BS: deer in your garden try this

Subject: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: olddude
Date: 25 Aug 12 - 02:16 PM

cayenne pepper. Worked like a charm, those buggers were sneezing up a storm and left as fast as they came

give it a try

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: GUEST,999
Date: 25 Aug 12 - 02:20 PM

Dan, I just did that with a squirrel who was burying this and that all over everywhere. Little bugger jumped onto the bird bath and sucked back water for a long time.

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: olddude
Date: 25 Aug 12 - 02:22 PM

It works really does and they learn real quick to leave things alone

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: Jeri
Date: 25 Aug 12 - 02:24 PM

The only problem is you have to keep applying it. Works on bird seed, too.

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: Jeri
Date: 25 Aug 12 - 02:29 PM

I once had a squirrel that tried to chew its way through my roof.   This was after I'd had the hole repaired that it ate into there previously... through a 2 x 4. I mixed powdered cayenne with oil and painted it onto the part it was gnawing, and that worked.

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: gnu
Date: 25 Aug 12 - 02:45 PM

"Put the pepper to em." has a different meaning up country.

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 25 Aug 12 - 02:49 PM

I wish i had a deer in the garden

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: GUEST,olddude
Date: 25 Aug 12 - 04:52 PM

My elderly neighbor had the same problem with a squirrel .. after she patched the roof it was back digging again. I took care of it .. ahhhh using extreme prejudice and a pellet rifle

they are tasty critters

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: Jeri
Date: 25 Aug 12 - 04:59 PM

I didn't have any sort of rifle. I thought about it, but I kept imagining Wile E Coyote scenarios involving blowing a big hole in the roof, hitting a wire, starting a fire, then trying to explain what happened to the cops & fire department guys. Fixing the roof and painting chewy bits with hot oil worked, and didn't involve any sirens.

I DID catch one inside the house once, but that involved an empty 50 lb shortening can and me going berserker with the lid. Got him though, and drove him to a wildlife preserve over 2 bridges and 20 miles away.

These days, I just get occasional mice.

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: ragdall
Date: 25 Aug 12 - 05:06 PM

Jeri,
Now I understand the reason for the lowest sign. It's people like you. LOL!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/diffuse/5695085925/in/photostream/

rags

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: JennieG
Date: 25 Aug 12 - 05:16 PM

We don't have deer in our garden, or squirrels - we have kangaroos over the back fence. So long as they stay there, we aren't worried about them.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: GUEST,olddude
Date: 25 Aug 12 - 05:36 PM

I had one in my office Jeri, couldn't nap the little rodent .. two days later my cat jumped up on my desk with a dead red squirrel in her mouth .. I guess she knew how to track it

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: The Sandman
Date: 25 Aug 12 - 05:38 PM

Chilli powder works too

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: Bobert
Date: 25 Aug 12 - 05:43 PM

We used to use Liquid Fence which is as nasty a stuff as there is but a deer can and will get used to anything... I mean, anything... Except lead, that is...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 25 Aug 12 - 05:54 PM

I'm with Al Whittle on this one. And I like the squirrels who come calling.

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: Ebbie
Date: 25 Aug 12 - 06:29 PM

"...that involved an empty 50 lb shortening can"

A 50 lb shortening can? Gee. Crisco is doing well.

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Aug 12 - 07:46 PM

You really don't want deer in your garden, Al. They are beautiful complete bastards. For two months now, after devastation, I've kept 'em at bay with that metallic, holographic dangly tape stuff, strategically suspended from bits of cane. Thinking of buying a gun and a bigger freezer.

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 25 Aug 12 - 08:07 PM

The only thing that puts me off them is that people say they are full of ticks, And furthermore the ticks burrow inside your skin. The local hospital apparently has these special tweezers for pulling out ticks from people who have come in contact with a deer.


However as regards the garden - they are most welcome to eat everything they can find, and kill all the trees off. They are so beautiful - almost like a view into another world.

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: Sawzaw
Date: 26 Aug 12 - 01:06 AM

Electric utilities have blended hot cayenne type stuff into the insulation on over head wires and the squirrels acquire a taste for it.

The only way I can keep the deer off of anything is to fence it. Really gets bad after the leaves are off the trees.

