North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Rodney" <reveland@collinscom.net>]

> How well do fish emulsions work on keeping deer away.They say they work 
> but I am skeptical. Also has anyone had        > sucess with invisible 
> fence and dogs.The deer are killing me.Thanks ,      skip s  zone 5

Here is a website which has a new kind of "fence".

http://www.wirelessdeerfence.com/wdf/index.html

I know nothing about these fences and have no recommedation about them. 
However if you are desperate and have the money, they are priced at 3 for 
$60.00 (bait is extra) and you need to set them fairly close together.
Whether you are interested in them or not, they have some good advice on why 
fences fail to stop deer in the section titled "How it works". Go down to 
the "Why It May Not Work" section for that advice. The cheapest fences are 
electric (which must be baited regularly just like the ones at the above 
website) and fishline. However even fishline needs to be elaborate with line 
every 12-18" up to 5 or 6 feet in height and it must be fairly heavy line as 
the deer break it on occasion especially at night when they cannot see it 
and walk into it at any speed faster than an amble. I would use 20 lb test 
with a 40 lb test line either in the middle or the bottom. For human safety 
spacing the wires 12" apart is best as you don't want to hurt the neighbors 
kids when they are sneaking over at night to steal your fruit. Fish line 
works by spooking the deer when they walk into something they can't see. For 
some reason this bothers them. You could also add fish lines for them to 
walk into by accident should they get through your perimeter for whatever 
reason. Fishline fences require maintenance as they are somewhat flimsy and 
don't weather as well as metal electric fence. You might also put a 
recording of people talking by recording a talk radio program for 12 hours 
into mp3s and then play them back through external speakers hooked to your 
computer. If you use stereo speakers you can "move" the sound around, by 
playing one channel at a time for a few minutes and then the other channel, 
then both channels etc. You can toss in music from time to time. The idea is 
to try to train them to go somewhere else as it sounds like your place is 
already one of their favorite restaurants, and once you've got a 5 star 
rating (and free food to boot) it will take a while to convince them to go 
elsewhere. - - Back on the spook theme you might want a few minutes of 
silence and then the sound of approaching humans, dogs, etc.  I once 
considered using the sound of a mountain lion's scream to scare deer off the 
road at night by playing the sound through speakers mounted in the grill of 
my vehicle, so consider finding various  mountain lion, coyotes, wolves, 
etc. mp3s and playing those sounds. Try not to annoy the neighbors.

As fishline works by spooking them you might try to use a double fence where 
the outer one is several inches from the inner one which would be baited 
with an attractant. The outer one would have to have several strands which 
they would be forced to touch while trying to get to the inner one. They 
would encounter the outer when reaching for the attractant and be spooked. 
Then when they overcome that fear, make the inner one an electric fence. If 
nothing else you'll entertain your neighbors and learn just how smart deer 
can be, so take notes and report back to us at Nafex.

Remember that if your garden smells really good and they are really hungry, 
they'll be really tempted to stop by for a snack each and every day it has 
that 5 star smell that wafts into the woods where they lie in wait for that 
special time when your fruit is as attractive as a bitch in heat to all the 
unaltered local dogs, and then at night you can put your head on your 
pillow, say your prayers and then stare at the ceiling and worry whilst 
keeping in mind that all is not lost until it's lost..

PS as far as invisible fence and dogs, make sure you buy a good set (lots of 
volts) and if the dog has real long hair you'll have to keep it trimmed 
otherwise they learn that if they run real fast, "it ain't so bad". One more 
thing. If you should purchase one of these wireless deer fences, try 
touching it and let us know if you think it is powerful enough to spook an 
animal that is wearing it's winter coat.

Rodney in Northeast Wy.