OK...here is something we're going to try. Regular blog readers will know we tried Irish Spring soap as mouse deterrent and the results were inconclusive. We have no mice, knock on wood, but that could have been the soap, the mousetraps, the lack of food in the house or maybe even a snake or two.
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| Irish Spring soap as Deer repellent |
But then I read that it is a deer repellent. Really? OK, worth a try I suppose. I bought some Irish Spring soap, original scent, and proceeded to cut it up into smaller chunks. We had these muslin drawstring bags from a previous project. After cutting the pieces, I put a few into each bag and tied it shut.
The strings are long so...
...I hung a "sachet" in every tree. This is what all the recommendations we found suggested. Apparently deer don't like the smell and so you just hang them in the branches. They've been there a couple of weeks now and when I go to water and the breeze is blowing, I can smell them. We just hope the deer smell them and don't like it.
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| Irish Spring soap sachet in fruit tree |
This is going to be the ultimate test. Here are some plums, young and still growing, and the sachet is right next to them. We'll see what happens. If the plums stay "uneaten" it will be a success.
Of course if we end up with Irish Spring flavored plums, well that's a different story, LOL!
UPDATE 06/2018:
Kind of worked. Not sure if it slowed them or maybe stopped one or two but a lot of the fruit was stripped from the trees sometime in the last week. Not a 100% sure it was deer but a broken branch and some suspicious hoof marks in the ground tell us that something came to eat.
Any other suggestions?
Irish Spring soap contains “tallow” which repels deer
ReplyDeleteYou could also if you wanted to sprinkle pieces or shred the soap on an old grater and sprinkle around the base of the tree.
Keeping birds at bay:
The reflective surface of CDs ( we all get those so called 'junk' CD's in the mail, use those)will keep the hungry birds away from your fruits. Just hang a few from your spare branches to create a shiny weapon.
Let me know if it works. I used the stinkiest soap I could find - Zest. Scarecrows, loud radios, soap and pie pans, nada. Might try a tape of loud dogs barking.
ReplyDeleteIf that doesn't work. .....you could always get Lion poop from the Zoo !
ReplyDeleteI would use lion poop in my yard if it would deter raccoons!
DeleteBounce dryer sheets are supposed to deter mice, too. I don't know if anything deters rats other than my dogs, who killed a couple soon after I moved here in 2009. That was a different dog pack, though. Franklin and Penelope weren't even born.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
Have you had any deer damage from your Bambi visitors? I was hoping there would enough wild food for them to be satisfied. If not, hope the soap works.
ReplyDeleteIt will be great if it works. I bought that repellent spray made from rotten eggs and it works. But something about spraying rotten eggs on my vegetable plants just doesn't sit right.
ReplyDeleteIt's any smell that they don't normally smell in nature. When we go deer hunting, we wash with a special unscented soap and then spray this spray that also removes the human scent. Deer have very sensitive noses and can smell when a human is in their habitat. You could also try peeing around the garden. I know...I know...gross. But it works.
ReplyDeleteMany years of experience, human pee will not work. Deer get use to it quick. Dirty T-Shirts work. Any piece of clothing that contains dead skin cells.
DeleteI'm trying Irish spring right now. I tied a bar to 8 wooden posts. I taped the 4' post in around a sunflower field I planted. Hopefully I'll get sunflowers.
DeleteIt would be heartbreaking if I lost the few peaches I had.
ReplyDeleteThe deer ATE the soap!!! I a soap bar in a paper bowl in two areas on my patio and one of them was knocked to the ground and 3/4 eaten! I also saw teeth marks on the soap that was left. Then I saw more of my tomato plants eaten as well. I surrender.
ReplyDelete