Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
a very short time. Deer are also serious orchard pests in many areas of North
America.
Fruit growers have tried using repellant sprays made from rotten eggs or
pepper, soap bars, bags of human hair, skunk and coyote urine, and many
other repellant materials. The fact is that none of the materials works par-
ticularly well for more than a few days, and none will protect an orchard
from hungry moose or deer. Noisemakers and visual scare devices have fared
no better. Moose and whitetail deer have proven remarkably adaptable and
quickly lose their fear of such things.
Large herbivores are best managed using exclusion fences. Many differ-
ent types of fences are used for protecting orchards, and most work fairly
well. At the high end, a New Zealand-style electrified fence made up of
strands of high-tensile wire spaced about 10 inches apart and 8 to 12 feet
tall works well for moose but is not reliable for deer. Single-strand fences, in
general, are not effective against deer, which push through or under fences
readily, even if the strands are electrified or made of barbed wire.
Some growers have used a double-row fence made up of two short (5 to 6
feet high) fences spaced about 4 feet apart. The theory is that deer are good
at jumping heights but not particularly good at jumping long distances and
hesitate to jump into the narrow space between the two fences. One creat-
ive Pennsylvania orchardist installed a single short fence, then placed short-
legged dogs bred to herd reindeer in the orchard. The dogs could not run fast
enough to catch or hurt the deer, but they were still effective at keeping the
deer out.
The most effective means of excluding large herbivores is to use a fence
that has about a 4-by-4-inch or smaller mesh along the bottom 5 feet, with
wider mesh or single wires spaced 12 inches apart composing the rest of the
fence to a height of at least 8 feet.
