Deer can be cute when you’re on a nature walk, but they can be a nuisance and ravage your garden if you live in the country. Here’s a cheap and easy homemade deer repellent recipe that will keep them away without hurting them!
We live in the country and the deer just have a grand time eating my garden. We don’t have the money to fence it all in right now and I sure won’t pay a huge amount for “organic” deer repellent.
There are many different recipes for this but many are just some form of these basic ingredients. Some have hot pepper in them. I don’t recommend using hot pepper for any kind of animal repellent because it can get in their eyes and not knowing any better can rub them and in some cases this will cause them to go blind.
Here is an easy you can use at home that is safe and most of all cheap!
Tawra
This makes 1 gallon of spray. Beat 1 egg in 1 cup of water and sieve to get out white strings or clumps. Add to a gallon jug, mark your bottle – deer repellent, so no one drinks it.
Add:
- 1 Tablespoon of regular dish soap
- 1 Tablespoon of cooking oil
- 1/2 cup milk
Fill jug partially with water, shake to mix, finish filling gallon jug with water.
Refrigerate, it can get smelly. Fill your spray bottle and spray your trees, lilacs, and plants. Don’t spray on anything you want to eat. Spray after every heavy rainfall.
After 3-4 times the deer get the hint and quit coming. In early spring spray in the morning so it doesn’t freeze on the plant.
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I agree with the human hair trick. It seems to work to deter deer. I used clippings from my hair dresser, and just used them to border the edges of my garden. The Irish Spring soap was another matter. For a couple of years it appeared to work as I hung several bars up and down the rows in my garden. Then the last year, the deer came in and ate all the peas off, even around the soap bars as they clipped off the tops of my plants evenly. (I should mention that I hung fresh bars regularly in bits of panty hose). Don’t know if they grew accustomed to the smell, or they just thought the peas were worth holding their noses over.
Hi
I am in the uk. We have urban foxes
We have a family of foxes living under one of the neighbours sheds. They have been seen in the garden playing late in the evening . They disturb our garden at night by digging .. Is there anything we can use as a repellent?
Many thanks
Mg
Some of the same repellants that are used to keep dogs away will work for foxes. Here is a link for some more ideas – Foxes
I need a deer repellant for my garden, but I didn’t know that ammonia was safe to ingest. The deer are eating my parsley and possibly Brussel sprouts. They also have eaten all the leaves off one of my hosta plants.
Susan this recipe doesn’t have ammonia in it.
I’m talking about the recipe with one part ammonia and three water listed up above. It says it’s safe to ingest, but I have my doubts. I’m thinking I may not have good luck with human hair, like the woman above.
The thing is they won’t ingest it, they run from it. The same way if something smells like rotten eggs or poop to us we would not dream of eating it so it won’t harm us. They have in years past even used urine to deter them but I would think ingesting it would hurt them but they don’t ingest is any more than we would. They stay away from it. That is why it is called a repellent.