Living where “the deer and the antelope roam” may be fine in theory, but I’d prefer that the roaming happen somewhere besides my small back yard. Alas, this winter and spring, muley doe and two fawns appear back there with some regularity — two or three times a week.
It’s not as though we live near some wildlands interface — our house is darn near in the middle of town, only three blocks from the library and post office.
While some people might enjoy the close-up view from their kitchen window, I am not among them. I don’t want deer in my yard. They’ve been known to attack people, and where there are deer, there are mountain lions. In other words, a routine chore like taking out the trash or fetching firewood shouldn’t be an adventure. And I dread what the deer might do to our vegetation, and their droppings are no blessing, either.
Our yard is surrounded by a four-feet fence. That’s about as high as local zoning allows, and the deer jump it easily, so that’s no solution.
We have a dog who should be good at scaring them away, but he’s scared of deer. My guess is that he got stomped once during his puppy days before we knew him. At any rate, I let him out one day and looked out the window a few minutes later. The doe stood brazenly in the middle of the yard. I found the dog huddled against a fence, as far away as he could get.
I’ve read of solutions like spraying the yard with an infusion of chili peppers or rotten eggs, or even coyote urine, but 1) I don’t know if they’re just folklore or they actually work, and 2) How am I supposed to enjoy my patio on warm days if the yard smells like rotten eggs or coyote piss?
I note that my next-door neighbor is a bow-hunter, which would be a quiet solution that would also supply his household with venison. But my hints to him got the response that he’s a law-abiding citizen.
So, does anybody have any experiece with a practical solution that will keep Bambi (actually, we call her “Jane,” as in “Jane Doe”) out of my yard?
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