Is there deer a problem where you live?

fuzzybuddy

fuzzybuddy

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Location
The Sticks, Northeast PA.
I was watching the deer munch on my grass this morning. I'm not talking about (1) deer, but a heard of about 8-9. I used to have 6-8 foot blue berry bushes in the woods. They are gone-the deer ate them. When I got up in the morning, the deer would be chewing on them. I've hit 3 deer with my car, and all my neighbors have hit at least one. Yeah, they're cute, but I'm up to my armpits in deer.
Is there deer a problem where you live?
(BTW, PA has the second highest concentration of deer, Wisconsin is first.)
 

Oh yes, we have a deer problem here - but the opposite of yours.
When I moved here in '81, deer and other wildlife plus cattle ranges were all over the place. It wasn't the country, but pretty close. It was beautiful!

Now, just about every piece of land is covered with concrete, holding up trashy apartment complexes and strip centers. The last two deer I saw were dead at the side of the road. The folks that owned the rangeland died off, and their kids quickly sold out to developers.

From what I understand, my situation here is pretty much the norm these days. Sad....
 
Yes..not a great problem but yes. Just yesterday a Stag ran right out in front of me on the drive home.. I was doing about 50 on a narrow country lane and this giant stag leapt out and across the other side into the field... if it had happened 2 seconds later we both might be toast
 

At night the deer walk up the line fence from the Timberline eating various stuff along the way. Its like a nibble palace for them guys.
More Deer hit on highways than hunted is my thoughts. There is a Disease CWD in some of them also & they waste away.
 
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Yes,,we have a about 5 to 7 deer in the back field, every night.
They have to cross a main highway or our secondary road to get to our field.

I've been thinking of planting tomatoes, summer squash , enlarging the asparagus bed .
We have netting to put over the blue berries.

Any garden we plant will have to have fence & netting.

Viewing the Summer forecast doesn't encourage me to make a garden.
 
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There are deer in my back yard... and I'm not even out in the country! šŸ¦Œ I wouldn't call it a problem though... I like it. I've always had a habit of peeking out of the bedroom window during the night because there are solar lights out there... and I always chuckled when I realized "some day, something's going to be looking back in at you!" Well, I was right, and it's usually deer, often close to the window. Saw a red fox a few weeks ago, but at least s/he wasn't looking in the window. As long as it's just deer, I'm good... if there's ever a bear that close to my window, šŸ» I won't be as happy to see it as I am the deer. :giggle:
 
The edge of my property starts in a valley, and comes across the road to my farm and there is a well established deer run on it, as they travel up to my woods lots where there is plenty of spring water and bedding in the winter..

When we had High Tensile Australian electric sheep fencing put in , for the largest pasture we had, people told me the deer would never be able to jump over it- yeah right! They sure can.

I never had problems with deer eating my garden stuff and the farmer who plants dent corn ,rotating with hay, alfalfa and Savanna grass, high up on the flat top of my land, never has problems with them and the livestock feed crops he grows.

But there have been close calls for drivers on this winding old country road with many, due to deer. (A few due to bears on the road and sometimes we have to wait for a local large geese crossing) And the main 2 lane (Rt 415, below me always seems to have a dead deer from time to time, waiting to be disposed of.)

I think the deer are beautiful and many around here are hunters and their families eat venison instead of turkey for Thanksgiving.
 
Up at my cabin, yeah, we have deer. Some of the people who live up there call them mountain rats. The ones who have gardens have to build cages around them. High fences don't cut it because deer can jump pretty high.

Me and my kids had a dog when we lived up there, and because it was a long drive to the big-chain grocery stores I'd buy the 40-pound bags of dogfood, and because the cabin was small, I'd keep it out on the front porch. I had to shoo 1 or 2 deer away from it every morning and evening, when I went out to fill the dog's bowl.

Fortunately, there was plenty of vegetation around for the deer to eat, but apparently they like dogfood, too. I didn't mind them eating a little of it. Seemed like a fair trade for them being my garbage disposers.
 
