We saw a most horrifying sight yesterday. Three deer, two bucks and a doe, were at the eastern edge of our property, about to enter our yard. Illijana saw them from the upstairs window, alerted me, and I went charging out the back door to scare them off. They ran into the woods. Illijana followed, and noticed that they were not very afraid of humans. We heard reports of them eating plants in two of our neighbors yards today. So what to do? We do not want deer in our yard. They are amazingly destructive of plants we grow. Since we don't have a dog large enough to defend our yard, we have to use other measures. What seemed to work several years ago is a device called a "Scarecrow." It is a motion sensor connected to a water sprayer. When it sees movement in its field of vision it lets out a startling spray of water. The sound and the water combine to startle animals away. This has the advantage of discouraging the animals from being around where we don't want them. Here is what it looks like (click to enlarge).
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| Scarecrow |
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When spraying
The other spraying I did today was with my hand held 1 1/2 gallon sprayer filled with Safer's Soap. This is a product of specially formulated fatty acids that dry out the target insect and kill it. It is seemingly a bit more environmentally friendly than chemical pesticides. I was spraying it today to control aphids on my apple and pear trees. The aphids had taken up residence on a number of trees. I tried to control them by hand, rubbing my gloved fingers over the leaves, but they were multiplying faster than I could control them, so I sprayed today. It will be interesting to see how effective this is. (Usually this works in just one treatment.) |
Illijana picked raspberries today. YUM. We had them with sugar-free jello for dessert tonight.
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