Homemade Deer Repellent

Owning a house near the woods would give you the pleasure of living in a serene and calm environment. You will also get a rare view of lovely deer roaming freely in your garden, which will make you feel exalted about living so close to nature. However, the day you realize the harm that these lovely creatures can do to your garden, you would desperately be searching for ways to keep them away from your beautiful garden. Their invasion will be more intense during winter when most of the plants become dry and gray. At such a time, the green shrubs and bushes of your garden, that the deer have avoided so far, may suddenly look quite alluring to them.

Making Deer Repellent at Home
There are several methods to keep deer away from your garden, though effectiveness of them can vary significantly among different regions. Use of deer repellents have also increased significantly in recent times. Many of these contain chemicals that can carry some health risks for your pets and children. Thus, many people prefer the use of animal repellents, as they do not contain any harmful chemicals as such. These items can repel deer by their repulsive smell and taste.

Making animal repellents is quite easy and has worked for many gardeners. The main ingredients are eggs and warm water, though many other substances can be added to these basic ingredients to make several types of repellents. First, strain the white portion of the egg and then blend the egg properly with about 1/4th of a gallon of warm water. Then pour it into a spray bottle and apply on the leaves of your garden plants. You can also add pepper to this mixture.

Many people have achieved good results in keeping deer away from their garden by applying a mixture of milk, water, egg, cloves, garlic and cayenne. First of all, you have to take equal parts of milk and water and then blend the eggs properly. Once all these ingredients have blended completely, add cayenne and crushed cloves and garlic to it and mix them completely. Leave the mixture for few hours and then spray it on your garden. To make the mixture more hot or spicy to taste, you can add pepper and hot sauce as well.

Another effective repellent can be made by using dishwashing soap. For this, blend an egg in about 1/2 cup of milk and add cooking oil and dishwashing soap. You can also use dishwashing detergent in place of soap. Then add almost 1 gallon of water to this. If you have hot chili oil, then add about 1 teaspoon of it to enhance its efficacy. Now, you can spray this mixture on your garden plants once or twice a week. Regular application of deer repellents is very important. Though they do not get completely washed away by rain, the intensity of smell or taste may fade to an extent. So, it is better to reapply them after a heavy rain to compensate for such a loss.

As mentioned already, the efficacy of different methods for deer repellents can vary significantly from one region to another. In some regions, where population of deer is not very large, a simple homemade repellent like a mixture of egg and water can be effective, while in other places you may need to add more ingredients like pepper, garlic, hot sauce, liquid dishwashing soap, etc.

You may also need the help of deer fences to protect your garden. Usually, a 7-foot tall garden fence is sufficient, though in some regions fences up to 10 feet can be required. Double fencing can be more effective than single fencing due to the fact that deer cannot jump high and broad simultaneously. Thus, placing a second fence about 4 to 5 feet inside the first one can be helpful in preventing the entry of deer. To sum up, you will need a proper combination of various methods to control the invasion of deer rather than relying on a single method.