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We used to live in the woods and had deer all around us. They did not bother my plants, we and our dogs did not ever get deer ticks. It was probably because we were surrounded by enough unspoiled woods that they had all they needed without encroaching on us humans.
The 'unspoiled woods' does not supply the nourishment that your backyard supplies! Mature forest simply does not have the underbrush and new growth. You plant most of what deer love - nice lawn, garden, and shrubs.
As far as bothering or not bothering; sometimes it only takes time. Deer love to nip everything and what they missed last year; they might find this year.
Then when it comes to the ticks; people can easily overlook the female deer nymph that causes the Lyme disease. It is about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Mice and squirrels are the big culprits for deer ticks (but we already named them 'deer ticks')!
No, I don't. They damage many of our plants, even "resistant" ones. They carry ticks, I've had to get injections for Lyme disease twice since I've been living here. Also, though not real common here yet, I really dislike this wasting disease of deer; prion diseases scare me and I'd just as soon the host be somewhere other than my yard.
I don't mind when they come close to the house. They don't seem to eat the day lilies. However, I don't want them to lose their fear of me, as they are large and potentially dangerous animals. I allow a few people to deer hunt on my land. It's the only hunting I allow. There are too many deer in this area, and they cause a lot of vehicular accidents.
Please do your research. Corn is actually very bad for them!!!
If you’re not fattening them up for slaughter, you’re not doing them any favors by feeding them, especially the corn. It messes up their digestion.
This isn't true. In my part of the country corn makes up the largest part of their diet for several months a year.
The problem is when they're not used to having corn in their diet and suddenly start consuming large amounts of it.
Please do your research. Corn is actually very bad for them!!!
If you’re not fattening them up for slaughter, you’re not doing them any favors by feeding them, especially the corn. It messes up their digestion.
Deer can even eat acorns as standard food. Corn doesn't hurt them one bit. And no, it's not illegal to feed them. In some States it's illegal to hunt over bait but not illegal to feed them.
We have corn on our farm in CO and we can't keep these buggers out of the corn. It's like crack to them. These bucks get big as elk eating it too.
Yeah. A lot of the farmers here who've traditionally grown corn (well, since they took the tobacco buyout) switched to sorghum this year because deer won't really mess with that and their corn was getting destroyed.
As a note, geese won't come into sorghum. I'm trying to convince the farmer who hosts my goose blind to plant soybeans next year.
I can believe that. I have had many close calls on my motorcycle with deer suddenly springing out of the corn fields on my way home from work. You can't see them until they are almost on you. I learned to drive past the fields very, very cautiously until after the corn was harvested.
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Do you like deer coming close to your house?
Deer can even eat acorns as standard food. Corn doesn't hurt them one bit. And no, it's not illegal to feed them. In some States it's illegal to hunt over bait but not illegal to feed them.
