Got Deer???

[TheMad_Poet]

Oddly enuff they don't bother my stuff that much. They nibble off corn tops, but they grow back. Don't bother my tomatoes ever. I live next to a large farm with cattle
and they put up electric fencing they were so bad. I think the hay and cattle feed they put out, plus their gardens fill them up enuffbefor they get to me. My daughter lives in the middle of a small sub a few miles away, and they eat entire large tomato branches!!! My biggest problem are raccoons and possums, that love tomatoes and sweet corn. And the new kid on the block are the sandhill cranes. 2 years ago they pulled up every corn seedling I had and ate the seed off the root end. Wiped out all my corn. And pulled up some of my onion sets- thought it was more corn I guess. They are a much bigger nuisance for me. The state of Michigan has disallowed the use of bait for hunting now, so the herd is on the rise in se MI. I have a blind out back, and love venison, which is so heart healthy, but they are too smart to come out until after dark once bow season starts. Couple yrs ago, in early Aug, I counted 10 bucks go across the back of my yard, single file, led by the largest, in pecking order of size. Pic is out side my Kitchen window under a crab apple tree. You can see my other neighbors patio, and curtains on my kitchen window. That was Aug 27, 2020. Last week I saw tracks in snow under the same tree.

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[worth1]

@TheMad_Poet
Speaking of those crab apples I used to live in Missouri and they had the things everywhere.
Even the hedges at school were crab apples
And I loved the whole pickled spiced crab apples.
The town I lived near to had a state fruit experiment station on the way home.
Mountain Grove.
I think I'll go buy a cheap bag of small apples and do them up right.
Been years since I've seen any.

[karstopography]

Both my kids have one, so do I. Got mine long time ago.

[Setec Astronomy]

We now have a plan with the DNR that there will be an annual cull until we get the herd down to their recommended number of 33 deer per square mile. As of now we have 180 per square mile.

OMG that's insane, 180??? Is that in your residential neighborhood? I was just looking up our area, and in the nature preserve this is some miles away that they are trying to restore the understory by culling the deer, we have recently had about 60/square mile, and their goal was to get down to 10, but they have never gotten it below 20. I just saw 2 in my yard this morning. They haven't posted the results from this year's hunt which just ended a week or two ago.

[worth1]

There are more than 290 head of deer per 1000 acres in Mason and Llano Counties in Texas.
In the 30's there were supposedly only 300,000 deer nation wide.
They were almost wiped out.

[MissS]

@Setec Astronomy The deer here are really really bad. You can't walk out into your yard without gingerly stepping around the deer doo. I clean up more after the deer than I do my dog. They are bottle-necked in this area. We have a lake on one side two highways and a city on the other. They just keep breeding here and are never culled. It is not all residential there is a 20-30 acre parcel owned by GE that is undeveloped that runs along the highway and our subdivision backs up to it. We have a golf course that buffers the other highway and the rest is all residential. There is no hunting allowed in this area because it is a residential neighborhood and GE will not allow the DNR on the property.

[MissS]

My thoughts are, if you kill off the predators, then you have to take over their jobs.

[Uncle_Feist]

Eye for an eye.

[TheMad_Poet]

There are more than 290 head of deer per 1000 acres in Mason and Llano Counties in Texas.
In the 30's there were supposedly only 300,000 deer nation wide.
They were almost wiped out.

I lived in Killeen Texas in 1970, while I was stationed at Ft Hood. We had a swimming hole on a river about 50 miles south of there, nice spot to swim and hang out. Couple times I went hiking around in that area. Nothing to walk a half mile back in and see a 150 deer in an hours time. Many of the farms or ranches in Texas lease their property to hunters. And most hunters like to see lots of deer. But over crowded deer herds lead to sickly animals, because the highest quality food sources are eaten extinction in those areas. Proven fact, around here we saw some serious die offs in recent years on large chunks of land that allowed no hunting. Very sad to find starved deer laying every where. So much healthy meat gone to waste thru ignorance and Disney mentality.

[JRinPA]

[pepperhead212]

That sounds like something they made up for Saturday Night Live!

[MissS]

That's a great idea! On top of that, I think I will put up a sign with the same deer image with a diagonal line through it saying 'No Deer'. That should keep them out of my yard. BRILLIANT!!! I should have thought of this sooner.

[JRinPA]

I heard this joke when I was kid but had never heard a radio rendition. For me it was one of my aunts, at a family reunion. "Just move the signs, it wouldn't be hard and much safer for everyone." In comparison to all of of my cousins, I am far on the young end, so most of them had heard it long before. But I think I knew she was kidding by too many other people trying and failing to keep a straight face. Tough to say, I might have been 6 or as old as 10.

"Donna" played it pretty straight until right up near the end, can hear some giggle coming through.

[Kurt]

Family in PA have decent nite time lighting,my brother-in-law law places cd discs on fishing line.The sun during the day thwarts the squirrels birds etc.At nite the motion lights do the same.I use them in our mango,lychees.Keep the cds away on short line because in high wind they turn into mini choppers.