BETHEL PARK, Pa. — It’s that time of the year: the flowers are blooming, the birds are chirping and the deer are hungry.
Many people will turn to expensive commercial deer repellents to keep away unwanted critters from ruining the garden. But homemade remedies are easy to make, often much cheaper and contain natural ingredients not toxic to human health.
My dad created his homemade deer repellent roughly 10 years ago, fed up with pricey and harmful commercial deer repellents that didn’t perform as promised. Now, his recipe is something the rest of my gardener relatives live by when it comes to saving the precious flowers and crops they worked so hard for.
Why make it?
Common deer repellents can range anywhere $30 to $100. They often include ingredients like putrescent egg solids, garlic, thiram and capsaicin.
Putrescent egg solids are made from cracked eggs deemed unfit for human consumption. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifies this ingredient as a minimum risk pesticide, meaning it provides minimum environmental hazards while repelling deer with an off-putting taste.
Thiram, on the other hand, is a crystallized solid chemical compound used as a fungicide. It is considered moderately toxic by the EPA, meaning it can cause mild skin and eye irritation. Studies have also found that it affects the nervous system in laboratory animals and various tissue systems in animals like poultry. Thiram is found in common deer and rabbit repellants such as Bonide Deer and Rabbit Repellant, Nott’s Chew-Guard and DeerPro Ag.
Capsaicin is another common ingredient; it is a chemical compound found in chili peppers, which induces a burning sensation that deer dislike. Similar to commercial products, my dad’s recipe capitalizes on these characteristics, but instead, uses all-natural, non-toxic ingredients.
For example, he uses cayenne pepper, which contains capsaicin, and eggs, which, when dry, act as cement on flowers and crops. He also uses cost-effective ingredients like blood meal, a fertilizer made from dried animal blood that contains nitrogen, which can be found for as little as $8.
Blood meal can be bought at Home Depot, Tractor Supply Company, Lowe’s, Ace Hardware and most garden centers. In total, the price to make the repellent would be close to $20 — $8 for blood meal, $5 for eggs, $4 for cayenne spice and $3 for soap.
This mixture ultimately drives away garden-hungry animals like deer, rabbits and groundhogs. My dad applies the deer repellent, as needed, on anything animals may want to eat, from tulips, hostas and lilies to pepper plants, and even crops on days when he finds the groundhogs lurking around in his garden… again!
How to make deer repellent (Partsch recipe)
Recipe:
3 eggs
1 cup of blood meal
1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper
A squirt of regular dish soap
About 2-3 cups of water
Supplies:
Bucket
Paintbrush
Step 1: Add the ingredients and mix to create a slurry.
Step 2: Using a paintbrush, apply to flowers or crops by flicking the brush to evenly coat.
Notes: Watch out for rain. The repellent is most effective when it has time to dry. The repellent should be applied as needed and soon after it is made. It can not be stored for later use.
(Liz Partsch can be reached at epartsch@farmanddairy.com or 330-337-3419.)
