Last season for the first time, the deer completely ate my pumpkin and cantaloupe plants. This year, I'm installing a fencing system incorporating fishing line between the corner posts. Never tried it before, but I've seen a few people using fishing line with success. Too early right now for melons and pumpkins. Anyone here tried this? If so, any particular methods that worked well? Already bought some 15# line.
Fishing Line Fence
- Thread starter Barebones
- Start date
I have done it. Have not for the last several years but have been seeing more deer after our non winter. I used short electric posts around thhe garden with electric wires at 3 inches and 5 inches to keep out coons. When I wanted to put fish line for deer I used the top of these posts. T posts were in the corners. The fish line was allowed to run along each side. 50 foot and then turned down and weighted so as to be able to rise up when deer ran into it. Good luck! Vern
workinonit
Well-known member
If you did that around here you would see the deer down at the creek fishing with your line in a week or 2. Never tried fishing line but I've done all the cute tricks with electric fence. I now have an 8' knotted wire fence around my garden.
I tried fishing line a little, had no luck. I have done pretty well with a single strand of electric fence about 25 inches from the ground. Height of the wire is critical. If they start to go under it and it hits their back or back of the neck, they jump forward. It has to hit below their head for them to jump back. I have a second strand at about 8 inches for the rabbits, seems to work pretty well too.
Don McCombs
501 Club
We have tried the monofilament fishing line in a location that an electric fence would not have been appropriate. The deer just jump over it or walk through it. In my opinion, the only barrier that will work is an electric fence that is high enough that the deer won’t jump over. That would be 7-8 feet. The woven wire fencing in the photo is not electrified and is for rabbits and groundhogs. The fence shown has been very effective in keeping deer out of the garden.
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The garden is in a remote area without electricity. I had a solar fence charger but gave it away. I'd have to install woven wire to keep out the small varmints but it seems like the key to the fishing line fence would be to make it tall enough. Four long corner posts may be the answer. Fishing line is cheap enough and have a large spool. Trying to do it on the cheap.
Don McCombs
501 Club
My fencer is solar.
I've had very good success with 2 different methods, one is to plant/make a hedgerow fence out of Sunflowers. I'll plant 8-10 rows within a 3' width of the gray stripe Sunflowers, and mix in some of the black oiler type to fill in low. The theory being Deer will not jump over anything they cannot see the other side of. It has worked here for 5-6 years around the sweet corn patch. I just had to make a bit of a maze entrance to get the garden tractor in to cultivate until it was too tall to cultivate. They also draw a lot of bee's in to pollinate the garden plants. Makes for a very nice border when in bloom. The Goldfinch birds flock in when the seeds are ripe. Mowing down the stalks can be a problem if you don't have a loader tractor with a bucket as wide as the tractor to push them over, or you can just back over them. Not just 2-3 rows, it needs to be I would say a minimum of 6+ rows. I will say 10 rows works great.
Second, is spraying with peppermint extract. I added 2 TBS. per gallon of water, just adding it to spraying Kaolin Clay for bug pests on my small patch of pumpkins last year. The peppermint extract works great to keep the Deer from eating the tops off of Beets & beans too, or just about anything
deer desire. This year I'm going to add Cinnamon extract to the mix to change things up a bit. I know how a strong cinnamon scent affects my sinuses, as sensitive as a Deer's smeller is, hoping it will do even better than the peppermint, will probably do a mix of both.
I get my extracts through Olive Nation: https://www.olivenation.com/?gad_so...ZMwR1AJj6F-vQOyafSusLjbHAiaID7PYaAt2_EALw_wcB It's the least expensive place I could find it. I buy it by the quart, and a quart of the peppermint will last me about 1-1/2 years on my 1/4 acre garden. I normally spray every 7-10 days, or after a good rain.
If you normally spray with pesticide, it's not that big of a deal to add the extract, if you don't, then it's another job that has to be done. I had a 3-strand electric fence up for 5-6 years and just got tired or repairing it, and weed eating under it. I don't care to spray Round-up that close to the garden, and have gotten burn from drift. Took it down 2 years ago, and now just mostly spray the extracts, but will do the Sunflower hedge fence this year around a small patch of sweet corn.
Second, is spraying with peppermint extract. I added 2 TBS. per gallon of water, just adding it to spraying Kaolin Clay for bug pests on my small patch of pumpkins last year. The peppermint extract works great to keep the Deer from eating the tops off of Beets & beans too, or just about anything
deer desire. This year I'm going to add Cinnamon extract to the mix to change things up a bit. I know how a strong cinnamon scent affects my sinuses, as sensitive as a Deer's smeller is, hoping it will do even better than the peppermint, will probably do a mix of both.
