DEER FENCE INSTALLATION: FINISHING TOUCHES 1 FINISHING TOUCHES, GATES, AND MAINTENANCE A Mild Deer Repellent: Warning the Deer Away
For your deer fence to be effective, as noted earlier, it needs to be practically invisible to deer. But you don’t want deer to bump into it unexpectedly and then to explore this nearly invisible object, because that makes them more likely to become familiar with it and become comfortable probing its defenses. Instead you would like the fence to act in advance as a deer repellent. To get a mild deer repellent effect, it’s a good idea to warn the deer off with a danger signal that acts as a deer repellent and gives them the fence’s approximate (but not precise) location. Do this by putting strips of white surveyor’s tape (item 18-03) on the fence. Place each strip about waist high (definitely not over 4 feet high) and tie one end to the fence with a knot, arranging things so that the other end hangs downward for about a foot on the outside of the fence, which will allow it to blow freely in the wind. One of these deer repellent “flags” should be placed roughly in the middle of each fence section (between each pair of posts), though two per section can be used if the deer pressure is intense. What this does is create a highly visible sign (a visual deer repellent) that mimics the white-tailed deer’s raised white tail–this is a natural danger signal for this species that says, in essence, “get away”. These flags will show roughly where the “invisible” fence runs, but so long as the markers are placed no higher than 4 feet above the ground, they will reveal nothing about the fence’s height. Far from being incidental or optional add-ons, these markers are an important part of any deer fence–especially in the first few months after the fence is installed. |
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