The deer have decimated our prize, turkey platter leaved hostas. They also chewed the flowers off all the impatiens including hanging baskets! I was so disheartened and Murphy's Law of course made this happen the day before our annual wave of summer visitors begins. All that yard work.......... Anyway, we sprayed the yard with the only thing we have found to work, Liquid Fence, and of course the company arrived a couple hours later. Now if you have used this product you know what that means. For 24 hours it has the smell of death, urine, and rotten sneakers pervading the air. Is your stomach turning yet? We shut all the windows and stayed inside. The next day we went out playing tourist for the day in Alexandria Bay, NY, and the lovely eau de garbage was gone by the time we got back home. We were able to enjoy a lovely cookout down by the river. No sign of our four footed friends since! You wouln't come back either if you smelled this stuff!
As we prepare and enjoy our annual wave of summer visitors up here in the Adirondacks the sewing is sparce. I did get to finish the smocking on my Sand Dollar top and am pleased. I will probably hit that up first when I get back to the machine, that and Danny's Project.
Hope you are all enjoying your summers as much as we are up here. The weather has been fabulous as is typical for an Adirondack summer. It's hot and dry and sunny during the day and cool to sleep at night. Gotta love it. Happy sewing..........Bunny
You have my sympathy! It's so frustrating.
ReplyDeleteWould liquid fence deter cats? Our neighbour's cat thinks my vegetable patch is a litter box!
No. The neighbor's kitty is still lurking in the bushes here and just yesterday we watched him saunter home with a chipmunk in his mouth. Just so you know, after 24 hours the smell is gone and the product, in our experience, continues to work for about three weeks. Then it is time to spray again. Just make sure you are down wind as you spray. Don't ask how I know!
ReplyDeleteDeer are a huge problem in my little corner of paradise. I've tried every sort of deterrent thus far from egg wash concoctions, Irish Spring soap balls to Plantskydd which sounds (and probably smells) just like the product you used. Except the deer in our area aren't deterred when my garden smells like an abattoir and will eat plants and bushes that have been recently sprayed. They also eat plants that according to 'experts' deer don't like to eat!
ReplyDeleteSince you've had good luck for the past 3 weeks with Liquid Fence, perhaps I should give it a try. One question though, did you have any problem getting the product to flow through the sprayer? Did it clog at all?
Not at all. Good luck!
DeleteWhen I lived in Ohio we had deer like mad. I heard (but never tried) that getting lion and tiger poo and spreading that around will keep deer at bay. Sometimes zoos sell it just for that purpose (Zoo Doo). I think it has the scent of a predator and the deer are supposed to fear it.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
Try Sweeney's. They look like hockey pucks hanging from croquet wickets and they last all season. They seem to deter bunnies as well.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry that this happened to you! I thought I was going to click and see small plants and then even larger ones like the ones at my place...due to alot of rain and sun...they are starting to look like "Seymours"! Glad you have a solution and have a great summer!
ReplyDeleteUgh! I feel your pain. We have mutant rabbits the will go after anything. Because of this, we get to spray almost year round-if I don't spray my Christmas lights with the stuff then they eat through the cords!
ReplyDeleteDeer are the scourge of gardeners in my neighborhood as well and as we both know, hostas are candy to deer no matter where you live. I live in the woods and so the number of deer resistant plants is pretty limited, so like you we spray. I haven't used the one you mentioned but since you really need to alternate sprays I will look for it. So far we've kept ahead of the deer this season, but having a dog again has helped as well. The other thing that I've found is that deer have a set route onto your property so spaying along those paths can be helpful. BTW we start spraying the moment they come up, before they even open since I've had deer eat the tops. Not pretty either. I've found astilbe, Filipendula, all ferns and grasses to be deer resistant. Helleborus are also on my list as never get eaten. The only issue with deer resistant lists is that deer vary their diet by area and what works down here might be very attractive to deer in your area. Good luck the rest of the season.
ReplyDeleteNancy, thank you so much for your valued professional opinion. I never thought about alternating different sprays but will do. Ours definitely have a route as well. Thanks for the plant suggestions. Greatly appreciated.
DeleteOMG! What a salad they had....
ReplyDeleteMy sympathy. We have the same problem with deer (who we now call Random Automatic Pruners!).
ReplyDeleteGives new meaning to the word RAP.
DeleteMy sympathies too. The deer here eat everything but the rhododendron and azaleas, which are apparently poisonous to them. They get my bulbs just as they come out of the ground, and just strip the branches of everything else. I've used Liquid Fence, it works but then one of our good summer thunderstorms washes it off and they are right back. Unfortunately, they won't eat the grass or lawn weeds... K
ReplyDeleteAround here they do like rhododendrons. We keep a dedicated sprayer for our Liquid Fence and spray on a regular basis. Unfortunately one application doesn't do it.
DeleteSo sorry to hear of your deer damage. They sure are destructive animals. My mother recently lost many buds in her gardens to deer. Lovely to look at, but stay out of our gardens!
ReplyDeleteWe've battled deer for 20 years and like you, have found Liquid Fence to be the only thing that works. The first time I used it the smell got into my sinuses and stayed there for days. I fought a gag reflex for two days. Since then I wear a respirator when I spray it. I look like an alien invader but it keeps the smell out of my sinuses. Like you, I'm sure to be down wind so it doesn't get on my clothes either.
ReplyDeleteDeer? It's usually the slugs and snails that go for the Hostas here in England. They end up looking much the same as yours though!
ReplyDeleteWe have variegated hostas which are very pretty - until the snails eat the leaves full of holes!
The deer have eaten my parents' Rhododendrons and azelias in Nova Scotia, although Acorgihouse says they eat everything but. They must have regional cuisine.
ReplyDelete