Completely agree. That has always been the case. There are lots of other diseases that deer suffer from. EHD is one we have locally. that also makes deer behave abnormally. It has never been advisable to eat venison from deer that are not exhibiting normal behavior. Generally most diseases don’t jump the species barrier but deer (or any animals) that are sick, become more susceptible to parasites and other things. Caution is always prudent.
Also, keep in mind we don’t know what we don’t know. Just because we have no documented cases of CWD exposure resulting in CJD in humans, that doesn’t mean it never will. We don’t have a complete understanding of spongiform diseases in the scientific community. You are absolutely right, If you look at the epidemiology of CWD and how it is spreading, and consider the consequences of CJD, if CWD ever did jump the species barrier, the result would indeed be scary.
Managers in highly affected portions of the country have done some drastic herd reduction. There is quite a bit of research going on regarding how the disease spreads and what measures may or may not be able to slow it. The epidemiology highly suggests the wide spread of the disease with hotspots occurring throughout the country is a result of transporting captive deer from one location to another.
We are not even close to the point where it is advisable to avoid venison because of CWD or beef because of BSE, but as always symptomatic animals of any kind should be avoided for consumption.
I used the milorganite up north@ our cabin and it worked… unfortunately I didn’t reapply it in fall; so the deer were back in Sept./Oct. and ate much of my bush cherry foliage and some plum leaves; too. Chalk it up to sometimers disease I guess! I HAD a little solar-powered motion-activated ultrasonic noise repeller that worked well; until the neighbor boys stole it. I plan to buy another one from Collections; Ect. this spring. 30 foot radius model is $ 20; and the 50 ft radius is $ 30.
I am tellin y’all, try a few bags ties low in your trees or on posts near them…i wouldnt bet the farm on any one thing but that free fix has done more for me than anything else, dumb as it seems. Deer like apples, they like plums, they like all sorts of things. But plastic bag “windsocks” is not one of them…
I believe that has worked for you, but can tell you it wouldn’t work here. Thanks to some slobby neighbors and to living in a windy area, I end up with plastic bags in trees. Some of those trees are wild crabs, and the deer continue to eat fruit from/under those trees.
I bought a bag of milorganite and spread it around the outside of our orchard. Im also peeing in a jug and spreading that around the exterior. Only time will tell if this work!
IME…human pee has zero repellent impact on deer or other critters. In fact, I have repeatedly witnessed deer checking out fresh human urine (mine) in the woods with only curiosity. No “spooking” impact whatsoever.
Solar powered electric fence with 4 strands. Can they jump over it? Yes. Do they jump over it? No. I’ve been using this since 2012 and only replaced the battery once.
Rabbits are an entirely different challenge! Apparently rabbits don’t find snoring Basset Hounds intimidating, but she’s since passed and perhaps the crazy spastic Labrador will be more effective. I have been live trapping the rabbits, but will have to move on to something more effective/permanent. Now that the neighbor got rid of his beagles I expect he won’t object to a dwindling rabbit population. They don’t do too much damage, targeted the beans last year.
All risks can be compared statistically. Given all the safety precautions we currently take with automobiles and the very limited set of protections many schools have today, the chances of injury or death from a school shooting is a tiny fraction of the chances a student has driving to school. Some things seem more risky to us be cause they are rare and sensational. Others which are common place are generally underrated.
Does the Irish Spring soap actually work just by itself?
I used the milorganite bags for two years, great results.
HOWEVER, I replaced them this spring and I noticed deer damage this last weekend. Mostly low branches, probably the smaller young deer. They ate some apple tree branches with the blossoms on them. A few trees were small enough that they ate all the blossoms so no apples from those trees this year.
I need something that I do not have to put up fencing since these apple trees are in my front yard area.
Any good suggestions as to what brand of ultrasonic deer repeller. I cannot use the water soakers, my orchard is in my front field too far away from my house.
I am now using the Plotsaver tape discussed in this thread and so far it looks good. (EDIT: well it did look good until about an hour after posting this…)
I don’t think either motion activated sprinklers or ultrasonic repellers are good long term solutions if you have very high deer pressure like I do. I spent a lot of money on motion-activated sprinklers and they only work for half of the summer. Look at the reviews of the ultrasonic devices on Amazon, you will see more unhappy reviews even compared to the sprinkler reviews.
I too used a solar- powered pest repeller… It worked great until the little boys down the st. stole it. Milorganite worked; too. Until we went home from our cabin in N. Mn.;and it broke down/ dissolved w/ time. Plan on getting another solar repellant soon. Milorganite till then.
