As the “wilderness” continues to shrink, the highly populated suburbs weirdly become the new “edges” of civilization. Why else would coyotes have become the greatest danger for small dogs and cats? Why else would deer have replaced moles, grubs, and crabgrass as the biggest landscaping challenge all over suburbia?

The only thing worse than having all your flowers nipped off by marauding Bambi’s is the absolutely abhorrent smell of deer repellent. To keep deer from munching down your roses, pansies, zinnia’s or cosmos, you now have to willingly endure a certain degree of . . . what shall we call it? Stink! Stench! Wretchedness!

It goes by the formal name of “deer repellent.” But it a noxious, nasty‑smelling nostrum, made up of something called “blood meal” and some form of “tough‑guy” a…