I get my extracts through Olive Nation: https://www.olivenation.com/?gad_so...ZMwR1AJj6F-vQOyafSusLjbHAiaID7PYaAt2_EALw_wcB It's the least expensive place I could find it. I buy it by the quart, and a quart of the peppermint will last me about 1-1/2 years on my 1/4 acre garden. I normally spray every 7-10 days, or after a good rain.
If you normally spray with pesticide, it's not that big of a deal to add the extract, if you don't, then it's another job that has to be done. I had a 3-strand electric fence up for 5-6 years and just got tired or repairing it, and weed eating under it. I don't care to spray Round-up that close to the garden, and have gotten burn from drift. Took it down 2 years ago, and now just mostly spray the extracts, but will do the Sunflower hedge fence this year around a small patch of sweet corn.
I'm pretty sure the deer around here would have eaten everything in the garden long before a sunflower hedge got tall enough to have any effect.
It's been 10 years since I made the hedgerow around the sweetcorn patch, I planted them the same day I did the sweetcorn. They were at this stage, when corn started forming ears. Deer have been progressively getting worse passing through here since then. Never used to bother anything except the sweet corn, now they get into the tomatoes, beets, peas and beans. Put up a 3 strand electric fence 5' high, worked for a while, then they jumped it. That's when I went with spraying the peppermint which works well if I keep it sprayed every 10 days or so depending on the weather. Hoping the cinnamon spray will be even more discouraging to them. 
Nuttin gonna be cheep about keeping varmints out of gardens! Woven wire here around 4.5 acres. coyotes dig under, rabbits go thru, coons go over, deer go around and so far dont bother the garden.
The coyotes only get in the sweetcorn when its ready,---draws them like a magnet so this year not gonna plant much IF any. still have a lot that we freeze dried and some in the freezer so no need to plant any for a while. Neighbor across the river has some I can get fresh if we want a few ears to eat fresh.
Years ago I had hot wires around this window garden here by the house and 2 lines low for small varmints did the trick. I used electric rope that was here when we moved here so no cost other than time putting it up. I used short pieces of 5/8" rod for posts at the time cause that was all I had.
For the most part it did keep stuff out cept coons when corn was about ready. One night a couple got tangled up in the rope and tore one whole side down.
NOTHING will keep coons or deer out if they want in bad enough!
The coyotes only get in the sweetcorn when its ready,---draws them like a magnet so this year not gonna plant much IF any. still have a lot that we freeze dried and some in the freezer so no need to plant any for a while. Neighbor across the river has some I can get fresh if we want a few ears to eat fresh.
Years ago I had hot wires around this window garden here by the house and 2 lines low for small varmints did the trick. I used electric rope that was here when we moved here so no cost other than time putting it up. I used short pieces of 5/8" rod for posts at the time cause that was all I had.
For the most part it did keep stuff out cept coons when corn was about ready. One night a couple got tangled up in the rope and tore one whole side down.
NOTHING will keep coons or deer out if they want in bad enough!
I'll give the peppermint oil a try along with the fish line fence.
OliveNation offers a 25% off discount on your first ever order. I ordered a quart each of peppermint & cinnamon for this year, supposed to be here tomorrow.
Let us know how it works for you. I tend to spray mine every 7-10 days depending on the rain. It does seem to hold its scent for a day or so after some moderate rain, usually long enough for me to spray again. 2 TBS. per gallon of water seems to be enough here. And on most plants, I'll add 2 TBS. of Castile soap to act as a surfactant to make it stick to leaves, especially cabbage. Many suggest using Dr. Bonners, but store brands are less expensive and works just as well for that purpose.
I bought some cheap sets of measuring spoons at a dollar store to measure with. With the cost of the extract, it sems to help with being more accurate, and not wasteful just pouring it in and guessing. What works here may not work somewhere else, so if you need to add more you can determine a more exact amount for what will work for you.
I have a tendency to spray mine about 1-1/2 hours before dark, by then most of the garden is in the shade, won't harm plants but still long enough it will dry before dark. And plenty of scent on the plants overnight when the Deer have a tendency to come out and browse on plants. I just add it to a sprayer of the organic sprays I use to spray in tandem and save doing the same thing twice over. No waiting for one to dry before doing the other, or possibility of weakening one or the other.
It's pretty easy to use Google search to see what all critters Peppermint will deter, along with others, and why I added cinnamon this year to try. It too will deter Deer, so doing a little change up, maybe every other time I spray.
I've got two areas electrified now. One is three strand around the garden. Knee high, hip high and neck high. I've had it up four years and have never had a problem with them jumping it. It is a smaller plug in charger and 17g aluminum wire. Every few months (usually around the rut) I'll find a broke strand and it takes 5 mins to twist it back together. I'm pretty sure it is when a buck not familiar with the area comes in. I watch the regulars feed right up next to it. Three big pears dropping in the fall right over one side of the fence doesn't help, so pretty high traffic area for them. Must have gotten in the rack on one, cause I had to retrieve one end of the wire from the woods.
