3 types of homemade deer repellent

If you need to protect your land or just wish to keep the deer at bay, these three homemade repellants should do the trick.

• Deer flash the white undersides of their tails as a warning signal when predators or other dangers are near.
• Frighten deer away from your garden by duplicating this reaction with flags you can make from recycled materials.

• 60 or 90 cm (2 or 3 foot) stakes
• Several white plastic grocery bags or rags (such as strips torn from old white T-shirts)

1. Hammer stakes that are nose-high to a deer into the ground around your garden at two metre (six foot) intervals.

2. Tie grocery bags to the stakes so that wind will billow them out, or tie strips of white fabric long enough to flutter in the wind.

• Deer dislike the smell of deodorant soap.
• Scraps collected and tied into an old sock make a long-lasting, environmentally safe protection for prized shrubs, flowers and vegetables.
• Fresh bars of soap make an even stronger deterrent.
• One bar can protect an area measuring 0.8 square metres (nine square feet), so space bars as needed to protect vulnerable plants.

• Several bars or scraps of deodorant bath soap (not floral scented)
• Long nail, or drill with 3 mm (1/8 in) bit, or old socks
• String

1. Remove soap from wrapper, make a hole in one end of a bar with the nail or the drill and run a piece of string through the hole. If using soap scraps, drop them into the toe of an old sock and tie the open end shut with string.

2. Tie soap (or soap-filled sock) to the branch of a shrub or tree with string or attach to a stake in the garden bed. Replace when soap is diminished by rain.

• Deer have sensitive noses and are repelled by animal odours, especially that of spoiled eggs.
• Whip up this stinky brew and deer will soon be feeding elsewhere.

• 1 egg
• 250 ml (1 c) water
• 50 ml (1/4 c) garlic juice
• 15 ml (1 tbsp) liquid dish detergent
• Scrap of panty hose
• Rubber band

1. In a blender, mix egg, water and garlic juice. Stir in detergent to avoid foaming. Pour solution into an open container and set in an out-of-nose-range spot outdoors to age for three days.

2. Cover the siphon of a spray bottle with a scrap of panty hose held on with a rubber band to prevent clogging. Fill spray bottle with Stink 'Um and spray vulnerable plants. Repeat application after it rains.