It is hard to protect growing fruits and vegetables from deer and other animals.
If you live in an area where deer are commonly found. You know how it feels when these beautiful animals destroy the garden and eat all plants. They make beautiful gardens messy and sometimes leave their waste behind.
Tomatoes are their favorite vegetable. They come in the night when humans are sleeping and they eat the entire garden without making noise.
In this post, you’ll learn how you can stop them from eating your tomato plants.
Do deer eat tomatoes?
Deer eat almost all types of foliage plants and your tomato plants are their favorite food. They enjoy eating delicious juicy tomatoes.
They don’t care if tomatoes are full ripen or half.
When deer are hungry, they will eat any foliage they can get. But there are few proven ways by using which you can stop them from entering into your garden.
How to keep deer away from your garden?
Some people find it easy to shoot deer when they see them in their garden. But I believe it is better to find nonviolent ways of keeping deer away from your tomato plants.
Moreover, using a gun and shoot deer is not safe when you live around other people in a residential area.
So, I have discovered 6 effective ways to keep deer away from your tomato plants. No bullets, no guns, no shocks just simple tools and techniques to keep them away from your garden.
Choose one or more below-mentioned methods and save your garden plants from deer and other animals.
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Deer Repellent Spray
Visit your local garden store and ask them for the deer repellent spray. You’ll get ready to use the spray for less than $20.
Or
Check deer repellent products on Amazon.
Most of the sprays contain only organic ingredients. These are safe to use on flower plants and vegetable plants.
Also, spray repellents are safe for wildlife means they are safe for deer and other animals.
When you spray it on the foliage of the plants it will suppress the plant smell and deer cannot notice it. Moreover, it releases the smell that disturbs the senses of deer and they don’t dare to eat your tomatoes and other plants.
The good news is these repellents also prevent rabbits, squills away from your garden. Just spray it once a week on the plant leaves. It will not wash off with rainwater.
The only downside of commercial deer repellent sprays is they are not made for use on Herbs and most of the hard skin plants like berries.
Bobbex is the top manufacture of deer repellents. Their products are 93% effective according to the forest and horticulture department. Their products cause no harm to wild animals as well as plants and humans.
Their repellent spray doesn’t burn human skin, not burn deer eyes, and causes any skin reactions.
Spray repellents Just release the smell that deer don’t like and they will not come close to your plants.
Homemade spray
If you don’t want to spend money on buying commercial sprays you can make your own at home.
Take the hot sauce in a pan and add some water to it to lose its consistency. So that it can be easily sprayed through the spray nozzle.
Now spray this mixture of deer repellent on your tomato plants. Also, spray it on other foliage plants.
The only downside is it washes off with water. You have to spray it after it rains.
Use Soap
You will be surprised to know that deer don’t like the soap smell. They also don’t like the human smell.
Put the soap in the nylon stockings and hang it on your plants or place it near to your tomatoes.
Deer will not come close to it because you may like the smell of your soap. But this fragrance disturbs their nose and they run from the garden right away.
There is no particular brand that you need to use or any particular soap for keeping deer away. you can use any soap that releases the fragrance. The aim is to suppress the smell of tomatoes that attracts the deer.
When they come close, their noses sense an unpleasant smell. This keeps them away from tomato plants.
Install a mesh fence
According to the forest and horticulture department installing a fence is the best way to keep deer away from tomatoes.
Just remember one thing if you are thinking of installing the fence. It should be 8 to 9 feet in height so that the deer cannot jump over it.
Also, it should be buried 3 feet in the ground this prevents the rodents away from your garden.
An electric fence is a good idea because when deer try to jump over the fence it gives them a mild shock.
This shock is so mild that it will not hurt them in any way. But they surely learn not to come close to your tomatoes and other vegetables to avoid this shock.
You only need to activate the shock wire at night time when deer are searching for food.
If you don’t want to spend money on the electric fence then install a regular heavy-duty mesh fence. This will also work fine.
Some smart growers install a fence around each vegetable plant. This is an expensive idea. Installing a fence around your garden costs you less than fencing each vegetable plant separately.
It is best to protect your entire garden from wild animals.
Chick mesh wire will not work at all. So, don’t waste your money on buying it and making round cylinders of it, and installing it around your plants.
Lay down the fence wire
If you have plenty of fence wire you can lay it flat around your garden.
Deer don’t like the feel of wire under their hooves. Same as dogs who don’t like the smooth feeling of the floor times.
Some people drop nails and small pebbles on the edges of their gardens this idea works. But it is not a full-proof idea. Also, sharp nails can hurt wild animals.
Ultrasonic deer repellents
These devices are in fashion. Almost every other house in woodland has 2 or more ultrasonic devices in its garden.
These devices are designed to produce high-frequency waves that only deer and other animals can hear.
This scares them and they run from the place. Some of the devices also produce sounds that are scary for deer along with low frequencies.
They have an inbuilt motion sensor. You need to install it on the border of your garden.
When wild animals come close to your garden in search of food. These sensors get activated and the device starts producing frequency waves.
Deer get scared and don’t dare to come again to that place.
Conclusion
If you are living in an area where deer enter human houses frequently and eat vegetable and flower plants. You know how much it is important to prevent them from entering your garden.
Right now, we have so many methods by using which you can keep the deer away from your tomato plants.
Using sprays, ultrasonic devices, soaps are all effective solutions to stop them from entering your garden.
But the best and 100% successful method is installing a fence around your garden. You need to install it once in your life and your garden becomes safe for your whole life. The heavy-duty fence doesn’t need maintenance. Deer and other animals don’t have such teeth that can cut the metallic fence.
An electric fence is an excellent method to keep all wild animals away from your garden. Whereas installing a fence without a shock system is also 100% effective. It depends on your budget how you want your fence to be installed (with or without shock wire).
