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The Guardian – a Four-Month Case Study
Using The Guardian™ With Deer
Summer 2015 – Courtesy of Biologist Todd Hobein
Local biologist, Todd Hobein, is a science teacher in the city of Ashland, Oregon. He performed a thorough testing of The Guardian over several months and recorded his findings in detail. This is an excellent testimonial to the importance of proper placement and installation.
I began planting my garden like I do every year at this time. This year, however, I had four-legged visitors I did not plan on. My neighbor had decided some weeks ago to build a fence around his backyard. As a result, the deer no longer were able to use his yard as their runway and decided to try mine instead. In the early part of June I saw my first deer. After a brief look around my garden I immediately noticed that something had clipped the tops off of my Anaheim peppers. No other damage was observed at that time. I decided then to look into pest deterrent options to protect my garden and purchased the Guardian.
June 15th
- Observed large doe eating tops of peppers.
- Upon further inspection, the peppers were too far away from the motion sensor.
- Moved Guardian from where deer were entering my yard to a location that covered the entire garden area.
June 16th
- Watched another deer walk through backyard straight for garden.
- Deer was clearly irritated by the sound of The Guardian by cocking its head and ears to deflect sound.
July 1st
- No deer were observed in my garden since moving the unit.
- Neighbor observed several deer wandering around the field outside of my garden but did not enter my property.
July 5th
- Noticed some of the branches on my tomato plants had been eaten that were outside the range of the unit's sensor.
I observed no new activity or disturbances in my garden, however I did notice that many of my neighbors have gone to great lengths both in labor and expense in deterring deer from their gardens by building fences to protect their plants – when all I needed was The Guardian.
July 15th
- Noticed that the peppers had been eaten down again.
- Upon closer inspection I realized that the tomato plants had grown so much in height that they are now blocking the sensor of the unit for that part of the garden.
- Raised the unit to point over the tomato plants.
August and September
- Upon my return from vacation I found many new piles of deer scat both in the garden as well as outside of it.
- Amazingly none of the plants had even been touched!
Conclusion
There were a few times when the deer did get the better of the unit, however, on each occasion this was due to factors that had nothing to do with the engineering of the unit. External factors like plant growth or plants outside the range of the sensor were the main causes of these trials and required simple adjustments for The Guardian to achieve its full potential.
The protection provided by The Guardian was more than sufficient and allowed me to have one of my best harvests yet from my garden.
