Deer Off helps keep deer from munching
Written: Oct 05 '00 (Updated Oct 07 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Helps keep deer from eating your landscaping and flowers
Cons: not 100% effective
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| dave_corbitt's Full Review: Deer-Off |
This review was originally posted in Home & Garden > Tools for Beginners and then reposted in Lawn and Garden because of category shortages. I deleted it from there and moved it here now that it is listed as a product on Epinions. If you already rated this article in it's earlier forms,thank you, but please do not rate again. I'm not looking for padded points here, just want to get the word out on this product.
Do you live in a rural or suburban area in the Eastern US? Aren't the deer something? I bet you thought they were cute at first. But then you found your Rhododendrons denuded and all your Hosta stripped bare. Many parts of the US are now experiencing huge numbers of deer grazing through their gardens and eating the landscaping. I guess this is due to our fellow Americans continuing expansion in to more and more deer habitat, the lack of predators in these areas, and no hunting allowed in residential areas. Whatever the reasons, deer have become overpopulated in some areas as their numbers grow to record breaking levels. Deer get hungry and what they like to eat is just what you like to plant in your yard and garden. Oh boy do they like your prized roses, any kinds of lilies, hosta, and all those tomatoes and apples.
When I first moved to my semi rural, semi suburban location I was magically enthralled to see deer grazing at dusk across the street. And since I now lived in "the country" I naturally went to the garden centers and bought all kinds of shrubs and decorative plants to build a beautiful garden. Hey, those deer were so happy! Here it was, a high class salad bar just for them! Right away I learned that deer and I were at cross purposes.
I won't have a gun so I can't shoot them and besides it isn't legal in a residential area so I researched my options. Oh, the garden center folks tried to be helpful. They had lists of plants they could sell me that were "deer resistant". So I bought tons of Black Eyed Susans, and other aromatic and spiny things. Too bad the deer didn't read those same lists. All the flower heads on my Black Eyed Susans were chomped off as they started to open up.
What to do! A friend told me about Deer Off, a natural garden spray made from putrescent eggs and other natural common ingredients that is absorbed in to the plants and makes them taste really awful(to the deer). So I bought some and tried it. It worked for the most part. Since the product is absorbed you don't have to respray more than once a month except on new growth. It really works although you will occasionally get a young deer taking random bites. They seem to learn fairly soon that this stuff tastes really foul so once it's been on your garden plants the random bites get less and less over time. By the way, Deer Off doesn't smell as bad as you would think. It leaves a mild human detectable odor but nothing strong.
Using it is easy. It comes in two types; ready mixed or concentrate. The concentrate is reconstituted with water at 7 (water) to 1 (concentrate) proportions so a little goes a long way. This stuff isn't cheap but it will keep your deer munching problems down to tolerable levels. Here's some prices from their web page (local store prices are similar);
16 oz. ready mixed covers 250 sq.ft. for $9.99
32 oz. ready mixed covers 500 sq.ft. for $18.99
16 oz. concentrate covers 2,000 sq.ft. for $24.99
32 oz. concentrate covers 4,000 sq.ft. for $44.99
128 oz. (1 gal) concentrate covers 16,000 sq.ft. for $129.99
For more info you can go to the manufacturer's page;
http://www.deer-off.com/
Some garden centers carry Deer Off or you can order
online from the manufacturers web page.
It's not perfect but it sure helps keep your garden intact.
Warning: do not use Deer Off on any food items. Just for decorative plants.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
dave_corbitt
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Member: Dave Corbitt
Location: North Central NJ
Reviews written: 66
Trusted by: 111 members
About Me:
Home theater addict, sand sculptor, gardening, travel, video engineer in high end post
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