Do you have old perfume or cologne bottles sitting around? Soons Orchards in New Hampton wants them.

What You Need To Know

  • Soons Orchard is asking for donations of old perfume or cologne they plan to use to keep deer away

  • Deer steer clear of any unknown scents so Soons Orchards' owners hope the perfume will keep them away from their pumpkins, apples, and other crops

  • When you bring in a bottle of old perfume, they'll thank you with a free apple
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"Daddy calls it ... he's supplying a giant salad bar for the deer," laughed Sharon Soons, the co-owner of Soons Orchard in New Hampton.  

Soons Orchards is home to over 65 acres of apple trees, squash, pumpkin, and other crops, making it the ideal place for deer to find their next meal.

"One of the ways you can deter and repel deer is to put strange scents in your field, and it occurred to me everybody probably has perfume on their dresser they really don't like," said Soons. "So I put a post on Facebook and said, 'Hey, bring that in to us and we can use it for something good.' "

That's where the perfume comes in.

"So what we would do is we would find where the deer are coming in, and so that's a little further down the field, and we would probably use this to soak some piece of fabric cloth, and then hang that up near their travel route," said Soons.  

The perfume is not toxic to the deer. Soons just hopes her plan will work in keeping the deer away so there'll be pumpkins for customers to pick this fall.

"I'm still waiting for some bottles, so please, people, stop waiting to bring in your bottles," said Soons.