The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

DIY Deer Deterrent

Homemade deer deterrentMark's homemade deer deterrent is based on a cheap drill you can get at Wal-Mart for $10.48.  He used a transformer to switch the drill from battery power to AC electricity, then wired in a potentiometer to allow him to speed up and slow down the drill.

The drill bit has been modified to attach to a wire, chain, and golf ball.  The golf ball swings around, hitting a piece of tin and making a metallic noise.  The combination of man-made noise and motion has been 100% effective in keeping deer out of our garden this summer, and has even kept them away from our perimeter.

Check out our step by step instructions to make your own deer deterrent for $30 (or much less if you scavenge supplies.)  In case you're curious, I did the math on operating costs too --- each deterrent costs a little over $3 to run per year.  Definitely within my skinflint price range.


This post is part of our Homemade Deer Deterrent lunchtime series.  Read all of the entries:





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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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