Deer oh deer!!!

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Cider Boys
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I recently gave my son some Sungold and Gardeners' Delight tomato plants. He planted them around his house but was dismayed to notice that the branches had been striped from the plants and just left on the soil. Yesterday as he was getting up and looked out his bedroom window the culprit was spotted - a solitary roe deer. Why can't wild animals only eat wild food and leave cultivated food for humans?

Barney
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alan refail
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Barney

My sympathy to your son. That's the trouble with vegetarian animals :!:

Sounds like a chance of some nice venison for him, though :wink:
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oldherbaceous
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Dear Barney, where i have been working today the garden is fenced right round, but a deer has started jumping the fence and has stripped twenty new rose bushes of their new growth.
The Lady of the house is most upset.
Kind Regards, Old Herbaceous.

There's no fool like an old fool.
Monika
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My sympathies, too.
We've had rabbits, lambs, cows and all kinds of birds raiding our allotment in the past, but we have promised ourselves that, if the deer get in (and we do have roe deer around), we'll give up, because you'd have to have a 10 foot high fence to keep them out!
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Geoff
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Done the high fence bit - two layers of standard pig netting - only had the odd visit since. Roses are their favourite food I think.

PS : glad to see you posting today, was beginning to think you and Compo had been washed away.
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Colin_M
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Hi Barney,

did either you or your son get your feet wet after Thursday's deluge, or were you in the "right" part of Somerset? That at least might have distracted the deer!
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Johnboy
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I have the standard pig netting fence then 4 strands of high tensile steel wire making the fence 9ft tall.
I initially installed this was before CD's were about and it cost me an arm and a leg to have stainless steel discs made to frighten the deer. I learned this from the Forestry Commission who carried out an experiment to stop deer getting on the roads here abouts. They put metal discs on the trees inside of the forest bordering the road. So many accidents were occurring at night on the A49 twixt Leominster and Hereford. The accidents sadly still occur but it cut the incident rate initially from 2 per week to 1 a month and then there wasn't an incident for nearing 18 months so these disc do work very well.
I got raided on umpteen occasions and I don't know about Roses but two year old shrub cuttings they adore and they ruined nearly 10,000. before we could get the fencing into place. Since then I have had one young Stag that jumped and got caught in the fencing and ended up in my freezer. I hasten to add that it was put down by the vet so the venison was still expensive!
It seems that once they get a liking the buggers tell their friends and they come in as a herd.
There is one Doe who runs with the local sheep and she backs into the hedge and moves only when the sheep move on. When the sheep are tended she never so much as bats an eyelid. In late evening she then grazes with the sheep.
JB.
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Urban Fox
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[quote="oldherbaceous"]Dear Barney, where i have been working today the garden is fenced right round, but a deer has started jumping the fence and has stripped twenty new rose bushes of their new growth.
The Lady of the house is most upset.[/quote]

perhaps she would find one of these useful?

[url]http://www.foxolutions.co.uk/Foxolutions%20Deterrent%20Video.WMV[/url]

I'm not involved with the company at all - but was surfing the internet and found their video. At least it is humane.
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Urban Fox
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sorry - seems I had BBCode switched off - hopefully this link will work. :?

http://www.foxolutions.co.uk/Foxolutions%20Deterrent%20Video.WMV
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Cider Boys
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Thanks for all the sympathy and funnily enough whilst speaking to him on his cellphone I heard the sound of lapping water as he was walking along flooded roads around his house. He was fortunate that no water entered his house as it is higher than the road. The problem is deer can swim quite well1!

Barney
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oldherbaceous
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Dear Urban Fox, the link worked fine thankyou.
The only problem is that her garden is over four acres, with many borders, so i think quite a few of them would be needed.
But thankyou for taking the trouble to post the link.
Kind Regards, Old Herbaceous.

There's no fool like an old fool.
Monika
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Just remembered two possible deer deterrents somebody once told me who had deer problems in the Lake District:
(1) tie white plastic bags on poles round your boundary. The sight and noise of the bags in a breeze frighten off the deer. Won't look very attractive though, will it?
(2) get some human hair from a hairdresser and distribute it around your boundary. Deer don't like the human smell.
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