If it's Not One Thing, it's Another

The other morning I awakened and looked out my bedroom window to look eye-to-eye with this deer, hungrily eyeing the plants on my berm. I really wish I'd had a pellet gun instead of a camera!

Then today I turned the hose on low to soak the herb garden near the house. All of a sudden, the healthy parsley plant was almost gone! We have been having intense heat, but this garden had been getting periodic waterings, so I didn't see how the parsley could have dried up so quickly. And then I spotted the little critter in the second picture! I like monarch butterflies, but I thought they only feasted on milkweed. And, as I looked closer, I saw (no surprise) this little critter had several siblings happily munching away. I guess I'll be buying my parsley at the market for the rest of the summer. If it's not one thing, it's another!

The Deer Saga

Update: the deer "potion" appears still to be working.

BUT

Over the weekend we enteratined a group of neighbors and I learned (much to my surprise) that several of our nieghbors are feeding the deer. Arrgh! I am trying to keep the deer at bay and my neighbors are feeding them!

My only hope now is that the deer will be much more attracted to my neighbors' corn than to my flowers, smelling of eggs, milk, and dried blood!

Update on the Deer

Two days into my deer-eradication program. So far, it is working!

Deer!

We have all read for years that the deer population in the United States is burgeoning. Now I am a believer.

We had deer in Connecticut, to be sure, but a bigger threat in the Northwest Hills were the bears. The occasional deer wandered into our yard, almost as if it were lost. We did see some deer damage from grazing a couple of times—especially some hostas—but it was not the kind of problem to worry about. We saw far more turkeys in our yard than we ever saw deer.

Now, as I say, I am a believer: deer are a terrible pest in Central Texas. The reason is clear—their natural predators (coyotes and the like) have been killed off, so deer have proliferated. Because of the drought in Central Texas, the deer population is unduly stressed, and they are looking for food all the time. As a result, they eat almost everything that grows. There are some exceptions. They do not eat yews, yaupon holly, or oleanders. No one eats oleanders—the bush that never has insect damage of any kind. Every part of the oleander is poisonous, and somehow the deer seem to know that. But they also know that everything else is like a midnight buffet for their enjoyment.

The chronic problem with the deer (usually observed in packs of 8-12) became an acute issue for us after a recent landscaping project. We noticed nibbling on plants that are supposed to be deer-proof! (All local nurserymen are saying that when deer are distressed—as they are with this drought—they are apt to eat anything—even the supposedly “safe” plants, so they offer no guarantees.)

I have gone to the trusty internet to research home-made deer repellents. This afternoon I mixed up my first batch in hopes that this concoction will do the trick. Here is the recipe:
Beat together 1 egg with ½ cup milk. Add 1 T of cooking oil and 1 T of dish soap. Add to 1 gallon of water and mix well. I added 2 additional ingredients—minced garlic and dried blood. I have long used powdered dried blood as a natural repellent. Herbivores (rabbits, squirrels, deer) hate the smell of it, so I figured it would work in this potion as well.

Tomorrow I will check closely to see if the midnight nibbling has come to a halt.