Wild Grit: Deerproof Your Garden

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Then, you won’t have to worry as much when that little voice calls out, “Bambi, your table is ready.” Instead of a regular diner, Bambi may turn into a no-show.

When it comes to deer, vegetable grower George DeVault believes that good fences do make good neighbors – as long as you never turn the fence charger off.

Deer Facts

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• Deer eat 4 to 6 pounds of forage every day for each 100 pounds of body weight. For an average-size deer, that translates into more than one ton of forage each year. 
• They’re dangerous. Besides hosting deer ticks, which carry Lyme disease, deer are involved in more than 500,000 automobile accidents nationwide every year. Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois and Ohio lead the country in collisions with deer. Damage averages $2,800 per wreck for a total of about $1.4 billion a year, and about 100 people die in deer-related accidents annually. 
• Deer can run at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour, swim at 13 mph and jump a 9-foot-tall fence with a leap up to 25 feet long. 
• They breed like rabbits. Does as young as six months can breed, and after their first fawn, nearly 80 percent of them drop twins – or triplets.

Additional Information

For even more deer-repelling ideas, read Deer Proofing Your Yard & Garden by Rhonda Massingham Hart (Storey Publishing, 1997).

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