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 26 Aug 12 - 04:28 AM

Used to get beautiful fallow and muntjac deer in my last garden. But it's true about the ticks. And here in Norfolk UK (and other regions) the ticks carry Lyme disease, a nasty job which can cause long-term health problems. I've read that you can attach rags to trees, bushes etc around the garden. These rags should be weed on by a man before attaching. The theory is that the smell is a powerful pheramone of male aggression and wards them away. Trouble was, I didn't have a man in those days, and was loth to ask the vicar or neighbour's husband!

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: Wolfhound person
Date: 26 Aug 12 - 05:14 AM

English deer ticks can be removed with an ordinary pair of tweezers, but be careful to get the whole thing - the head is small and its important to get the jaws out intact. Dabbing them with meths or paraffin first is supposed to help, but I find it works fine dry, on me or my dogs. Then I put TCP on the wound to dry it out and kill anything.

The tick must be very firmly crushed - the head end particularly.

The worst I've had from this is a small infected itchy lump for a few days, and my remedy for that is to drain off any pus and apply more TCP.

We have roe deer in the area, but I've not seen any in the garden.

Paws

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 26 Aug 12 - 07:46 AM

Ah, but the moment the little blighter bites you and hangs on, the disease is already in your blood and whizzing round your system. Even if you remove it (as I've done many a time) with tweezers and disinfect the spot, you're already (if unlucky) infected. Apparently the thing to look for is what's called a 'bullseye' pattern round the bite site of a concentric rash, followed by malaise and flu'-like symptoms. Strong antibiotics administered petty sharpish can stop it in its tracks. I believe Lyme disease is also found in the US, and the actual name is taken from Lyme district in one of the States. Anyone tried the man's-urine-on-rags idea? Also of course, deer eat up tasty treats like your best flowers and veg! But they are delightful creatures and so pretty to watch.

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 26 Aug 12 - 08:03 AM

I'll try this on my hostas in the front turnaround -- the deer are doing their damnedest to destroy the ones up in the peak, the varicolored ones that I use so drivers coming down the driveway at night can see the turnaround on the left side.

They're also beginning to nibble the other ones, too.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 26 Aug 12 - 08:11 AM

Just looked it up. It was in the 1970's in Lyme, Connecticut that researchers noticed rheumatic disorders in children. The link was deer ticks. Most interesting!

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: Jeri
Date: 26 Aug 12 - 11:12 AM

Ticks don't care all that much what they can suck blood out of.

Linn, the cayenne won't stay on the leaves. One thing I did that seemed to work was to make a tea out of it, strain it and put it in a spray bottle. You DO have to keep re-applying it because moisture rinses it off. I think olddude was talking about putting the pepper on the ground, but I can't see that it would work for leaf-munchers.

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 26 Aug 12 - 11:18 AM

well my wife got a tick, and we took her down to casualty. They told me that they hadf very specialised tweezers - they had to have them because so many people in Dorset copped them.

Apparently hikers have special tweezers too, but not as specialised asthe tick removers at the hospital.

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 26 Aug 12 - 02:57 PM

Jeri, that's what I was planning on doing -- at least as soon as I locate a spare spray bottle that can be dedicated to the task.

Eliza, the bulls-eye rash doesn't always happen, but the effects include flu-like symptoms, joint pain and neurological damage (including meningitis). The longer the tick is on your skin, the more likely you are to get Lyme disease. And you'll need to get antibiotics ASAP. Untreated you can end up with chronic joint inflammation (Lyme arthritis), particularly of the knee, neurological symptoms, such as facial palsy and neuropathy, impaired memory, and heart rhythm irregularities.

Thank goodness there are tests because the symptoms can be very iffy and hard to diagnose, but the long-term damage can be permanent.

We have a local musician/entomologist (Alan Eaton) who has written a folk "rap" called "We're the Ticks" that is not only a very entertaining song (the regulars at The Press Room session love it), but is also very informative. (And you have to pay attention because sometimes he hands out quizes.)

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: deer in your garden try this
From: Jeri
Date: 26 Aug 12 - 03:29 PM

Just grab the tick as close to your skin as you can. Don't leave the head or parts of it behind. Those suckers latch on pretty good.

Interesting (or not) that the tick known for transmitting Lyme disease is the nymph stage. It's about the size of a metal pin head. Why the adults don't transmit it well is because a nymph is very small and can easily remain hidden. One tends to notice the large ones.

I only ever found one tick on me that was feeding. I got over the creep-out factor enough to get it off. (I think there was a shiver and an outburst of "EEEEeeewwwwwww///" came later.)