How to Keep Deer and Rabbits Out of Your Gardens

I am a hairdresser, and I can’t tell you how many people have come in and asked for hair. That’s right HAIR. I’ve heard several explanations why it works.

—Sonja Finck, Elizabeth City

Well, I grew up on an apple farm, and this worked well to keep the deer out of the orchard. Take a piece of bar hand soap (the trial size will do) and tie it to a branch or something about waist high off the ground. The stronger smelling the soap the better!

—Tim Wiltse

I quickly became friends with my husband’s barber and asked him to save hair from haircuts. I strew the hair in my garden, thickly at row ends, and outside rows. It works!

—Flo Sproles, Cherryville

When we lived in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, we had the same problems with deer and rabbits. The solution for us was: Human hair from your local beauty shop around the perimeter and blood meal that you can get from your garden center, spread in between the rows.

—Pamela Stemen, Charlotte

We use an electric fence and a small charger. We keep it low to the ground. It’s been there several years, and it’s worked on deer, rabbits, coons, possums, anything.

—Owlie Seawell, Moore County

Surround your garden with chicken manure. It works on deer, rabbits, chickens, coons and people.

—Ryan Jordan, Lenoir

I put four or five mothballs in an onion sack, hang it from a tree about as high as a deer. You can spread them around the garden, too.

—Robert Hardy, Thurmond

Take pieces of garden hose and surround the area with them. I’ve done this for 20 years, and no rabbit has ever crossed it. They hop around outside it. They must think it’s a snake.

—Mark Heisey, Creston

Put up some posts and run clear fishing line. You can run it at various heights, depending what you’re trying to keep out.

—Kate O’Brien, Carolina Lake

My father uses white cord at his place in Piney Creek. He actually uses strips of sheets. Deer were eating from my flower box. Moth balls, human hair – they didn’t work. Dad says, “Why don’t you try what I’ve been telling you?” So I ran some brick line and tied strips of plastic bags every two or three feet, so people don’t run into it. The deer won’t cross it. My dad has used his torn sheets for 40 years.

—Nathan Thomason, Salisbury

I drove stawbs in the ground around my vegetable garden, tied twine between the stawbs and hung white plastic bags from the twine. The deer stopped eating my peas and went on down the road. -Margaret Daughtry, Beulaville

You know those motion lights? They kick on when you walk under them? I hooked up a radio that goes on when deer get near it. The sound must keep them away. Put it on whatever station YOU want to hear. Deer won’t like it.

—Scott Holden, Yadkinville

Take a bar of soap, drive a stick into the ground, and put the soap on it. Ivory works good.

—Wiley Roper, Scranton

One of my golfing friends, Al Engmann, recently moved into Cypress Landing. During one of our golf outings, we discussed the problem with deer eating shrubs. Al told me about a black mesh product that you place over your shrubs. I found the product in the garden center at Lowes and placed it over my azaleas. It is almost invisible in bright sunlight. After using it, I had no further problem with deer. I think it is called “deer guard” and comes various sizes and rolls.

—Roger Dawson, Moores Beach

This is the Web site Jenny Lloyd and I found for Deer Off: www.deer-off.com. It has a dealer location finder and a toll free phone number: 1-800-DEER-OFF for a local dealer.

—Renee Gannon, Carolina Country

We have found that putting moth balls around and in the garden to help with the deer and rabbits eating our plants. We put them in the rows, between the plants and the smell keeps them out of the garden. When it rains we have to put more out because the rain dissolves them.

—Kim and Glenn Ruff, Polk County

Living in the foothills of Burke County, along Irish Creek and near Table Rock Mountain, we have our share of God’s little critters in our yard - and in the garden. Over the years, my wife Patricia has waged a relentless battle against the deer and  rabbits who discover our garden. This talented woman has tried almost every non-violent method mentioned. To date she has refused to try two suggestions: pouring human urine around the garden and spraying the plants with a concoction of milk and raw eggs.

Patricia has collected human hair and religiously sprinkled it at each corner and on other occasions substituted rags soaked in perfume or aftershave. She has planted marigolds nearby, tied aluminum pans on poles, created a scarecrow, and even sprinkled chicken manure here and there. Strips of scented plastic trash bags did not work. This year, nearby trees are festooned with yellow cloth streamers flapping in the breeze. These did not work either. Patricia’s only success has been in saving the strawberry plants by completely covering the entire patch in wedding veil material.

Perhaps the old farmer’s adage remains true: you plant 1/3 of the crop for disease, 1/3 for the critters, and 1/3 for your family. But don’t tell my wife this—she still thinks that she can save it all.

—Larry Clark, Morganton

1) Rabbit and deer repellent: Blend well two to three eggs. Pour into it a gallon of water. Spray plants. Holds for about two weeks unless rain washes it off. Re-spray as often as needed. Works well in Carolina and California. I’ve done it in both places.

2) Deer and rabbit fence: Available commercially. It is a 6-foot wire that has small mesh at bottom and larger mesh at top. Drive in 10-foot “T” posts with a post pounder. Attach “deer and rabbit” wire, plus two strands of barbless wire at top to make it 8 feet high. This does the trick well. Eight-foot gates are easy to construct using elbows, Ts, pipe and wire. We just fenced in five acres.

—W. Boone Mora, Camarillo, CA (formerly of Jackson, N.C.)

My home is on a small farm in Washington, NC. We do not let people hunt, and we have no outside dogs. I planted a garden this year. I ran string all around it, and tied groceries bags on it. The noise they made when the wind blew kept the deer away. Their feet prints came up to the string and stopped. I plan to make streamers to put up this year so it will look better. It did not stop the rabbits.

—Patricia Boyd Plymouth

I lived on the edge of a wooded area of over 100 acres with streams and wet weather runs. We had a deer family that traveled through our yard, both front and back. There are no open fields for 500 yards north and south, or one mile west and east. One year I reseeded our back yard with white clover, including 5 to 10 feet around my garden. After this, our vegetables were not bothered. The clover was always “mowed” by our four-legged friends.

—Charles Garrette, Ashland, Va., Halifax EMC member