The Bar Of Soap Hack That Makes Deer Steer Clear Of Your Yard

After you've spent all season cultivating your garden, you're enjoying the benefits of your hard labor. Months of planting, watering, and weeding have paid off, and your yard has become a thing of beauty. You may have some visitors who appreciate your garden just as much as you do, however. Local deer are happy to discover your prize rose bushes, and they'll help themselves to this tasty meal as often as possible. How can you keep your garden safe from deer who visit your yard each night? One solution to this problem can actually be found in your medicine cabinet. A bar of Irish Spring soap can be used to deter deer from your garden easily and effectively so that your roses will still be there in the morning.

A deer has a keen sense of smell that is very powerful. For example, a deer has 250 million scent receptors compared to the 5 million that a human has (via Scottish Wildlife Trust). This acute ability plays an enormous role in the animal's habitat and environment. Deer depend on their sense of smell to detect danger in the woods, such as when a predator is nearby. They also mark their territory with scent to communicate with other deer who can detect their presence. In addition, their sense of smell enables them to find food sources nearby, which is why the pungent aroma of Irish Spring soap can confound them and steer them away from your garden.

Using Irish Spring soap is preferable to other methods of deterrents in many ways. Commercial sprays are sometimes useful, but they can become expensive with the need for reapplication, and their mixtures feature ingredients such as rotten eggs that can be a deterrent to humans as well. Another alternative is to build an 8-foot high fence around your garden that the deer supposedly can't scale. However, this solution may not work with your garden aesthetic, and there's no guarantee that a determined deer won't be motivated to find a way around it. 

Another solution is only to grow flowers and other plants with strong aromas that they don't care for, such as marigolds and lavender. Yet that solution may be too limiting of your choices of what to plant. If you share a love for begonias with the deer in your community, then it's nice to be able to grow the plants that you like and then find a means of protecting them from being eaten.

The advantage of using Irish Spring soap as a deterrent is that it's easy to obtain and less expensive than other types of treatment. It will make your garden smell fresh, and it's simple to keep on hand. Another advantage is that this soap will repel other types of pests as well. Squirrels, rabbits, and skunks are other animals who will avoid the pungent odor of this fragrant soap and stay away from your garden.

There are a variety of ways to use this clean-smelling soap as a means of warding off deer from your garden. Grate the soap into thin shavings and sprinkle them around the perimeter of your yard, or around specific plants. You can also set a bar of soap on a stake and set several of these in key places around the garden. Break one up into chunks and wrap them in small sachets made from netting, or even panty hose, and distribute these around the yard by suspending them from tree branches. You can even rub the soap on the side of a tree to release the scented oils and allow the pungent aroma to fill the air.

Another means of using the soap is to create an invisible but powerful barrier by mixing your own spray. Chop the soap into small chunks and place them in a pot of hot water until they dissolve. The pieces will diffuse the water with the concentrated scent of the soap, and you can pour it into a spray bottle. Spray the scented water liberally around your garden, focusing on the entry points where deer have shown interest before. Using this method will make it easy to reapply every few days, or after periods of heavy rain. Simple, inexpensive, and effective, this remedy is an easy way to preserve the hard work you've invested in your garden and maintain its beauty all season.