DeerTech featured in Westchester Times: Outsmarting Hungry Deer
June 13, 2008
Outsmarting Hungry Deer
Homeowners Concerned about Valuable Landscaping Investments
“The average deer density across Westchester is around 25 deer per square mile and may be higher than 50 deer per square mile in non-hunted areas,” said Kevin Clarke Regional Deer Biologist, for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, after considering recent data. This fact is bad news for homeowners in Westchester, unless they take steps to protect their landscaping investment from hungry deer.
“The deer had been destroying my landscaping for years,” said Barbara Abrams, a Westchester homeowner. “It took a better solution to fencing or sprays to keep the deer from eating my plants. My garden now looks beautiful and I can plant flowers. I would have never invested again in landscaping without DeerTech.”
DeerTech provides “Three Circles of Protection”—a unique combination of patented ultrasound, a 12-month proprietary spraying program, and switching things up monthly to keep deer from adapting. Though the company states it is unknown exactly how much Westchester County homeowners spend on deer deterrents each year, it is known that fencing, spraying, and other one-track methods can be limited in their effectiveness.
According to Greg Lake, President of Westchester based DeerTech, this is because deer are far smarter and more athletic than people might think. “Deer eat around eight pounds of vegetation per day,” said Lake. “And hungry deer can easily leap eight to ten foot fences when they know there is food on the other side.”
DeerTech’s comprehensive solution works by assaulting all the deer’s senses simultaneously, creating an environment the deer perceive as dangerous. The company’s patented ultrasonic units emit a frequency that, while nearly inaudible to humans and dogs, sounds like a 747 jet engine to deer. Ultrasonic frequencies are DeerTech’s first circle of protection. They block the deer’s greatest natural defense—hearing. Ultrasound is disconcerting to deer. But, in many cases, the ultrasound is not enough to keep hungry deer from eventually eating if they continuously observe no predators in the area and learn to listen through the sound.
As a second level of protection, the company utilizes sprays developed by a wildlife biologist (often composed of predator scents) in combination with ultrasound to simulate a dangerous environment for deer. Deer smell a predator and can’t identify where the predator might be hiding or hear which direction they may be striking from. It becomes unsafe for them to bury their eyes in plants to eat. Additionally, using sprays on the plants make them taste undesirable to deer, so the whole, now scary process of eating a homeowner’s tasty plants becomes outright unappealing.
However, even these two circles of sound and sprays, while significant barriers, can be penetrated over time if a smart deer learns to adapt. This is why DeerTech switches things up monthly, to keep the deer off-balance. The company sends a field technician to every customer’s property each month to observe and adjust accordingly the system depending on the season, weather changes, and the deer behavior on the property.
For more information, call 800- GOT-DEER (468-3337), or visit www.DeerTechUSA.com.
