Scare the king of the forest with soap – NRK Hedmark and Oppland – Local news, TV and radio

The farmer in Hernes, Elverum, had lost $ 250,000 over the course of several years to the moose that his oatmeal was fed. The whole operation was at risk if he could not stop the moose.

"Last year I lost oats for 40,000-50,000 crowns, which I thought I would try for the last time this year, and if that had not been possible, the production of oats and possibly the whole grain production on the farm would have ended. are the beams and the interaction between barley and oats is good for the soil, he says.

It was the Eastlanders who first mentioned the case.

Made soap curtain

"I was wondering what I could do, I thought electricians wanted to find ladies, but not ladies who smell perfume, because it deters the moose," Sørlie says.

He also placed an advertisement in the Farm magazine for advice. And the board was soap. But no soap. It must be Lux soap, because it has a particularly strong smell.

– I could not think about taking a shower with it. After removing the paper on a hundred soaps, I forgot to turn them off. I wake up at night because it's so bad that I had to get them out of the house, he says.

So he did not find it in Norway, so Ole Kristian Sørlie took the trip across the border and emptied the store to different stores. In total he put 800-900 crowns on soap and 1200 crowns on nets and boxes for the "fence".

Solutions were to make a "soap curtain". A bar of soap every 15 meters around the field.

And it worked.

"This year I did not have any moose on the ground, the apples were left alone, I could not go down year after year, despite this dry summer I go to zero, there are very few who do that, says he.

He says he will repeat the success next year.

– Soap is stinking, so it will also be enough for next year. If I do not buy a new one, he says.

– Interesting and exciting

Elgforsker Torstein Storaas at Evenstad University College seems to make the experiment very exciting.

"It sounds good and it may seem that it works, but to be sure, you have to carry out experiments, for example by putting soap in an apple garden and not in another.

Storaas says there is no research on soap and elk, but research shows that deer often stink and find that it is not dangerous. Therefore, the same next year must be repeated to see the effect.

"But it may be that this smells so bad for the moose that it simply does not work," says Storaas.