White-tailed deer abundance
 Deer nipping hostas, Parma, a Cleveland suburb. Superabundant deer readily adapt to mature landscapes, often living their entire lives within a few blocks.
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| White-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus |
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| Eastern redcedar Juniperus virginiana browsed to its core by white-tailed deer
Evergreen sculpture, art of ungulate browsing |
Throughout the Midwest white-tailed deer are over-abundant generally and super-abundant locally wherever they find lots of winter browse and where large protected areas offer refuge from annual hunting pressure. Successional abandoned farms and older neighborhoods adorned with many fruit-bearing ornamental shrubs, succulent garden flowers, and large green lawns attract troublesome deer, some neighborhoods are overrun, residents are frustrated. Girdling browse patterns, evident on the eastern redcedar imaged above, indicate overpopulation. We found these girdled cedars in a large successional area, part of Great Seal State Park, Ross County, Ohio.
A common development pattern in the Midwest produces conditions that increase the number of white-tailed deer and deer problems around growing communities. Resulting damage to landscape plants is troublesome and costly. The high incidence of vehicle-deer collisions is a serious problem resulting in occasional serious injuries to vehicle occupants and high insurance costs for all of us, and carnage–mutilated deer carcasses lie in grotesque heaps along Midwestern roadsides.
The purchase of farming landscape surrounding growing communities by developers changes the landscape of land use and of plants and animals in the area, including white-tailed deer. Real estate ownership patterns and early zoning changes result in large successional areas slated for housing or other development while development proceeds, often slowly, from core development locations. Elevated woodlots and wooded ravines become the desired locations for pricey home development. Abandoned crop fields are slated for cookie-cutter neighborhood developments and mini-malls. All areas develop using abundant ornamental landscapings, the kinds that produce showy flowers and fruits, and attract hungry deer. Often, deer hunting is restricted or prohibited in developing areas. Deer habitat is squeezed as development accelerates.
Deer carry parasites, sometimes leaving infestations on home lawns. Intestinal parasites afflicting humans are found in droppings of a small percentage (2% to 7% in a Southeastern study) of suburban deer. Giardia sp., and Cryptosporidium sp. are mostly spread person to person, but can be spread by deer and other wildlife, beaver particularly. Deer ticks are brought into our landscaping by deer. Deer ticks carry Lyme disease, a potentially dangerous infection spreading southward and westward into the Midwest.
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| Ohio neighborhood white-tailed deer, doe with young |
Deer learn their landscape and form behavior patterns they pass on to their young. They find lawn grass, ornamental plants, fruit trees, and backyard gardens and bird feeding stations easy sources of food. They adapt quickly to fearless foraging around busy streets. Suburban neighborhoods become routine foraging areas for deer. Deer seek refuge in suburbs during hunting season.
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| Young white-tailed deer at sunflower seed tray feeder |
Tips for reducing deer damages around your home habitat:
- Recover and maintain native plant communities around your home in place of densely fruiting exotic ornamentals.
- Use pole feeders and hanging feeders equipped with seed trays to catch seed dropped by birds. Deer prefer to eat ground level seed.
- If you desire to feed deer, feed them away from your residence and landscaping. Place tray feeders near existing deer trails along the back fence rather than positioning them to habituate deer for close approach.
- Deer are neophobic; new flashy and noisy repellent systems will scare them away for a period of time.
- Flashy and noisy repellent systems will work for longer periods of time if they effectively displace local deer away from your landscaping and if a nearby property offers them everything they need.
- Shrubs and trees can be protected by applying copious amounts of foul-smelling and foul-tasting repellents to foliage and twigs. A few products test well when freshly applied. Tender new foliage must be treated as soon as fully developed, throughout the growing season. Following leaf fall, apply fresh repellant to the current year’s twig growth to protect throughout the winter.
- A properly constructed deer fence is completely effective, but expensive and laborious, most appropriate for a small area such as a vegetable garden.
- Large properties can be protected by free roaming dogs restrained by buried-wire electric fences and shock collars. Dogs are trained to avoid the fence with very little discomfort. Surround the property perimeter–deer avoid dogs, usually. Begin the process during spring so deer have formed habits that keep them away from your dog-patrolled property before the autumn rut when, rarely, bucks can become aggressive toward dogs.
