Dealing with deer in Oregon

 

7/22/21 CHATTERBOX 

by Betty Kaiser

DEALING WITH DEER  🦌🦌🦌

After many years of flower bed and vegetable garden destruction by deer, you would think that my husband and I would be used to it. We are not. However,  this year we softened a little when a mama deer  brought her two tiny twin fawns to the property. So there were now 3 adorable, flower eating,part-time residents.

 

I was a city girl when we moved here and I thought that the deer would only be interested in eating meadow grass. Wrong!  We quickly became aware that anything that we planted was fair game.  Summer after summer, night after night,  plants were wiped out completely.

 

In 2001, I even posted some chomping rules in the newspaper. I know that deer can’t read but it made me feel better. It went like this:

 

“Now, Dancer and Prancer, we are reasonable landlords. We are willing to share five of our six-acre meadow with you. The catch being that we maintain complete control over the one-acre that includes all of our flower and vegetable beds. The roses and all other edibles are mine! Got it?

 

If, my ‘deer’ friends, you don’t agree, it’s time for you to move on. You need to dance and prance off to the nearby parks where the campers will appreciate you. Blackberry season is right around the corner so you won’t go hungry. And don’t forget to visit our neighbors. Some of them are very generous and probably still serving USDA approved deer food.

 

Despite our persistence, nothing worked to deter their destructive rounds. Not blood meal, deodorant soap, hair clippings, bright lights, clanging bells or barking dogs worked. They would even walk up our deck to devour hanging plants. Each flower bed massacre really ticked us off!

 

Our dogs barking in the middle of night were of no help. The electric fence didn’t always work, automatic lights made eating easier and they seemed to like the sprinkler system. “Deer Away” was our best bet but putting it out nightly was a nuisance.

 

So, I proposed a truce. “We do have other offerings, you know. How about this: I’ll smell the roses while you munch the meadow. Deal or no deal? It’s your choice. (Signed) Your rosy landlords.” There was no answer.

 

This year, when the young Mama Deer with tiny spotted twins, started visiting us, they didn’t eat the roses! Instead, they would have breakfast next door and then jump the fence to our “deer forest.” Mom would leave her babies here while she went looking for food and then return to pick them up and all would disappear for the night.

 

It was a fine arrangement. Normally, healthy fawns are left alone during the day by their mothers while she forages for food. Mom will stay away from them during daylight hours  to avoid leading predators to her young. She  will return and always gather her babies together unless she senses some kind of danger.

 

Last week, however, for several days in a row, one baby deer disappeared. And there were only 2 of them. We were terrified. After all, there are cougars and bears up the hill! Finally, last Sunday, the three of them surprised us in the middle of the day by tearing through the property and jumped the fence to safety elsewhere.

 

What a relief! They are all together again. It was a safe, mom leadership arrangement and they didn’t eat the roses!  They must know how to read after all! Now I may now have to eat my words and let them have a few flowers to nibble on. I'm such a sucker for babies!

•  Contact betty at bchatty@bettykaiser.com