and a two-year-old Cornelian cherry dogwood).

   Maybe my deer have different scent sensibilities than David’s deer, but the soap had absolutely no repellent effect.

   Deer continued to munch around the soap-adorned plants, doing an especially damaging number on the fringe trees.

   At least my semi-denuded trees are fresh and clean. And I can salvage what’s left of the Irish Spring bars in the shower.

The flashing lights trick

   This one was Sue’s idea. She had bought a pair of solar-powered decorative string lights that she was using to light up our patio table at night.

What’s left of a Cornelian cherry dogwood branch after the deer got done with it.

   One day after another deer-rampaged night, Sue got to thinking that maybe the flashing lights would scare away deer.

   So I took the lights off the outdoor furniture and wrapped them loosely around the two fringe trees out front.

   Two nights later, Sue got a text message from our neighbor, alerting us to look out the window at the deer standing right next to the lights.

   The deer was munching on the fringe-tree foliage, oblivious to the lights flashing away inches from his/her face. Apparently the lights just made it easier for the deer to see the leaves.

   I thought deer were inherently jittery, but from what I’ve determined between the flashing lights and deer practically pressing their noses on our front windows, they’re unusually bold creatures these days.

   The lights are now in the garage, awaiting redeployment as Christmas decorations.

   And I’m back to spraying repellents.