The Deer Dilemna

Well, with the season getting closer, we may as well start the discussion about how we are going to keep the deer from reducing a small fortune and months of hard work down to a few chomps and a swallow.

Ive tried all of the possibilities from repellants to squawking toys. Ive shit and pissed on my plants, Ive had my dog piss and shit. Ive pulled the poor bastard bald trying to spread dog hair around. Some methods work better than others, but none are effective enough to provide real protection.

My failures have led me down a differnt path. One that has 2 aspects

1. Deer behavior and the enviroment. Cannabis plants arent a deers prefered food and when there has been plenty of rain and natural foods are plentiful, I consider myself to be in much less danger than if the weather has been dry and green leaves and shoots are in short supply. The less plentiful their natural foods are, them more likeley they are to target my precious babies.
I have been studying deer behavior thoroughly. I may supply a salt block near a few plants to see if it draws the deer off as I understand that deer don't eat within hours of eating salt. That sword may cut both ways as I could attract deer that normally wouldnt come close. Deer behavior is pertinent to this effort in my view.

2. Natural scents. As I pondered this delemna, it occured to me that there were many plants in the enviroment where i live that deer don't eat and that has been the focus of all of my activity. For the first time this summer, I will try my organic approach of making my plants smell like the plants that deer wont eat.

I will shortly be making a spray from plant extract of local varieties that the deer wont eat and spray that on my plants. I'll use a surfacant such as neemoil or a mild soap as a suspension vehicle for the spray. The objective is to fool the deer into believing the cannabis plant is something different than what it is.

The plants I have chosen for the experiment are:

Queens lace. - Poisonous and a form of hemlock, but water soluable. Its everywhere here and not even a goat will eat it.

Crysanthimmums - The bug killler Rotenone is made from these flowers. It degenerates into a nuetrals substance within a few weeks of application

Foxglove. The heart medication "digitalis" is made from foxglove and I know of know critter that will eat the plant. The chemical degenerates quickly when left exposed to the enviroment.

Marigolds. Nothing eats marigold.


I will grind these ingredients and make a spray. Im studying the poisonous substances in these plants to make sure everything will be safe. So far most of the substances degenerate into harmless substances very quickly, althogh the scent should remain. In my case, I only have to fend off the deer for the first couple of months.


We seldom reach our destination in life without help, so Im hoping some of the great Od member can add to the discussions. Im not the only one fighting these 500 pound grasshoppers.

What are others trying?

High Sb

great idea. But maybe we should think about some deers "snack" what is the best food for deers? Maybe when we give them they favourite plant , deers leaves alone our fovourite

Hehe im to stoned to think about it, but deers are serious problem for sure.

In my side ppl pissing at spots to , sometimes we leave some clothes - human smell is good , but doesnt work to long.

an extremely easy method it to use a bear bomb. They are cans of pure black bear urine made to attract bears.

human hair will also work deer dont like the smell of humans also i dont think deer just eat weed usuallt yer plants get eaten off the start when thier is no food

Jurassic park style electric fence.

Buy yourself a Liger , train it and then set it loose to hunt the deers

Nice Liger... Ligers love weed and that one can reach the good buds up top...

My '07 plot was located just off a deer trail which I used to access the plot. Continued scouting of the area revealed it was less than 100yds from a bedding site- deer everywere!

I buried gallon jugs half full of human urine near and around the plants- I had no deer issues. I did have a groundhog try to gnaw through a Highland Mex and a Blueberry stalk but he gave up quickly and the plants didn't suffer much...

Pee is Free- but, a case of light beer speeds production...

Let your poor dog regrow his coat! I like the idea of giving the deer a salt block or planting a brassica plot where they can gather and eat instead of just browsing surrounding vegetation... Hungry deer eat weed. The deer know you grow the good stuff sweet and tasty but don't be tempted to smoke the little hash pellets coming out the back end...

hi all...

I use urine, dog hair and 80%water+20%egg mix + in '08 I bought a german product called Arbin Wildabweiser Profiline and made wire fences for small plants.
Arbin stinks awfull and it's made from natural oils and fats. It's applyed on a cloth or something simillar and put in the bush 0.5m-1m above the ground at like every 2 or 3 meter distance. It says that it produces some microclimate of smell which turns wild away and it should last up to 8weeks. It costs around 30€/l.
I had no deer problems with that all, but it was also a year with enough rain and plentiful natural food for deer. when i only used urine+dog hair i could lost whole plot or even not. from my experience that's not enough to turn hungry deer away.
I can post ingredients of arbin in few days if someone is interested.


all the best..

Im going to be using non shiny black fishing line as a fence with some 5' 1"x1" buried deep enough for support, dont use the clear stuff it shines allottt.. than im gonna hire a couple ninjas to guard my fence, so if anything or anybody messes with my shit they just flip out and kill everything its a bloody mess and the deer dont like it very much, luckily all they want in return is my stalks to make hemp rope, apparently ever since Japan added there crazy laws against cannabis they had no other choice but to come to Canada and bum stalks off of us growers.. oh well whatcha gonna do eh?

moth balls,Soap (change brands often and cut in sliversand realeases with every rain),bloodmeal/driedblood,coyote and fox urine,Dirty laundry.
Once they know there is food there they can be a real bitch to discourage.just changr scents often that spooks em.

moth balls,Soap (change brands often and cut in sliversand realeases with every rain),bloodmeal/driedblood,coyote and fox urine,Dirty laundry.
Once they know there is food there they can be a real bitch to discourage.just changr scents often that spooks em.


