Deer Disease and Destruction: Top 5 Reasons to Keep Deer Out of Your Yard

Published: April 21, 2011

1. Deer carry diseases

Lyme disease: Transmitted via a tick bite, Lyme disease can cause headaches, fever, fatigue, joint pain, and rashes in humans and other animals—including the family pet. If not treated properly, Lyme disease can cause memory loss and damage the nervous system.

Brucellosis: This bacterial infection can cause flu-like symptoms, including fever and headaches. Brucellosis can affect the central nervous systems and heart linings.

2. Deer attract predators

When deer are concentrated into small areas, they become an easy meal for their natural predators. Coyotes and bobcats carry disease, such as rabies, and won’t hesitate to snatch the family pet or urban chickens you’ve been raising for fresh eggs.

Once these predators determine the dining is good, they’ll come back for more. Now, not only do you have a deer problem, you have a coyote and bobcat problem, too.

3. Deer damage landscape

Deer damage hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of landscaping yearly and make your yard a minefield of scat. They eat 6 to 10 pounds of food daily, tearing leaves from plants and bark from trees, leaving 2-inch long gouges, and weakening plants. Deer love tender new growth, but they’ll nibble on every branch within their reach, from the ground to 6  ft. up.

When bucks are in an amorous mood and marking territory, they rub their antlers on young trees, scarring, weakening, and sometimes killing them.

4. Deer are aggressive

Competition for food can be fierce, causing larger deer to muscle away the younger, frailer herd members. Also, aggressive deer have head-butted, gored, and trampled people who got in their way.

5. Deer cause collisions

Nationally, drivers and deer collide 100,000 times a month, killing about 150 people a year. While most victims do not seek treatment after a deer-vehicle collision, a Utah study showed individual medical costs ranging from $437 for minor injuries to more than $20,000 for inpatient treatment.

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This is one of the most rediculous articles I've ever read. I live in the country and we have a high population of deer. The gardeners do try to keep them out, but they don't typically cause anywhere near the landscape damage that this article says. Bucks mark trees in the wooded areas, not your yard. I have always lived in areas high in deer population and have NEVER heard of anyone beeing attacked. They are pray animals and unless PROVOKED they run. Don't mess with the deer scents unless you're a hunter and know what you're doing, don't mess with thier babies and you're fine. As for attracting predators, if you live in an area where there are deer, you live in the right kind of area for the predators and has little to do with deer. If they aren't eating deer, they are going after rabbits and so forth. Tics are another thing mentioned here. I have gotten deer tics on me and my children many places I know deer have never been. Tics are just a way of life in the country. Get chickens, they eat tics, you get eggs. The only point I feel is valid in this article is the chances of hitting one. They can do substantial damage to a vehicle and injury. But on that stance, your chances of getting in an auto vs auto wreck are far greater than your chances of hitting a deer.
Posted by Justme on May 17, 2012