We have too many deer. A lot are hit along the interstate & left to rot. Our deer eat well in the corn & soy fields & have no problem reproducing.

This year we got a road kill & didn't have to hunt. When I dropped the doe off, the man who checked me in said they were 120 deer higher than last year at the same time. A couple of weeks later my friend told me he couldn't get his deer in because they had to shut down for a week or so to catch up on processing. This processor has two refrigerated semi-trailers that has 5 slide rails sitting side-by-side & 50' long where the deer are put on a gambrel & slid down the track. That's roughly 125 to 150 deer per trailer.
 
We definitely have deer. Easily see 6-7 every day pass through our yard. I try not to think of them as a problem but they do eat some of my flowers I wish theyā€™d leave alone.
Also a problem on the highways.

I was just thinking recently recently about how when friends and family are visiting we used to say ā€˜yā€™all be careful ā€˜when saying our goodbyes. Now the last thing we say is ā€˜ watch out for deer!!ā€™
Currently have a flock of 6 wild turkeys visit our bird feeders a couple of times each day.
 
Yes we have a perpetual problem. Deer not only get into crops, raise the number of car accidents, etc. they also carry diseases to cattle by contamination of grasses. I lost a car to a sudden night time accident just a few years back.

Controlled hunts help but bans and fines on feeding deer faces a problem because enforcement can be spotty. Some people just have no sense.

Grr - autocorrect.
 
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No! We love seeing all of them. All photos taken from camera phone. IMG_2276.jpegIMG_2262.jpegIMG_3760.jpegIMG_9130.jpegIMG_6227.jpeg
We have been here for 3 full years today and often see deer on the highway. Iā€™ve yet to see a dead deer on the road. Drivers are careful not to hit them. They seem to wait for cars to go by. Itā€™s so cute in spring seeing the baby deer. šŸ¦Œ
 
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There are a lot of deer around and, just a little down-valley, there's a small elk herd or two. Cougars & deer hunters trim those populations a bit. We put up 6-foot high wire deer fencing about 15 years ago, replacing the partial fencing we had before. Solved the deer encroachment, but a young, light-weight bear (being a climber) can still be an occasional garden raider now & again.
 
Up at the cabin, mule deer were very present (in season)

deer are back.jpg 5.jpg

They migrate from Crater Lake to Christmas Valley in fall
and migrate back in spring

During migration. hwy 97 is a gauntlet
Best not drive at night
If you have to, best to follow a semi

Day is bad enough
Deer guts and blood about every 100 yds
Common to see eagles and hawks, or coyotes dining at their roadside eateries
Huge hwy signs Caution; Deer Migration In Progress

Learned to watch the west side of the road in fall
East side in spring
Still, some will surprise and jump in front of you from nowhere
It's about a 9 on the seat sucking scale
Yet to hit one, but came too close many times
A Jeep sliding sideways begets a roll over

In town here, the black tail are sacred cows
Everybody feeds 'em
Apparently so do I

deer2.jpg
 
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We live in a deep forest, and there are gobs of deer around. 3 or 4 years ago, an epidemic of Chronic Wasting Disease hit the deer population and hunting has almost ceased, so the population has increased substantially. A few weeks ago, I counted 14 of them nibbling grass in the meadow below our house. They visit our bird bath frquently for a drink of water, and they are so tame that we can step out on the deck to watch them, and they just pause for a few seconds, then go back to drinking.

My wife has a nice flower garden along the side of my workshop, and the deer used to come to eat the buds...so I installed a "motion sensor" sprinkler that gives them a noisy burst of water if they approach it....that does a good job of keeping them away.

Driving around this area requires close attention, especially near Dusk, as its rare to drive more than a few minutes without seeing a deer darting across the road. It's rare to drive more than 10 miles without seeing a deer carcus along the road after being hit by a vehicle.

Yes, they can be a PITA, but given the choice of dodging deer, vs, the crime in the larger cities/towns, I prefer to drive cautiously.
 

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