North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[LONGDISTSHTR <longdistshtr@shtc.net>]

jnfischer@aol.com wrote:
> 
> My experience with hair clippings (and all the other tens of tricks that 
> rely
> on odor to spook the deer) is that they got used to it after a week or ten
> days and went right back to leveling plants. I would love to use the
> "projectile method" but that's not an option here in northern Virginia where
> the human population is too dense and a vocal minority prefers to manage the
> deer by hitting them with cars.
> 
> I have had luck lately though in protecting plantings within smaller areas,
> new apple trees and garden plots, for example, by surrounding them with
> monofilament fishing line, two or three strands, strung tautly between
> four-foot posts. They apparently do not like the feeling of something
> substantive touching them but that they cannot see.
> 
> After so many failed attempts at discouraging them, I'm way past expecting
> long-term victory with this method but in almost twelve months now I've only
> had two intrusions. I lost a young apple tree when one apparently stuck her
> head through a three foot space between strands. And one got into the garden
> one night apparently through a narrow opening I had left in the fish line 
> for
> my ease of entry. Ate all the new growth off twenty-some roses. Times that
> try men's souls.
> 
> Jack
> 
> 
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It was my understanding, and having watched deer sneezing and snorting
after nosing around in hair clippings, that they acted as physical
irritants to the nasal passages. I could remember how "Bum Weaver", our
community barber, managed to get enough hair down the back of my shirt
to encourage me to take a bath. To a boy, that was some encouragement.
In chemical warfare, we called an agent which caused itching an
urticant. Rain/dew will suppress the urticant effect of hair clippings
so you have to re-apply them. I heard of one neighbor whose solution was
to collect cat box contents from his friends and empty them in his
garden. Rain/dew will enhance the repellent effect of cat spoor (of
humans at least) he discovered. He had a 10 Ft. fence around his place,
last I heard. Keeps deer AND cats out. Doc Lisenby Zone 8 SC

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