I have been battling deer in our orchard and vegetable garden for the past few years. The four legged monsters will sneak into our orchard and eat all the growth off of my young fruit trees, consume squash plants down to the base and don’t get me going on the sweet potato vines! I’ve tried numerous organic deterrents including plantskydd, ivory soap slivers and motion sensing lighting. The plantskydd worked OK but I still saw plenty of deer hits even when it was applied. The deer just scoffed at everything else I tried.
While catching up with the latest activity on the Growing Fruit forum I came across a post that suggested running fishing line around the perimeter of your orchard and garden to deter deer. The thought is that the deer can’t see the thin line at night and get spooked when they brush up against it. I’m not real sure if this is actually what happens but will make sure to ask Bambi the next time she stops over for dinner. ;) So I spend a whopping $10 on some 10’ test fishing line and strung two lines around our property. One line sits at 3’ and the other at 5’. Here is the obligatory picture:
I was seeing daily deer destruction prior to putting up the fishing line and haven’t seen a bit of damage since. The line went up well over a month ago and I have my fingers crossed that it continues to work.