The Pests Return

[LovelyLadyLux]

This guy was in my next door neighbours yard. My neighbor 2 houses over is finally having to fence her backyard as the deer are just too plentiful and are getting pushed and pressed daily as building continues to find sufficient food.

This is her back yard



She is in the midst of having a fence installed. I was outside on my back deck when this young guy comes ambling out. They're so tame they rarely run even if you clap your hands or shout at them. These young bucks even get a bit confrontational and will sometimes lower their heads at you as if to charge however I've never heard of a buck actually charging anybody - but - they don't run and they do threatened cause they're semi-pets to many who feed them and encourage them into backyards.





This guy soon as the velvet on his antlers starts to shed will rub his antlers on tree trucks and if the tree has soft bark they can kill it by rubbing a complete circle of bark off the tree. My crab apple tree that I planted out front wears a jacket of corrugated plastic so as to stop the deer from rubbing the bark.

Have to admit though that my concoction of rotten eggs, soap and pepper has been stopping the deer from chewing on my plants. I'm the only house going that has snapdragons and various other perennials growing out front. The one piece of trivia is that they do not eat any plants that have white fuzzy leaves. Dusty Miller and Lamb's Ear are not touched. Don't know why this is - maybe they don't see white????

[Grandad]

Beautiful creatures and that looks like the side of a mountain that you live on LLL. Do you also get mountain goats.

Looks a pretty good constuction job going on there but I would have wanted concrete posts. Those timber ones look too flimsy for those animals...

[Horus]

It looks a lovely area LLL, but boy those gardens are steep I would be knackered going up and down that one. I agree about the fence posts being concrete, but I doubt if they make them that tall, maybe a better solution would have been to shape the panels to suit the slope. Great pictures of the deer, what a shame they are becoming a nuisance as they look beatiful standing there with those big antlers.

[Kiya]

Lovely pictures of the deers but I don't think I could cope with a garden so sloped like that

[Grandad]

Electric fence, much cheaper to install and it will stop the neighbours pinching your plants.

[Horus]

Electric fence, much cheaper to install and it will stop the neighbours pinching your plants.

Or a 303 rifle and a freezer chest.

[LovelyLadyLux]

My back yard looked the same when I started too. I had it terraced with walk ways so my yard isn't too back now but it has taken 2 years to get it decent (and then I'm moving too). The deer are phenomenally terrible and the young ones will destroy a garden in 1 evening.

Deer can easily jump 8' high but they're not that bright so what they don't SEE they don't miss and they also will not jump where they can't see to land and deer only jump straight on. They do not jump sideways on slopes. I didn't know it when I bought this place that this IS deer territory. They're everywhere around here but this specific 1 or so square miles is their native natural territory and there are literally hundreds of them.

I quite firmly believe the herds need to be culled down and then managed but there is an extremely strong environmental group here who believe the deer were here first and therefore should just be left. My point is - left to do what? Starve cause there isn't enough food? Walk around so emaciated looking they're losing hair and succumbing to disease?

Anyway - soon the deer pest problem will be behind me.

They are pretty to look at but otherwise - yeah they make a good dinner!!