Does anyone know a way to keep deer from eating all your bird seed?

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

It's such a pain to take the bird feeder in every night, but if I don't, the deer come and eat it all up. Is there some kind of hint that anyone knows of, besides building a fence?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Human Urine.

Get one of your guys friends to have a slash around the bird feeder. Cost? One six-pack of beer. Cheap. ;')

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. A dog

if you have a dog, putting him up by the feeder will discourage them. A neighbor that doesn't have a dog has tried distributing hair and his urine around the perimeter of his garden, but he said it doesn't work. We had no problem, but then we planted a special deer garden-soybeans-they ate that and left our garden alone. But in winter, the thing that will work is the dog, I'd think.

[Nihil]

5. Hope the deer dies laughing?

> A neighbor that doesn't have a dog has tried distributing hair and
> his urine around the perimeter of his garden, but he said it
> doesn't work.

There was an article in the paper a while back where the writer had
decided to try this remedy to dissuade moles from trashing his lawn.

The chap did it at night, using moonlight rather than switching on
anything from his house that might make it a bit too obvious.
Unfortunately, part way round he became aware of his neighbours
looking out from their bedroom window ... it was then that he really
understood the expression "lost for words".

How do you explain to your polite, upstanding elderly neighbours that
you are merely distributing the waste product from the evening's
drinking in the hope that small furry creatures will choose someone
else's lawn to vandalise and not, as they appeared to deduce (in a
frosty disapproving way) that you were staggering around your garden,
stark staring naked, urinating enthusiastically and proficiently
because you're completely out of your tree?

There are times when the truth is indeed hard to believe.

Nihil

[Racenut20]

3. A quick call to Chaney and Scalia should do it.

But you have to tie the deer up to a tree.

[ozymandius]

4. hot chili pepper

Spike the seed with chopped, dried thai chili peppers. Birds either love hot peppers or they just pick out what they will not eat. Deer should hate that. It sometimes works for squirrels too.

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

6. Thanks to all of you. I think I will try the chili peppers because

I only have two wimpy indoor cats, I don't want anyone peeing on my patio and I certainly don't want Cheney and Scalia, the Great White Hunters around!

[BeatleBoot]

7. This always works for me

The next time the deer come to eat the bird seed, sneak up behind one of them and put it in a headlock.

After wrestling said deer to the ground, grab either one of its cute little ears and tell it,

"No more eatin' the seed, see?"

Release said deer and watch it run away...never to return...

Works every time!

[Township75]

8. This works pretty well...

:D

[Mobius]

9. shoot it

then eat it

[Mobius]

10. Re human urine

It will just make the deer horny. I can't see that being better than paying for a little extra birdseed.

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

12. It's way more than a little extra birdseed, they eat the whole

feeder in one night if I leave it out. I would have to buy an entire bag every day! Plus I heard it is not a good idea to encourage the deer to come and eat in the residential areas.

[Township75]

13. And no one wants a deer humping their leg!

!

[LWolf]

11. My ex MIL tried numerous things

to keep the deer out of her garden. Besides putting chicken wire cages around all of the plants, this seemed to work the best:

A motion sensor flood ight. They step into the area, the big light comes on. My FIL somehow managed to wire the radio into it so that when the light came on, the radio turned on. The combination of sudden, blaring light and human voices worked well. But don't ask me how they got the radio to work.

It might be easier to ration your bird seed, so that there's none left by the end of each day.

[Drifter]

14. Hmmm ...

We get the same thing, but our flood light does not scare them away. It just makes it so that we can see them better when they are there. We really don't mind them, andthe kids love seeing them so close. Our bird feeder is about 15' from the nearest window.

Cheers
Drifter

[SoCalDem]

15. Put out deer food.. The poor little critters are hungry

:(..

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

18. Awww...now you're making me feel bad!

If I start feeding them, I'll probably get the whole herd and won't be able to keep up with it.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

16. yeah..put a bushel of apples out on the ground around bird feeder for deer

[truthspeaker]

17. it's not a good idea to encourage deer to forage in human habitat

and it's illegal in some areas.

Let me know how the hot pepper works, because I want to try it with squirrels. My understanding is the peppers don't effect birds because they don't have mucus membranes for it to irritate.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

23. illegal?...should i cut down the apple trees in my yard that the deer feed

at every year even in winter?

[arwalden]

24. It's Illegal To Feed The Miniature 'Key Deer' In Florida

They are a threatened (or endangered) species and in order to survive, they benefit by NOT eating human handouts and NOT coming into direct contact with humans. Their natural fear of humans (and populated areas) help them to survive.

-- Allen

[alwynsw]

19. Raise the feeder

If you're too short to put it out of Bambi's reach, plant a longer pole with a pulley. You can do the same with a tree limb. Use the rope to raise and lower it for maintenance.

Be sure to put a guard on it to keep squirrels out. A hatlike affair resembling a Chinese peasant hat above the feeder will keep squirrels out if it's hanging from a tree. Invert the hat and place it below the feeder if it's on a pole.

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

20. Would you happen to know how high deer can reach?

Right now the feeder is pretty low, about 5', because it's on a pole that's attached to my tool shed. So if I put it on a separate standing pole, how high would it have to be? My height wouldn't be a problem because I'm 5'6,'' so probably tall enough to reach. Would 6' do it?

[spinbaby]

22. They can't reach ours

We have a feeder on a 6-foot pole. Also, we have wire screens protecting the bottom of the feeder. This arrangement is mainly to keep cats away from the feeder but the deer can't reach it either. They do, however, come by every evening to pick through what's fallen on the ground. I feel sorry for them this time of year because they really are starving--they've gone so far as to eat holly bushes and sage plants--but if you feed them you just wind up with a herd of the destructive critters.

[CanuckAmok]

21. It is possible to train gorillas to attack deer.

I'm not sure how to get rid of the gorillas, though...

[ArkDem]

25. 30.06