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.
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.