500 pound grasshoppers! lol

very interesting idea silverback. carefully mixing up that toxic recipie. im interested to see if this will work

i have to resort to chicken wire fences. NOTHING else seems to work for me. the deer are way over populated in my area

silverback said:

Well, with the season getting closer, we may as well start the discussion about how we are going to keep the deer from reducing a small fortune and months of hard work down to a few chomps and a swallow.

Ive tried all of the possibilities from repellants to squawking toys. Ive shit and pissed on my plants, Ive had my dog piss and shit. Ive pulled the poor bastard bald trying to spread dog hair around. Some methods work better than others, but none are effective enough to provide real protection.

My failures have led me down a differnt path. One that has 2 aspects

1. Deer behavior and the enviroment. Cannabis plants arent a deers prefered food and when there has been plenty of rain and natural foods are plentiful, I consider myself to be in much less danger than if the weather has been dry and green leaves and shoots are in short supply. The less plentiful their natural foods are, them more likeley they are to target my precious babies.
I have been studying deer behavior thoroughly. I may supply a salt block near a few plants to see if it draws the deer off as I understand that deer don't eat within hours of eating salt. That sword may cut both ways as I could attract deer that normally wouldnt come close. Deer behavior is pertinent to this effort in my view.

2. Natural scents. As I pondered this delemna, it occured to me that there were many plants in the enviroment where i live that deer don't eat and that has been the focus of all of my activity. For the first time this summer, I will try my organic approach of making my plants smell like the plants that deer wont eat.

I will shortly be making a spray from plant extract of local varieties that the deer wont eat and spray that on my plants. I'll use a surfacant such as neemoil or a mild soap as a suspension vehicle for the spray. The objective is to fool the deer into believing the cannabis plant is something different than what it is.

The plants I have chosen for the experiment are:

Queens lace. - Poisonous and a form of hemlock, but water soluable. Its everywhere here and not even a goat will eat it.

Crysanthimmums - The bug killler Rotenone is made from these flowers. It degenerates into a nuetrals substance within a few weeks of application

Foxglove. The heart medication "digitalis" is made from foxglove and I know of know critter that will eat the plant. The chemical degenerates quickly when left exposed to the enviroment.

Marigolds. Nothing eats marigold.


I will grind these ingredients and make a spray. Im studying the poisonous substances in these plants to make sure everything will be safe. So far most of the substances degenerate into harmless substances very quickly, althogh the scent should remain. In my case, I only have to fend off the deer for the first couple of months.


We seldom reach our destination in life without help, so Im hoping some of the great Od member can add to the discussions. Im not the only one fighting these 500 pound grasshoppers.

What are others trying?

Click to expand...

I've always used either fox 5.1 or bear spray. Has never failed me, I hit the ground in circles around the bases and leave a bit on a rag. Make sure your wearing a nice mask though or you will get yourself bad with the fox.

junior_grower said:

an extremely easy method it to use a bear bomb. They are cans of pure black bear urine made to attract bears.

Click to expand...

but then dont you have to deal with bears...?

We've been in a drought in my area for the last couple of years and as a result I don't think anything short of a physical barrier will actually stop them. I was planning on using chicken wire fences, monofilament barriers, putrified eggs solution, urine (canine and human), and a rabid pit-bull tied to each tree. And I'm still going to have a good supply of clones around to replenish whatever the deer get.

The real problem in my area is the abundance/overpopulation of deer. To give you an idea, the average deer harvest in my state is about 10 deer per square mile statewide. Under such intensive pressures from the wildlife its difficult to bring in a crop.

SB I am very interested in your mixtures made of local inedibles. I will be looking around my area for similar plants. Good Stuff man.

Is there any way to get a hold of cougar piss? I bet that would work like a charm... Maybe I should call the zoo....

I've tried hair, soap, human urine, and a few other tactics to no avail. Last year all they left me were holes in the ground! They even ate the roots! Of course they were small plants......

I may check into bear spray.

My deer arent affected by human hair. Hell, they're not affected by humans!. I have to run them off at times.

I wish i could come up with a taser trap. A good zap to the ass is just what they need to send them on their way. AND DONT COME BACK!!

predatory urine

predatory urine

I am a hunter and have been for years.I used to use coyote urine for attractants or scent cover.I had some left about 6 years ago and used it because the deer are rampid in my area.The deer never touched my plants again!!I use pieces of shami soaked in urine and put that in a sealed baggie with holes punched in it,and then use camo duct tape to secure it to a tree about 6 inches to a foot off the ground(thats where a coyote would mark its territory)i do about 4 or 5 all around my site.Works like a charm.There are deer tracks all over the place,but absolutely zero in my grow area!Predator urine is the shit.you have to refresh the scent every week or so.you should never have to worry about deer or rabbits or any prey in your area.I buy mine from ebay for about 10 bucks a can,its a spray and 1 can lasts me all year,dont need very much to produce a lot of scent.Put it this way,if you knew there was a grizzly bear in your area killing people,would you go out alone at night?or anytime?no disrespect laslo,but i dissagree with you about the urine not working for you just because a kill was made near your spot.You have to make the deer think that your grow area is living boundaries for coyotes.All predators mark territory to tell other animal"hey,this is my area,stay the fuck out!!!or to a female(or male)come get some action)and much more.Everything an animal does tells a huge story.By marking the scent around your area you are telling every animal there that a coyote has moved in.If there are coyotes in the area that is a good thing because they will come in to investigate which will leave more fresh scent,but they wont mark because they respect the territory of its kin and it already has its territory.

I'm going to be using predator urine (coyote if I can find it) and I am going to plant some habañero peppers in amongst my plants this year.

I'm also going to be putting up some invisible fishing line fences and using hardware cloth to make cages for my babies. The beasties won't be feasting on my plants this year - the fukkers totally ate my garden last fall!

All the best