you never guess what I am up to at 1:33 am in the moring.

[Gage]

slow still trying to break away to go camping and leave the farming and ranching alone for at least one night and most of a day.

slowcowboy.

Just take your teardrop out in the corn field and camp. You'll be killing two birds with one stone. You'll be camping and also keep the deer out of your corn.

[dh]

Just a thought, maybe a few lbs of deer meat will keep your neighbors quiet about those gun shots they heard in the middle of the night.

[S. Heisley]

Just a thought, maybe a few lbs of deer meat will keep your neighbors quiet about those gun shots they heard in the middle of the night.

Good one! Is there a deer hunting season in your area, slow?

I'm told that deer won't jump a fence if they don't know if they can clear it and land safely. Some people have been experimenting with double fences with some success, the second, inside fence being made of simple white PVC pipe and white strapping tape, placed about 3 feet from the outside fence. But, your corn field is probably too big, making the cost too much to justify that.

Another thing that works is garlic. Deer hate the smell. You might try peeling and hanging a lot of garlic cloves around the edges of a small area to see if it works. Scatter it on the ground, too. It wouldn't cost a lot to try but it is time consuming, peeling and hanging it all.

[glamoree]

On my motorcycle I use an electronic deer whistler, I travel at 3 am to work on a heavily populated deer route. This puts off a high pitch noise and thank god I never hit one. It cost me approximately $100...maybe somethig like this may help you.

[dh]

Deer are natures ADD children, and curious as heck on top of that. In theory, deer whistles distract a deer, mostly due to thier curiosity, and saposedly keep them from jumping in front of you. Now, by this same theory, lets say a deer is already in the road, it is now distracted, wondering what that whistling noise and lights comming at it are. Deer whistles do not scare away deer.
Sharon, there is no deer season in the middle of the summer. Even if there where, dropping one after sunset is a huge no no, and using a spotlight... Thats where bribing the neighbors with deer meat comes in.

[S. Heisley]

dh wrote:

Deer are natures ADD children, and curious as heck on top of that. In theory, deer whistles distract a deer, mostly due to thier curiosity, and saposedly keep them from jumping in front of you. Now, by this same theory, lets say a deer is already in the road, it is now distracted, wondering what that whistling noise and lights comming at it are. Deer whistles do not scare away deer.
Sharon, there is no deer season in the middle of the summer. Even if there where, dropping one after sunset is a huge no no, and using a spotlight... Thats where bribing the neighbors with deer meat comes in.

You're right on both counts, Dh. That's exactly what I was hoping you'd reply.

[CAJUN LADY]

I had a deer come right up and poop beside my radio and desk lamp the first night. slow.

Slow, do you think that deer was trying to send you a message? Sorry, had to mess with you. I hope everything works out and you don't lose your cash crop. But deer LOVE corn so hope you have lots of patience...and coffee.

[dh]

Slow, I was thinking, we never had deer problems in the cow pastures, like they didn't mix. Maybe next season you could plant accordingly. Then you just have to cow proof the corn

[dh]

Slow, how close are your neighbors? I thought from previous posts they where far away enough that shotgun blasts wouldn't be a problem. Maybe hearable, but not a problem. There is a hot duck spot about 5 miles from my house, I can hear shotgun blasts, but its not loud enough to be a problem.

[dh]

I had a deer come right up and poop beside my radio and desk lamp the first night. slow.

Maybe he needed the light to read his magazine

[JuneBug]

Slo, what kind of sweet corn did you plant? When I lived in SW Colorado, Olatha sweet corn hit the shelves in August. Olatha wasn't too far away and the corn was really fresh. That fresh sweet corn was some of the best ever. Really opened my eyes to how amazingly good corn on the cob can be.

Just googled "Olatha sweet corn"
It now has an annual festival and a FaceBook page!

[aggie79]

For some reason, reading this thread reminded me of the groundskeeper (Bill Murray) in Caddyshack!

[ARKPAT]

In our state they will issue a owner permit at any time of the year for any crop damage. As for using a gun you could always use a bow to take down a deer if they get that close to you. Sounds like you have a serious over population problem that needs to be addressed by the game and fish commission of the state.

Good luck ... I looked at you Game and Fish website ...... no help with an answer.



Pat

[graybear13]

The best thing I have found for keeping deer out of my garden has been an electric fence about three feet off the ground. I just cut some saplings about eight feet long and use them to support the wire. I also tie string as high as I can reach above the wire and hang those CDs that they send you or give away in stores(free AOL minutes,ect) from the string. It surely keeps the deer out, but not coons, which are ten times worse on corn than deer !

[stumphugger]

Electric fence. You can get solar powered ones if you want to do away with the miles of power cords. Or, my friends have their garden fenced in that flimsy fish net black plastic about 9 feet high. They then have a powerful, motion activated sprinkler. It senses motion, and fires a hard stream of water, and I don't think it is very spendy.

Sometimes they have campfires nearby and forget to turn off the sprinkler. People and dogs walk by and get a bit wet. All this is for deer and elk. The elk are the main problem.

Now, the pictures of where I spent two nights with the cows is next to their hayfield. They have the cracker loads and use those to scare the elk out. Otherwise, the elk eat a lot of their hay before it gets cut.