Deer Fence - See also dangers of fence; and deer resistant plants and repellents.
A review of Wildlife Compatible Fencing from Arizona Game and Fish Department.
Simple deer fence: Set strong stakes around your plants. Wrap clear fish line at at the height of the deer knees and chest. The deer will feel it, but can't see it, so will be scared away.
Soap fence: Drill a hole in a bar of soap, tie a thin rope through it and attach a few along another rope.
Fencing and resistant plants from the Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management
Rotten egg fence: Use a pin to poke a hole in the top of a raw egg. Place it upright inside a sock and clip a few to a rope.
Electric fence tape: no electricity needed. Get a few thin plastic posts and run white electric fence tape between them. Build another one parallel to it. Deer have poor depth perception so they won't try to go through it.
Hanging tin foil and mobiles can be effective.
A low cost but effective deer fence: posts sunk in the ground and are approximately 6-feet high. Use fifty-pound monofiliment fishing line, or similar, to string between the posts. Hang something like curling ribbon, found at the craft store, or birdtape, from the fishing line. When the wind blows there is some motion, it is shiny so the deer can see it. ... installing a double row of 4 foot high fencing spaced 3 feet apart can be quite effective ...
Chicken wire fencing. Laid flat on the ground, the deer don't like the feel of it on their feet, so it helps keep them out of your garden. They can't see what or where it is ...
Deer will not jump over anything they can't see. Several strands of fishing line at a height of two to three feet around a small bed may keep a deer from jumping into the area. The line must be far enough from the plants that the deer can't reach over and eat what is within reach.
Advice from New Mexico Department of Game and Fish: The most effective way to prevent deer from browsing on your property is to fence them out. There are a number of fence designs that have been proven both effective and humane. For most situations, installing one or two strands of electrified high-tensile wire on top of an existing fence is the simplest and most cost-effective design. The top wire should be placed at least 68 inches above the ground. Be sure to eliminate gaps greater than 8 inches between the existing fence and the top wire.
In places where fencing is impractical, wrapping individual plants and shrubs with sections of the square-mesh woven wire prevents the foraging on individual plants.
Cody, Does city love or hate deer? October 4, 2010 Cody Enterprise Wyoming
… Brian Nesvik, regional wildlife supervisor for the Game & Fish Department in Cody, told the counci ... there are many different ways to handle urban deer, including contraception, removal or deer repellent, each has its disadvantages. … He said the best solution is to erect a tall fence around whatever the deer are attracted to. "If they like the trees, then put a fence around the tree," ...
Research
Natural Forest Regeneration Changes in an Urban Natural Area Forest with White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) Exclusion and Felling by North American Beaver - Natural Areas Journal, 2022
... Our results indicate white-tailed deer exclusion fencing is an effective management method for increasing natural regeneration of both seedlings and saplings in an urban natural area forest when the fencing also effectively excludes North American beaver...
Deer response to exclusion from stored cattle feed in Michigan, USA MJ Lavelle, HIII Campa, K LeDoux, PJ Ryan… - Preventive Veterinary …, 2015
... We characterized areas deer occupied before and after installing 2361 m of fences and gates to exclude deer from stored cattle feed. Following fence installation, 9 deer previously accessing stored feed shifted to patterns of habitat use similar to 5 deer that did not use stored feed. However, continued attempts to regain access to stored feed were made at low frequencies, emphasizing the need to maintain the integrity of fences and keep gates closed ...
Effectiveness of Modifying Fences to Exclude Ungulates From High-Value Livestock Pastures [PDF] JE Knight - April, 2014 Montana, MSU Extension
... Exclosures were baited and monitored for two winters to determine how well they deterred ungulate crossings. Results indicate effective modifications can be made to existing fences for $500 - $1,350 per mile for materials. Different designs proved to have varying levels of effectiveness, with six-foot woven wire being 100 percent effective. These fences are a cost-effective way to fence out wildlife in many high-value areas where traditional game fences are not practical ...
Evaluation of techniques to reduce deer and elk damage to agricultural crops
HE Johnson, JW Fischer, M Hammond, PD Dorsey… - Wildlife Society Bulletin, 2014
... we investigated 3 temporary, non-lethal exclusion and repellent techniques for reducing deer and elk damage to sunflowers: 1) a polyrope electric fence, 2) the chemical repellent Plantskydd™, and 3) a winged fence... we found that polyrope electric fences reduced deer and elk damage and presence within plots, while the repellent and winged fences did not reduce ungulate activity. Polyrope electric fences may be a suitable tool in areas where wildlife management agencies want to maintain deer and elk populations but reduce seasonal damage by cervids to high-value crops
Garden Tour, electric deer fence July 16, 2013 Virginia, Gladwin County Record
... In Virginia we had many years of research with deer fencing protecting high dollar crops like pumpkins, collards, and peanuts... Our deer fence is electric and works on the principle that deer lack depth perception. There are two poly tape fences three feet apart. As a deer approaches the outer fence it stops to contemplate distance between fences before jumping. They either sense the electric or receive a shock and quickly change their mind about entering the garden...
Riparian and upland afforestation: Improving success by excluding deer from small areas with low fencing BW Sweeney, CL Dow - Natural Areas Journal, 2019
... tall fencing (1.8 or 2.3 m) did not provide significantly greater protection than shorter (1.2-m) fencing when the fenced areas were kept small... we show that low-stature fencing may also have application for protecting larger areas (≥0.8 ha) if the fencing is deployed around the perimeter as two low fences erected in parallel and with a small (3-m) space between them..
