After seeing my latest article regarding the Mentor deer dilemma — at http://bit.ly/zIbpJN — a thoughtful Mentor resident emailed the following solution:

“… I’ve made my own deer spray for the last several years and I’ve saved a ton of money. … This stuff works and keeps the deer away from my wife’s perennial gardens. It has one draw back: It stinks and you must spray downwind. I make about 6 gallons during the year and I just use a quart hand sprayer to apply. The recipe is 1 cup milk, 2 whole eggs, 2 Tbl. of cooking oil in 2 gallons of water. Stir the mixture well and let sit for about 3 days in a closed container, then open and stir again.

“Before pouring into any type of sprayer, you first need to pour some of this mixture through a strainer (italics mine) into a smaller container, to prevent clogging of your sprayer. I use a paint mixing tool in my 18V drill to mix. The rain doesn’t effect the application, but one should keep an eye out for the deer in one’s yard; this will give you an indication that another application is needed. I live in the northeast corner of the city. Almost on a daily basis, I see two bucks and four doe pass behind my house. Hope this can help someone.”

For those of you following the issue, another work session on deer management is scheduled for 5:30 p.m., Tuesday in City Council chambers (third floor of city hall).

For another reader’s take on the meeting/deer issue, visit: http://bit.ly/A7bc5y

-- Betsy Scott, BScott@News-Herald.com, @ReporterBetsy