I just added a four strand with hotter charger on the other side around blueberries, apples, peaches, pomegranate, etc. They were eating down foliage in the spring and bucks rubbing them until they broke them off in the fall. I told my wife they would go through it the first night since it was new and sure enough they broke two wires. They haven't tried it since.
I'm pretty sure in our area I would find broke fishing line regularly. I just tore down a few hundred feet of old wood fence I wanted to leave, just cause I like old farm stuff. When I first moved here I fixed some broken top boards. I thought some limbs may have fallen on from a couple of nearby water oaks. Later I started noticing them broken and no limbs around. Dang deer were being clumsy jumping over it and the if they hit one of those old boards they would snap at a knot or come loose from the post. My neighbor tried all kinds of stuff and finally got a solar charger. If you get a charger, check the joule rating. I was going to go with solar, but the ones in my budget had a lower rating, so it was worth it to trench with a subsoiler and bury cable.
I just added a four strand with hotter charger on the other side around blueberries, apples, peaches, pomegranate, etc. They were eating down foliage in the spring and bucks rubbing them until they broke them off in the fall. I told my wife they would go through it the first night since it was new and sure enough they broke two wires. They haven't tried it since.
I'm pretty sure in our area I would find broke fishing line regularly. I just tore down a few hundred feet of old wood fence I wanted to leave, just cause I like old farm stuff. When I first moved here I fixed some broken top boards. I thought some limbs may have fallen on from a couple of nearby water oaks. Later I started noticing them broken and no limbs around. Dang deer were being clumsy jumping over it and the if they hit one of those old boards they would snap at a knot or come loose from the post. My neighbor tried all kinds of stuff and finally got a solar charger. If you get a charger, check the joule rating. I was going to go with solar, but the ones in my budget had a lower rating, so it was worth it to trench with a subsoiler and bury cable.
I had a 20 mile 120V charger on mine I'd picked up at a farm sale, guaranteed to work, bought it for $20. That baby is HOT. Apparently they did get bit by it, then finally decided to jump the fence. I saw in another gardening forum where they put a bit of peanut butter on one of the wires so the Deer would lick it and get bit. Didn't see it until after I took the fence down.
I bought a pound of sunflower seeds today from a seed dealer that provided the seeds for the sunflowers we planted at the county park last year, so I'm going to try the sunflower hedgerow again this year. Looks like a week of sunshine for here, so may get those in to get them going. Bought a pound of Phacelia seed to attract pollinators from another seed dealer to see how those work. Almost too late for those as they are a cool weather plant, but she thought they would still grow.
I bought a pound of sunflower seeds today from a seed dealer that provided the seeds for the sunflowers we planted at the county park last year, so I'm going to try the sunflower hedgerow again this year. Looks like a week of sunshine for here, so may get those in to get them going. Bought a pound of Phacelia seed to attract pollinators from another seed dealer to see how those work. Almost too late for those as they are a cool weather plant, but she thought they would still grow.
I won't be planting anything until the end of May because of possible frost in mid-Michigan. Still gives the plants plenty of time to mature before any autumn frost. Very curious about the new techniques and will report on results. Gotta take out some woodchucks that I've noticed in the garden area, as well.
Pretty much the same here, I'm in central Ohio. Frost date is around May 15, but we've had 3 killing frosts the 3rd week of May in the last 10 years. Other than a few Cole crops the ground here really isn't warm enough to plant anyway. I checked last week and ground temp was 56º. It really needs to be 65º to 70º for tomatoes & peppers to take off and grow, otherwise they will just set there with little growth.
If the groundhogs haven't burrowed in under a building, you might try those little round smoke bombs. Not sure if they sell fireworks in Michigan, but before they passed the law here in Ohio for the larger one's they still sold smoke bombs. At that time, they were like $3.99 for a bag of 20-25. I'd get enough loose dirt from the spare dirt pile out back, then head for the holes. Light up 3 smoke bombs, then fill the hole with dirt and stomp it down. Crude, but effective.
If the groundhogs haven't burrowed in under a building, you might try those little round smoke bombs. Not sure if they sell fireworks in Michigan, but before they passed the law here in Ohio for the larger one's they still sold smoke bombs. At that time, they were like $3.99 for a bag of 20-25. I'd get enough loose dirt from the spare dirt pile out back, then head for the holes. Light up 3 smoke bombs, then fill the hole with dirt and stomp it down. Crude, but effective.
No smoke bombs or traps for me. Goin' chuckin' is one of my favorite pastimes and it's passed time to hide and watch with my .17 WSM. I have two dens to watch near the garden but a strategic hideout is planned where I can view both spots. Just need to take time to get it done. Got the fishing line fence installed yesterday and the peppermint oil is on the way.