Comments on: DEER: Do deer visit or live in your backyard?

By: Sue

Sue — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 17:15:58 +0000

I live in St. Louis County, MO (Ballwin), not really near any significant woods (large park is probably 7+ miles away). We started having a doe in our back yard on Father’s Day 2012 (6/17)for about 5 hours, and she came back almost every morning and several evenings for about a week, then it seemed to slow. I was told her fawn was the next street over. On Monday of this week (7/9), we had 2 fawns in our back yard – they came back on Wednesday morning (and evening) and this morning (Fri 7/13). Wednesday evening and this morning, the doe also came – got to watch them nurse this morning. Generally, they had left by 8 am, but this morning they left early and were back by 7:30 or so – still there according to a neighbor. I have put water out – and a couple of times an ear of corn out (hesitant to put food out too much to make them dependent). The doe does eat from my bird feeder. They are fascinating to watch and I hope they keep coming, but pray they stay safe – we are not far from a very heavily travelled road/hwy. Should I try to feed them, mostly they are eating growth near back fence – have only eaten my flowers twice (and then we had a “talk”

By: jeff

jeff — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 17:30:00 +0000

I live in Castro Valley, near the lake. I have about 20 to 30 deer walk through my property every day. I have over half acre on a hillside with no fences. They will even come up to me when I stand totally still. We have bucks a plenty and babies every year. Today I looked out my kitchen window to see a deer lying down, which is quite common. But this deer did not move, upon further inspection I noticed that the deer was dead. First dead deer in the 8 years I have been here.

By: michelle

michelle — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:04:38 +0000

1.Yes, We have two does and two fawns that visit our back yard (in Orinda) morning and evening, and sometimes in between. Our back yard is unfenced and along with other neighboring backyards, creates a sort of corridor where the deer roam.
2. Mostly wander about, looking for food. We have a tree that sheds quite a bit and they are great at cleaning up the downed leaves. Sometimes we see them sleeping under our redwood trees.
3. Downed leaves, some weeds, some of my plants – mostly roses, salvia, mallow, and rose of Sharon, I try to keep deer resistant plants in the area they can access, but the Liquid Fence seems to work fairly well for the few fruit trees they’ve decided to snack on.
4. Love them. Once in a while a few days will go by without a visit and I start to worry about them.
5. We worry that they are getting enough to eat, but do not want to feed them. We’ve thought about putting some source of fresh water out for them, and would like to know what you think about that.

By: Debby Hicks

Debby Hicks — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 03:23:42 +0000

We moved to this house in Grand Rapids, Mi in December of 09, so we did not start seeing all of the critters until the springtime. We live right on the precipice of a hill with a creek directly below us and we have a plethora of wildlife from ducks, groundhogs, deer (with their lil’ bambi’s)racoons, geese, chipmunks and the occasional woodpecker. We planted a huge garden and to thwart their efforts at inhaling our foliage, we feed them everyday in a large trough filled with corn, sunflower seeds, peanuts, carrots, oats and sometimes we add some blackstrap molasses for a real treat. It must be working because we have not nary a deer make a dinner of our treasured garden. The trough sits just 20 feet or so away from our kitchen window and it is such a treat to watch the baby ducks, deer and groundhogs come so close. This is nature and wildlike at its best!

Deb Hicks

By: Ikie Karageorge

Ikie Karageorge — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:50:58 +0000

Hi,Garry i live in Roanoke Virginia and i have seen a few deer come in to my nabiors,andf my yard.I love hunting and fishing(please dont take this affencive to people that hate hunting)but i will not try to shoot them because i have taken a hunters safty class,and i will get my license next year.But i have just seen them eat only grass.A lot of deer come in the winter and i see them walking(running)in the woods beacuse the trees have no leavs on them.But i only live about 400 yards away from the woods. THANK YOU, IKIE KARAGEORGE

By: Cherie Abramowitz

Cherie Abramowitz — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 03:18:38 +0000