News
Video Below: How to install a cheap 3D deer fence. July 18, 2023
Norton Shores, Deer fencing chosen over a targeted cull in Norton Shores to help protect property January 17, 2023 Michigan, MLive
... A new city ordinance allows for deer fencing at homes in Norton Shores... plastic or nylon fencing up to 8 feet tall ... would be cheaper, and possibly more effective, than a targeted deer kill known as a “cull.” ...
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife “when deer browsing is moderate to severe, or a landowner isn’t willing to tolerate even a limited amount of damage, fencing to exclude deer is the only option,”
Funding, fencing on the horizon for farms, ranches hurt by axis deer June 28, 2022 Hawaii, The Maui News
... Funding will soon be available for local farmers and ranchers to apply for, and plans are in the works to put fencing around locations like the Kula Agricultural Park to help protect crops from foraging deer...
Two videos below about electric fence.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife “when deer browsing is moderate to severe, or a landowner isn’t willing to tolerate even a limited amount of damage, fencing to exclude deer is the only option,”
Groups ripping out old barbed wire that blocks wildlife movement west of Tucson March 5, 2022 Arizona Daily Star
... A team of government agencies and conservation groups has launched an effort to take down old, barbed wire fences on public land in Avra Valley to ease the movement of deer, bighorn sheep and other animals...
Wayne, Laurelwood Fence Moves Forward News March 4, 2022 New Jersey, TAPinto
... deer population in the area was literally eating away at Laurelwood’s famous hybrid rhododendrons and azaleas ... FOLA agreed that if the vote passed that night, they would push the deer exclusionary fence back off the road double the original proposed setback of 25 feet...
Kula water, axis deer, and downhill bicycle tours are topics at KCA meeting February 18, 2022 Hawaii, Maui Now
... The County is proposing to spend money to begin addressing this issue. Council member Yuki Lei Sugimura will discuss the plans, starting with the fencing of the Kula Ag Park...
Village of Hastings, Fence aims to keep deer from part of woods January 21, 2022 New York, rivertownsenterprise
... an experimental deer exclosure ... will encompass about 4.5 acres ...
Aerial assessment shows deer overpopulation on Molokai January 14, 2022 Hawaii, The Maui News
... One of the most effective ways to keep axis deer out of forests is fencing, DLNR said. While the fencing in place across 111,000 acres of Maui Nui continues to be mostly effective ...
Budding Ecologists Plant 1000 Trees in the Sourlands October 11, 2021 New Jersey Stage
... trees range in size from tubelings to two-gallon pots and will be planted singly in tree tubes and wire cages, as well as larger fenced areas up to 1/2 acre in size... Installing fencing in historically forested areas will allow trees, shrubs, grasses, and flowers to fill in without additional planting or risk of deer herbivory...
Pennsylvania creates 35 secret sanctuaries to protect rare plants September 20, 2021 The Chesapeake Bay Journal
... Plants such as glade spurge, white monkshood and mountain pimpernel have wire cages placed over them to keep deer from munching them ... To guard against poaching, the agency isn’t revealing the locations ...
Teatown, Use fences, not bullets, to rid Teatown land of deer January 13, 2014 New York, lohud.com
... Qualified wildlife experts agree that rifle fire “culls” do not reduce the deer population because of a “rebound effect.” The deer population increases after a slaughter because the cull results in more food being available to the surviving deer. As a result, the females become more fertile, giving birth to twins and triplets... Dr. Larry Mellichamp, Ph.D., a professor of botany and the director of the Botanical Gardens at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, has signed a sworn affidavit that since anti-deer fencing was installed he had not seen a single deer inside the gardens...
Cornell's Deer Plan Decreases Population February 7, 2012 New York, WBNG-TV
... part of its plan is fencing... "We have eight foot height barrier fencing ... reduced its deer population by 40 percent ...
Evaluating the construction and effectiveness of slash walls at the perimeter of regeneration harvests to exclude deer- Forest Ecology and Management, 2021
...Forest regeneration harvests with perimeter slash walls effectively excluded deer.
Slash walls resulted in greater height growth of tagged seedlings. Construction costs for 4 slash walls averaged $4.82/m ($1.47/ft)...
Mending fences: new group working to help migrating wildlife, one fence at a time January 15, 2021 Wyoming, svinews
... a wildlife friendly option... the bottom strand was raised to 18 inches and barbless. It allows pronghorn and young deer and elk to crawl under the fence without injury. They also lowered the top strand to 42-inches and enlarged the distance between it and the second strand to help ensure animals jumping over didn’t get entangled in the strands...
Ungulates-exclusion grates as an adjoining facility to crop damage prevention fences
T Honda, Y Kubota, Y Ishizawa - European Journal of Wildlife Research, 2020
...wildlife is able to intrude fences where they intersect with roads...This study developed the grates which are directly laid on the road... his study conducted an actual road test and the grates effectively reduced the deer passing the road (98.5% reduction). The advantages of our grates are (i) costs of digging and constructing a sub-footing using heavy machine is zero, (ii) < half-length of old type grates. Shorter grates (2.4 m) without sub-footings are safer for vehicles and walking children...
USDA issues record of decision on cattle fever tick control fencing in Texas December 4, 2018 Texas, Feedstuffs
The fences will help prevent potentially affected deer from travelling into unaffected areas... will initially cover two miles, but if needed and funding is available, it could be expanded to cover up to 50 miles ...
Public Shows Support For Southampton Village Effort To Allow Eight Foot Deer Fences June 15, 2018 New York, 27east.com
... A proposal to allow deer fences up to 8 feet tall around residential homes in Southampton Village was met with overwhelming support at a public hearing...
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