I tried Plantskydd as a last resort this evening. The deer have been ravaging my flower gardens despite the Deer-Off, Bobbex, Deerout, yada, yada, yada.

This stuff (made from bovine or pig blood) comes highly recommended and is supposedly 100% safe, but the smell is revolting. Manure smells good compared to this stuff. The label does not warn you at all that it may make you hideously nauseated.

The sprayer was drippy and didn't work well, and by the time I was done I (and my garden) looked like I had sacrificed a lamb.

Does anyone have experience with this stuff? Does the odor go away? Does the bloody look go away? Yikes!

Since you already look like you've sacrificed a lamb, maybe if you go ahead and really do sacrifice a lamb the gods will favor you and keep the deer out of your garden.

I've never had to use any anti-deer compounds, but I would think rain (in Colorado?) or watering would wash the stuff away. I bet it wasn't cheap! If you're game to keep trying, I have a pretty extensive deer resistant list I could post here.

Good luck --- and I think luck might just be the most effective remedy for hungry deer,
Skybird

So far this morning, the odor and color has lessened a little, and it appears nothing was touched last night. In a couple of days we will know if the "sacrifice" was worth it, ha!

I finally put up a deer fence around my place. Now, all I need is to come up with a raccoon deterrent; they seem to prefer my lawn as a depository of, well, you know, and every morning I awake to find many a fly covered pile. There is nothing they are eating in the yard, although they will munch the craw-dads in the pond.

The Plantskydd works! The deer have not even had a tiny nibble since I used this stuff a month ago. Hilariously, I looked out my window very early one morning about 2 weeks ago and saw five deer standing in my yard. My heart sunk, but when I rushed out there, they hadn't touched a single plant. (They did munch the ryegrass that had not been sprayed, but what the heck, deer have to eat, too.)

The smell went away in 2 days, and the "bloody" look in 3 days. Plus, my plants LOVED it. My guess it is the blood meal. I will use this stuff again, with rubber gloves and a scented bandana over my face.

I am saving David's deer repellent recipe, too, for later use, because rotating repellents seems to work best.

The plastic milk jugs I planted in my shade gardens also worked wonderfully, but I am going to replace them with real pottery Ollas for aesthetic reasons. High Country gardens is FINALLY selling pottery ollas this year and I am excited to get some.

Thanks all and happy gardening.
Pam T
wishccr

I've never tried planting milk jugs before. How many jugs will an average plastic milk jug plant yield in a normal year?

I misspoke, I should have said "burying mik jugs" instead of planting them. I put a couple of tiny pinholes in them and buried them near plants that need more water because I was unable to find any ollas.

Pam T
wishccr

I've got bunnies . . . just learned that squirrels will sometimes eat birds . . . what is likely to happen with the Thumper and Bambi? Can they be corrupted?

DigitS'

A week later, after we'd stop sneezing and the house was, relatively, aired out, I mixed up some with water for spraying, wearing a dust mask. For the whole summer, every time I opened the sprayer, I'd start to sneeze.

Right now the deer have so much to eat I will probably use the more tolerable Deer Off so I can work in my gardens, but when it gets drier and my garden starts looking to the deer like an oasis, I'll pull out the big guns and use Plantskkyd.

As playsindirt notes, it is messy, but it truly works, but you have to be desperate. Wear rubber gloves, old clothes, and a bandana or something over your face.

Added bonus, your plants will love the bone meal. After the red stain goes away in a week, your plants will glow with good health.

I had the same problem when I first got plantskydd, but I just bought a different spray bottle and that solved all my problems. I did get a good spray bottle, 4.00 i think, instead of the cheap 99 cent ones. It drips a tiny bit now and then, but I solved most of that by opening the bottle when i am done and squeezing some of the air out of the bottle. it reduces the pressure buildup in the bottle that causes most of the dripping.

About the smell, I guess being raised in hog country (western iowa) it just smelled like a farm or hog operation to me! lol

glo

For some reason, I was reading about a fawn rescue. The neighbor brought venison for the fawn to eat. This made for an immediate improvement in the fawn's health. How 'bout that??!

This sort of thing isn't completely unheard of (in my little pea brain ;o). The Cape Buffalo is a bovine that is known to eat meat on occasion.

Just why is it that the white-tail deer is the most dangerous animal for humans in the North American forest? What are all those attacks really about?

Steve's digitS'

I just saw the gaping hole in the fence where the deer have been jumping in and out. It is soooooo muddy there, the fence is going to stay that way for a while.

I'd wonder, though, if it might not attract other critters like raccoons or rats or something.