Hello Gary,
I would love to tell you about the deer in our backyard.
We have several deer visit every few hours all day long.
Our house was built along side a deer path. When I discovered this,we started putting corn in a small well to show them that we were friendly and it worked. Mother deer bring their babies up from the path to nibble on the tree branches while they eat the corn; its so beautiful watching them play on the back lawn they are quite comical. We have deer of all sizes now. We have been here in Port Deposit MD for 4 yrs and just recently bucks started coming up also.
Of course we have a million pictures of them the most we have ever had at one time was eight.
We also have a few fox, 2 raccoons, a large groundhog,
cottontails and the most beautiful assortment of woodpeckers. I saw in my All Animals july/aug issue that I could post my property as urban wildlife sanctuary and was wondering how to go about this. My goal since becoming a home owner was to do everything I could to encourage them to live on and around my property. Wildlife makes me feel healthy and I know they are safe here.
Thanks for allowing me to share ~ Cher

By: Mike Gordon

Mike Gordon — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:06:40 +0000

The deer have been coming through my yard for 40 years or more. I’ve lived here 30 years. I have seen doe give birth, buried several from what demise I couldn’t tell, they were too far gone. I saw a vulture up under the trees one day as I was sitting at my computer, eating something, a dead deer. I have cut sections of my fence out so they can get through after seeing a small fawn try to follow it’s mother over a 6′ section of my fence, mom made it easy,an uphill jump from a standing start, the fawn got caught with it’s leg through the wire. Luckily it freed itself. I have found they don’t eat fern, I have lots! Mike Gordon

By: marc stahl

marc stahl — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:09:30 +0000

Hi Gary,
for the past 2-3 weeks i have had a baby fawn practically living in my yard.i say it was born about a month ago, and as others have stated the mother deer leaves it for hour during the day, and then comes back for it in the evening to nurse it. within the last couple of days another fawn began showing up in my yard.the fawns do not do too much damage to our plants in the backyard, but when the mother deer returns it usually eats our plants. when will these deer leave my yard for good? we live in Oakridge, NJ which is northern NJ if you were wondering, and there are plenty of animals to deal with up here. my other question was, will I have this problem every spring and summer with does leaving their fawns in my backyard? if it continues i will have to get my backyard completely fenced in. please help!

By: Kaaren Smith

Kaaren Smith — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:27:54 +0000

We live in lower Emerald Hills, Redwood City across from a wooded area on busy Jefferson Avenue. We installed gates which we only closed at night. Now we have deer entering our well planted front yard all day long, even when I am in the garage, right nearby. Have seen 2 fawns enjoying our roses and 2 doe that are the ones that keep returning relentlessly. They have devoured all our apple buds, so no apples this year. They have nibbled many of our rose bushes, tomato buds and zucchini leaves. Have even gotten to backyard veggies, by leaping over the gate, mostly eating tomato buds. We don’t want them eating our many plants, yet I feel sorry for them if they are that hungry, or maybe they just like our gourmet spread. It is the only one in the area. I wish I had the funds to buy deer food and place it across the street in the safe wooded area so they do not risk being hit by cars. I worry each day one will get hit. So, we have taken to closing the gates all day to deter them.

By: Barbara

Barbara — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:39:44 +0000

“And if Barbara runs low on gophers she can have some of mine.” Thank you, Jeannine, but Barbara has adequate stock and supply.

This is a strange year. I’m being raided by mutant gophers who have acquiesced into believing that gopher alarms are a merge of Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld with Dvořák’s Symphony No. Nine in E Minor.

Resorting to a gopher smoke bomb was futile. (Two things that I did discover: 1. NEVER light the wick on the side of the patio opposite from where the gopher holes are located; 2. Read the instructions first.)

I am ignoring the fact that my back yard was newly sodded last year. I now spend a couple of mornings weekly shoveling back in the dirt.