Bar soap to keep deer away~

I live in Upstate NY and of course the deer are always a problem to my flowering plants. I've heard about putting soap bars around the plants to deter the deer. Will the soap that washes into the ground effect the plants? Its so disapointing when waiting for a particular bloom to find it gone the next morning! Thanks for any help or advice.

I have not tried it so I am no expert, butI understand it is the smell that keeps them away. I believe Irish Spring is the soap of preference. Hopefully someone will correct me if I am wrong, but if you put it in such a way that it does not get wet, you should have no problems with it going into the soil and it would still be as effective. You can use your imagination, but I'm thinking something with a plastic milk jug or such with drain holes in the bottom for any water or condensation to escape and additional vent holes for the smell to come out.

As with most things deer repellent, I'd expect this to lose some of its effect after a few weeks. They are very adaptable.

Short answer: Nope, no damage, perfectly fine, even long-term

Longer answer: Plants are not particularly sensitive to soap products gotten into the soil, I mean after all we spray them with soaps for insect control and *that* washes into the soil. Anyhow you do not want to put bar soaps for deer control on the *ground*, cut the bars into halves or quarters and put atop stakes or hang from low tree branches (make little sachets for them out of old onion bags; you *can* just drill thru the soap and use a nail but it won't last as long).

My parents have used large amounts of Irish Spring and Cashmere soap (the 2 they found worked best for them) all around their garden for probably 20 years now, year-round, with no sign of any problems to the plants. Mind, how well it repels deer depends on how hungry the deer are... but it is effective enough, enough of the time, that I think it is definitely worth doing.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

Thanks folks, I'm going out to soap up the gardens!

I've actually done it both ways successfully. We hang it in the fruit trees in panty hose. It lasted about 2 years, then we started getting problems again, sniffed the soap, realized it was completely scentless and put new soap in.

My beans were getting chomped this year, so I walked down the bean row shaving off chunks next to the beans as I walked. No more chomped beans. row

Let me share another deer repellent.
It is "scarecrow sprinkler" the humane way to keep deer away.
When the ScareCrow detects an animal heat and movement, senses the same security lights detect people in a 1,000 square foot area day and night, it instantly releases a short but startling burst of water. The sudden spray of water and the movement and noise of the sprinkler scares animals away. Animals associate this negative experience with the area and avoid your yard in the future.

You can visit http://scarecrowsprinkler.blogspot.com/ for video show how it work furthermore reviews, installations and scarecrow sprinkler lowest price.

bestromann said:

Let me share another deer repellent.
It is "scarecrow sprinkler" the humane way to keep deer away.
When the ScareCrow detects an animal heat and movement, senses the same security lights detect people in a 1,000 square foot area day and night, it instantly releases a short but startling burst of water. The sudden spray of water and the movement and noise of the sprinkler scares animals away. Animals associate this negative experience with the area and avoid your yard in the future.

You can visit http://scarecrowsprinkler.blogspot.com/ for video show how it work furthermore reviews, installations and scarecrow sprinkler lowest price.

Click to expand...

From their website:
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I know I HATE when the deer get into my marijuana!