does human pee deter deer?
 

deer are pests this year. for 12 years i have had virtually no problems but this year someone new has discovered my garden and my fear is it will teach others.

i suspect this is like hair or blood or irish spring soap et al, none of these deterrents really work but sometimes it works for someone. if anyone has experience using pee or knows someone that uses it effectively i'd like to hear about it. i would distribute pee around the fence line if this is effective.

tom

LOL Tom. My neighbor insists that it is. I don't know. I mean I think it keeps squirrels away. She has her husband pee around her garden. She is a bit eccentric though so I don't know if I believe her. Maybe try it and see if you have any luck. It's free, anyway isnt it? Tee hee ;)

as a deer hunter i say no human pee does not work. i have went on a tree 10 feet from my tree stand and had deer walk right by it not even spooked. the best bet is an electric fence.......................................

And then someone will pee on the electric fence!!!! :roll::dizzy:


Julia

No way. Pee will, however, deter clients and girlfriends.

Makes no difference.

If you pee directly on them I think they might take offense :yes: Other than that they are going to ignore it. I've been on deer stand and seen them stop to sniff where I had relieved myself the day before.

The deer who ate my muskmelons looked like they should be pulling Santa's sleigh. They walked down the plastic mulch like it was a sidewalk. I had soap bars out there, cayenne pepper mixed with insecticidal soap on the plants, dogs nearby, and a pepper-based "animal deterrent" spray on the melons. They still ate every melon I had, cayenne pepper and all. These deer were not scared of anything, and none of the deterrents worked. Part of it is that these are huge deer, and the other part is our exceptional drought at the moment. They are desperate for moisture.

Curiously, they did not eat any of the watermelons growing next to the muskmelons. I think they have a harder time smelling the watermelon through its rind, which is thicker and less porous than a muskmelon.

Interesting article about repelling deer

[URL]http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19941113&slug=1941685[/URL]

talks about how one remedy works for a while, but then the deer smarten up and acclimate to it so you need to mix it up.

They do say an electric fence is good, but not only are they expensive and work to install, I personally am just too stupid to have one around.

We had electric fencing for our cows when I was younger and I would always end up touching it by accident at least once a day when I was out doing chores. It totally sucked. My father thought that was hysterical. Me, not so much. So I will never have an electric fence. Too many bad memories of bumping into it as a kid, LOL

I had deer under my apple trees every year until I got my second dog. That one is the female chocolate lab. She stirs and barks at anything entering our yard even when she is inside our house. Both dog have electric collars on that limit them from going more than 180 feet. Our garden is inside that limit. No more rabbits, groundhogs, deer, or turkeys. Still having some issues with crows and squirrels. I don't deer want anything to do with dog pee. My dogs regularly "mark" their territory.

electric scare crow, move it every 5-10 days, or how ever often it take for the deer to lean it. When we lived in northern Ohio there is lots of money in deer seminars on how to keep them away.

They have learned that patterns need to be changed every 5-10days (which is based on how fast your particular deer learn new deterrents).

The electric scare cow worked the best, (only during warmer months) well besides my 6 collies in the back fenced yard...LOL

Pee, especially human never did a thing to make them stay away.

Go to the zoo and get some wild cat scat like mtn lion or something.

Worth

I am a avid hunter and I can attest to being upwind of a deer and spooking a deer with my scent. Deer are just like any animal they have to (learn) to fear for the most part. Somethings are inherently hard wired into wild game that make them more cautious then domesticated animals, but they have to come into contact with the danger to learn to fear it. This is why most deer that are harvested are typically 1-3 years old. The older deer are very wise to dangers they have came into contact with and basically go nocturnal to avoid anymore threats.

To answer your question about human pee deterring deer (yes and no). Human scent will deter deer that have learned to fear man.

For the first time I have what I assume to be deer problems. I haven't seen them, but not a lot of critters around here can eat a whole branch that is five feet off the ground. Plus, they ate some of my hosta for dessert, which I know to be their favorite food around here, plus I saw what looked like hoofprints in the dirt (as they stepped on my carrots).

In fact, I had been wondering, "why don't I have more than a handful of big tomatoes and it's mid July?" Then I woke up one morning and I had no big tomatoes. I realized that the deer have probably been sampling for a while and I hadn't noticed. They are not really damaging the plant - the plants are healthy and happy, but the deer seem to be eating the flowers and the fruit, leaving almost all of the leaves.

I think the drought here might have something to do with it. I think the deer are looking for plant material that has more water component since so much plant life has dried up here (including my lawn and of course we have water restrictions here). They really seem to be concentrating on the green fruit, those ★★★★★★★s.

On Friday I bought and deployed Liquid Fence. I have heard this is effective, and if the smell is any indication, it should keep anything with a nose far away, including me. Once it dries it is not "odorless" as the bottle says, but it's tolerable, as opposed to when you first apply it and you have to go running before you lose your breakfast. I also have cubes of Irish Spring hanging near the remaining fruit but I am 90% sure this will have no effect at all. I'm putting my trust in Liquid Fence and we will see what happens. I'm sure someone is anxious to post that they tried LF and it had no effect, but go gentle on me, guys. It's all that's standing between me and a tomatoless :shock:summer:?:.

tom

i don't think its going to work either. you either need a fence they can't jump over, an electric fence, or a fish line fence. deer get used to a lot of things over time. odor deterrents need to be applied repeatedly.

i'll explain the fish line fence.

i saw a post from someone from ontanagon, mi on another forum who kept deer out of his garden by stringing fish line from some t posts around the perimeter of his garden. he said it works, so i tried it around our new strawberry bed, and it has worked to some degree. maintenance is required because of line breaks, so use a heavier test like 14 or 20 lb test or higher if desired. put line at 2 and 4 ft above ground around the garden, and make an X going from the top of one pole to the bottom of the next pole. it keeps the deer out because when they bump into it, they can't see it. they don't like that, and veer away.
later in the season, deer become more persistent once they discover a food source, so i don't know how well the fish line fence will work then.
ontonagon is in western U.P. lots of deer here. if it works here, it should work for you.



keith