Question Deer Fencing Experiences

Hockley Homestead

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We've been having problems with deer eating the veg since we moved in. We're all for sharing with nature... we're slowly working up to my great uncles philosophy of 1/3 for us, 1/3 for friends, and a 1/3 for nature... but these guys are taking way more than their share. They seem particularly interested in my beans and sweet peppers. Last night, they completely destroyed all of our pumpkin vines except 1 (and still stripped more than half of it). With pumpkins, each leaf is responsible for 3-4 pounds of fruit, so they've just reduced our harvest by about 300 pounds if the plants even survive. I've searched the internet and it seems like the only surefire way to keep them out is a fairly ugly 8ft tall mesh fence. Some of the suggestions we've found and tried so far.

1) Put the garden close to the house. Our deer are quite bold and when we catch them and run them off, they come back within a few minutes after we head in for bed. The bulk of their activity seems to be from 2-4 am though (game cams) so we rarely catch them in the act.

2) "Invisible Fence" of thick fishing line - the idea is that they run into it, but can't see it... it's supposed to freak them out so they go away.

2) The second layer of invisible fence spaced a few feet out. This was driven by the failure of #2. In the game cameras, it looked like they were sticking their heads through to eat the plants and we didn't see any tracks indicating they'd been inside. So, we added another fence a few feet out. My wife caught one literally walking through both fences like they weren't there last night.

Before I spend the money on electric fencing or motion-activated sprinklers, I'm curious if any of y'all have had these issues and how you dealt with it. Will a 4ft electric fence keep them out or do I need 6-8 ft? I'm not sure how much they explore the fence before trying to jump it. Any other methods that are less time and money consuming to set up that you've had success with would also be greatly appreciated.
 

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Hockley Homestead

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For anyone else fighting deer (in our case Texas white tail), I found numerous studies that suggested electric fencing will work. I found 3 scientifically proven methods to substantially reduce deer foraging in the garden. The 3rd one actually completely stopped the deer in the study, which was made more impressive by the fact it was a deer feed lot they were protecting so it could establish before hunting season.

1) A single electric wire 2.5ft high. Put aluminum foil every 6 ft or so with peanut butter on it.

2) Two rows of white electric poly tape. One roughly 12-18" high, the other about 30" high. One study compared this with option #1 and found it slightly more effective. This is what we did.

3) 3 rows of fencing spaced 3ft apart... Total fence row width of 6ft. The two outside rows have a mid height visible poly tape, the middle has a low and high (similar spacing to #2), the final row again has the mid height. I'm hoping to not need this option because it sounds like a royal pain to mow around.

I'll let y'all know if it fails and what where we will go next.
 

Wanda

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The white tail deer are everywhere where I live in Central Texas. A lot of the neighbors feed them kitchen scraps and dried corn. They eat anything including dog and cat food left outside. They will eat out of your hands. I’ve fed them apples and bananas. When food is scarce they actually approach you when you step outside expecting a handout.
I’ve lost quite a few “deer resistant” plants to the deer here. The plants resist the best they can but the deer still eat them. I had one agave pulled out of its hole three times before the deer quit trying to take a nibble of it. They used to eat the fresh shoots and stamens off of my yuccas every year. I’ve caged the yuccas with 6ft fencing to protect the stamens and the deer investigate the cages regularly.
If it is a small area you don’t need an 8 ft fence. If a deer can’t clearly see inside and judge how much room there is to maneuver they won’t jump inside. 6ft metal fencing for a small pen works for me. A large yard/ garden would need a 6 ft privacy fence. The gate needs to be tall too. Many deer will jump at the gate because they can calculate the clearance easier there.

Attached is a picture of my Mother’s garden. It has a stone base about 16 inches high with a vinyl picket on top. Total height is about 6 ft. The garden is 15 ft wide by 45 ft long. The deer have never jumped inside. They have walked in when the gate was open and nibbled a few things before getting scared out. Attached is another option; an animal cage on top of a raised bed. I’m currently growing beets in it. They have nibbled some of the leaves off of a beet or two but didn’t pull them thru the cage.
 

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Hockley Homestead

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Thanks for the suggestions, we may take those into account for stuff outside the main garden. Right now our garden is in the front yard while I clear the underbrush that's blocking sun to the future location. We're trying to avoid anything permanent or difficult to move as we're starting small and expanding quickly, so the fence will require constant modification to cover the new areas. Our total planned garden space is roughly 40*100ft so just under 1 acre. It also happens to be right in the middle of the property so aesthetics are very important. A privacy fence isn't an option and I doubt the wife will sign off on cyclone fencing either.

The electric poly tape is easy to splice so we can pull up a side and add length/posts easily. Provided it actually keeps them out, I think it will suit us well.
 
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