banster Loc: PA, Ontario, N.C.,Key West

Deer do not carry Lyme disease. They can carry ticks which can cause
Lyme disease if one of them bites you.

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

Insurance companies are data freaks! Mine list me as being 2-1. I hit two deer and one hit me. They still question how the driver's door was smashed by a deer. Simple: the deer stood and waited until my car was next to it and sprang and ran into my door. Its head hit the A-pillar and ripped off the mirror. Had to hurt.

Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

You have a point. After I returned to the house from installing that feeder, I felt something crawling on my arm. It was a deer tick. I smashed it, wrapped it in masking tape and tossed it in the garbage.

Blair Shaw Jr Loc: Dunnellon,Florida

I have found that if you plant Buck Wheat & also Purple Clover in patches, they will flock to those spots as they love those items in heir diet. They don't really associate with domesticated feeding devices readily . You could have simply tossed the corn on the ground and they would scrape it up with their hoofs to eat it like they do with acorns.
Using an inexpensive trail camera will help you to track their feeding & moving schedules so that you know where they are at night or day but this takes a lot of trial & error to establish the Herd's behavior. I like to track the after a fresh snow fall before I place the trial cameras then I know their intended paths and direction of travel. It takes some work to become familiar with Deer behavior but they are fairly consistent like cattle once you discover their habits. Good Luck and don't give up.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

They're pretty hard to smash. I usually put it on a firm surface and use my pocketknife to cut it in half. Then it gets flushed.
My pocketknife is always with me. I don't usually carry masking tape.

User ID

With endless opportunities for raccoon portraits:-)

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Deer are attracted by the ivy my Mother planted to keep the hillside in place {I legally inherited part and am purchasing from the estate the rest of the house} even if I didn't want to attract them, but at sunset they also eat what is left of the feed I put out for the squirrels and play pinata with the bird feeder.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

The only raccoons I've seen are after sunset - then munching on what the birds have dropped.

[the photo below was taken by light coming only from our house, requiring ISO of 819200}.

Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

I smashed it very flat with the edge of my pocket knife, then I put the masking tape around the flat body.

Effate Loc: El Dorado Hills, Ca.

Hope your bait draws them from my yard. I have them daily and they are very destructive.

Attached file:
(Download)

Attached file:
(Download)

Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

I saw one crazy Raccoon during the day time. This crazy thing decided it was mad at my wife's car. It was standing in the middle of my driveway blocking my wife's car. It refused to move. I pulled out my 10mm side arm and dispatched it. I placed a dollar next to the body for a size reference then photographed it. A hot Underwood 10mm round might be a bit of over kill for such a little creature, put that's what I carry. It stopped him dead.

He wanted a fight and I was afraid that he had rabies.

(Download)

Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

Beautiful photo of that first buck. What the heck did the second one have on his antlers?

John Maher Loc: Northern Virginia

Deer do not carry Lyme disease, but are essential in the blacklegged tick (deer tick) life cycle. The female falls off the deer with about 2.000 disease-free eggs. Seed ticks are larva from any tick. The larva hatch disease-free and pick up Lyme from first host (e.g., white footed mouse). If they do not get it from the mouse, the nymph may get it from next host. Finally, the adult has it and seeks a large host, the deer. The explosion of Lyme disease does correlate with the deer population.

Blacklegged ticks carry five diseases and one tick can carry more than one. This probably complicates diagnosis.

I use permetherin. It doesn't just repel them -- it kills them in about 30 seconds. Read the directions and it will kill cats if they get on it before it dries.

I would recommend "tick sticks" around your house. You can buy commercial or make your own.

You probably have the same ticks we have in Virginia which include lone star, brown dog, and blacklegged. Diseases are tick specific, so save what bites you. Others diseases include Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Babesiosis, tuleremia, anaplasmosis and more. Others are emergiing (e.g., Powassan, Bourbon).

Except for tuleremia, most of what I have indicates it takes 24 hours for tick to infect you. He has to make a well-head (like oil wells) before he transfers.

Deer do have a number of diseases including tuleremia, malaria, bovine tuberculosis, and rabies. Most common disease transfer is common feeding/saliva .

If you have turkeys, get pictures. The aflatoxins in the corn will kill them and you will want pictures for memories.

Bears will get any feeders (including bird feeders) you have out. And they remember when and where they find food.

If you know any bowhunters, they can teach you how to get close to deer -- and other animals.

If it is legal, I am sure you will bait. But please check with your state wildlife agency for the "unintended consequences" of baiting, feeding, supplemental feeding, or whatever you want to call it.

Effate Loc: El Dorado Hills, Ca.

Decorations I don’t put up anymore.

Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

I lived in Manassas VA for a long time prior to moving to PA. I hiked the AT and a lot of other places. Prince William Forest Park was near my home. There are a lot of ticks in that little Park! We do not have as many ticks up here in PA.

I'll look into "permetherin", thanks. I carry a little plastic screw like tool to remove ticks that were embedded in the skin.