Nuisance Deer

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LOLBELL

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West Central Alabama
I don’t know if this is the right place to go with this or not. I have a problem with deer getting in my vegetable garden and corn patch and destroying it. In the past I wasn’t to the point of doing something drastic to eliminate the problem.

With fertilizer costing $25 per 50lbs and everyone calling for food shortages I’m close to desperate. I have tried human hair, everything you can buy at the CO-OP, a radio, flashing lights, leaving a tractor or truck in the field, a scarecrow, and an electric fence. I had a dog that kept them out of the small garden at the house until old age got her.

Peas and corn and some other stuff is about 4 miles from my home on another property I own so the dog didn’t help there. I have gone to the Game Wardens with the problem and was told I could get a permit to shoot them but I had to leave them lay where they fell. Wasted meat, smell, and coyotes. I told them I don’t think that’s a good idea. Their reply was to build a high fence. Cost of that is about $50,000 to get all the acreage that I plant fenced. That’s with me and the sons doing the building.

Any suggestions? I don’t think I should have to pay to have a fence built to be able to feed my family on property I have owned for 25 years, nor should I have to stink up the place leaving carcasses lying everywhere and inviting coyotes and buzzards to move in.

I try to be an ethical hunter but my patience is wearing thin. I have always obeyed the law but feeding my family is the top priority.
 
Good luck. I think they make motion sensor water sprinklers too. Deer don't seem to mind me shooting at the range.
 
Here, the state prefers not to waste its resources so they changed the archaic law saying one must leave them if one shoots them with a nuisance permit. I suppose you could put up deer stands everywhere and hope they get the message, but year in and year out thousands don’t. Good luck.
 
LOLBELL said:
Any suggestions? I don’t think I should have to pay to have a fence built to be able to feed my family on property I have owned for 25 years, nor should I have to stink up the place leaving carcasses lying everywhere and inviting coyotes and buzzards to move in.
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If it’s not the deer and other ground animals, it’s the birds, from the air. If you could ask them, they would say their family owned the area before you got there…

Fences and nets work pretty well. If they are coming in at night, while you are sleeping, good luck with the cannons they use for orchards, to keep the birds away during daylight. My wife doesn’t want me shooting without a suppressor at a critter around the house while she is sleeping.

An electric wire or two might keep them out if they sneak up in it and get zapped a time or two.

I don’t know about Alabama laws on nuisance animals but you might be able to get permission to eliminate them, out of season. In Texas it’s called a “Depredation Permit” and can be issued even for “protected” animals.

Edit: Looks like Alabama does have something similar.

The Nuisance Wildlife Control Operator permit has no cost.
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https://nwco.net/states/states-a-h/alabama/

 
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LOLBELL said:
Any suggestions? I don’t think I should have to pay to have a fence built to be able to feed my family on property I have owned for 25 years, nor should I have to stink up the place leaving carcasses lying everywhere and inviting coyotes and buzzards to move in.
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A relative had the same with deer, and ended up with a 10ft. high fence with a solar powered hot wire at the top before deer quit jumping it. The deer seemed to like the challenge of jumping the fence. An alternative is using Thiram. Thiram is a fungicide, it helps prevent mold on plants. However, when deer taste it, the chemical acts like tear gas or extreme defensive pepper spray, causing them distress or vomit. It can be sprayed on the non-vegetable portion of the plant and lasts for up to 6 months. One episode and they won't go the near vegies. Contact Dept of Ag or DNR to see if Thiram (pron. thy-ram) is allowed in your state. Othewise, here is Wisconsin one needs to contact the DNR to destroy nuisance animals.
 
Things that make noise seem to spook them when hunting. Maybe something low-tech like wind chimes, or maybe higher-tech like a motion detector hooked to something that makes a loud noise. It doesn't need to be an explosion.
 
My Dad raised trees from seedlings on our farm. Deer were hard on them. The best repellant we found was the little motel-size bars of the most perfumed (stinky) soap we could find, hang them around the trees. Not perfect but certainly helped.
 
Thomasss said:
A relative had the same with deer, and ended up with a 10ft. high fence with a solar powered hot wire at the top before deer quit jumping it. The deer seemed to like the challenge of jumping the fence. An
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I bought an electric charger, posts, insulators, and the wide wire/tape and built a fence around it. Several times one would get in the fence and tear it down, then the rest would walk in to a free buffet.

You just can’t imagine how disheartening it is to see 4 acres of peas cleaned up in two nights.

I’ll check onto the Thiram.
 
wgp said:
My Dad raised trees from seedlings on our farm. Deer were hard on them. The best repellant we found was the little motel-size bars of the most perfumed (stinky) soap we could find, hang them around the trees. Not perfect but certainly helped.
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I’ve very recently retired but lived out of a motel for the last 3 1/2 years. I have plenty of small soap bars. I will give that a try.
 
LOLBELL said:
I have gone to the Game Wardens with the problem and was told I could get a permit to shoot them but I had to leave them lay where they fell.
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Probably your best option. I'd assume the idea is so that you are not using the permits for food or fun. Still. I would question why they won't allow them to be donated to the poor, or at least be able to drag them somewhere else. With the new found fear of CWD, one would think they would want them properly disposed of if nuttin' else. Odds are, you do not have to shoot them all. Take out a few and the others will get the hint.
 
LOLBELL said:
You just can’t imagine how disheartening it is to see 4 acres of peas cleaned up in two nights.
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Yeah, I can imagine having that happen year after year would have you rethinking.

LOLBELL said:
I don’t think I should have to pay to have a fence built to be able to feed my family…
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Or might continue the conversation with the department that issues the permit

I have gone to the Game Wardens with the problem and was told I could get a permit to shoot them but I had to leave them lay where they fell.
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and see exactly what the wording is. If I had exhausted all legal and ethical means to eradicate the varmints (troublesome wild animal). I suppose I could pick loads that I have used in the past, that gave me less than “dropped in its tracks” results. At least I would be 100% legal and deer can travel 100’s of yards in seconds, even as they are dying.

Personally, I wouldn’t do that but they don’t harm our crops. Pigs do damage our hay fields (that we need to feed our cattle during the winter)and I have killed hundreds of them, often feeding nothing except buzzards. So, I can see how one could get there, rather quickly.
 
Use electric fence. Live traps for the coons, most likely they are the real culprits for most of the damage.
 
We have had miles of electric fence o leased lands. Anything short of those jurassic park T-rex fences will just be a scattered mess with deer. We keep massive cattle in with them.... but deer just drag them out through the field.

We also have depredation permits but we also must leave them where they fall. That said, there is no law against telling the neighbors or tree workers where they fell. What they do with that info isn't my concern
 
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