How to Keep Deer Out of Your Garden

Deer are beautiful animals and are a pleasure to watch, but that pleasure can quickly turn to frustration if they get into your garden and destroy your plants. All the hard work that you put into planting and caring for your garden can be destroyed in no time.

The good news is that there are quite a few simple, natural deer repellents that you can use to help keep deer out of your yard, garden or field. They are all inexpensive and can be well worth the effort if they manage to help you save your plants this year. Here are some tips for how to keep deer out of your garden.

Spice Things Up

Buy some hot peppers and soak them in a bucket of water, leaving them in long enough for the pepper juice to thoroughly seep into the water. After the peppers have had a chance to soak, drain the water into a garden sprayer and spray the area all around your garden.

This helps to create a barrier that will deter a grazing deer from wandering into your garden. Be sure to use a lot of peppers and choose the hottest ones you can find. You may need to repeat the application periodically for it to remain effective.

What's that Smell?

Deer don't like the scent of heavy perfumes or fragrances. Use this to your advantage by strategically placing bars of heavily perfumed soap around your yard and garden. You can try hanging them from trees or plants, laying them on the ground or placing them anywhere that is convenient.

Be sure to choose the strongest smelling soap that you can find so that the deer will be able to easily smell it from a distance.

Use Citrus

Citrus also can act as a deer repellent. Treat yourself to some oranges or tangerines. Enjoy the fruit and then place the peels out in your garden. The citrus smell will help to prevent deer from entering the area.

Shave Your Head

OK, you don't really have to shave your head. However, human hair can be a great deterrent for deer. Deer don't like humans so anything that smells like them will help to keep them out of the area. You can hit your local barbershops and salons and ask for any leftover hair to use so you can keep your own safely on your head.

Use Natural Predators to Your Advantage

One of the best tips I've ever heard for repelling deer was to use mountain lion urine. In fact, urine from any natural predator such as a wolf, coyote or bobcat will do the trick. Surprisingly, you can actually buy predator urine on line and can also get unique little containers for it that allow the scent out but don't let it wash away in the rain.

Deer will naturally avoid any area where they think a predator is living. Predators mark their area with their urine. Logically, then when you put out predator urine a deer will believe there is a predator in the area and avoid your garden at all costs.