Years ago, I asked a CHP officer about the thing on his front bumper. He said it was a high frequency whistle that had cut down on the number of deer the CHP hit each year.

Saw them advertised on Tbay last week, and bought a couple for my son & his wife, who are commuting at least weekly in the Sierras. They have seen deer, bear and skunks on the roads in just the first month there.

Does anybody else have experience with these things?

Hi Ralph..

I have used them for years. I do not know if they work but what I see when I see deer, is that they stand there rather than run. I have not hit deer with them on but then I have only hit 2 in 30 years living here anyway. I would say use them. They are cheap and they do seem to work. By the way, the deer I hit were hit with cars without these devices. No near misses since I put them on. I have them on my Porsche, but I am not sure they work at 180 MPH!

I do not have them on the Ts. I figure if I hit one with a T, I will be going slow enough to just break his neck and then I can have dinner! Cut it up and put it in the exhaust cooker.. Done by the time I get home!

Ralph I have had them on 2 different cars back in the 90s. The last car I had them on, one of them was broken off from hitting a deer. I'll just say they didn't seem to work for me.

Ricks;
They had them in the '70's. Where have you been. I thought you knew everything.

My 270 whistles if I am not shooting a boat tail round, but I have never noticed the deer hearing it.

John,

I would guess the reason you hit the deer with the whistles on is that you mounted them on backwards and they "attracted" the deer! (lol)

I think they are just hokus pokus and you should set them on your desk next to your pet rock

Dennis, They were on a couple used cars I'd bought. They probably would have worked just as well either way. I think they should be stored in the same drawer as the sonic pest control devices, Power energy bracelets and fuel saving magnets for your gas line.

Snake oil!

I suppose you should check studies that have been done. I haven't.

JUNK!
I put them on my car and I honestly believe they drew the deer into the road.Took them off,had less trouble.
I hit 1 with my 66 f100.No whistles,but it doubled my bumper.
I dont know that anything will skeer a rutting buck out of the road.
I will never fergit the day I was driveing E-1 a pumper from the firedepartment down a local road.Big cab over truck,red,loud as heck,and chromed out.I see a buck in the middle of the road,I slow down,then have to stop.I stopped and the buck took 1 step up to the front of the truck and sniffed of the siren.
and stood there.I opened the window and hollared,he snorted,I layed down on the siren,nothing,then finally I lunged the truck at him and he thought I was fighting him.He finally snorted off into the woods.Thinking he had skeered a big ole fire truck I guess.Probably told all the young does how he did it.

We kept track in our body shop and 75% of the "deer damaged" cars we fixed had them on. Well atleast one was usually still clinging to the front end somewhere. It always made me chuckle when you would fix the deer damage and people would still want another set put back on. We also took a few of them apart and they were so full of "bug guts" there is no way they could have worked.

No hokus pokus, but on the manual non-electric kind you need to keep them clean & clear. I drove nites for 15 1/2 years, many miles over the same route night after night. The only time I would see a deer is when I was very late or running at a different time. In those 1.4 million miles I drove at work I did hit 2 deer, killing one. Both were very young, and both happened in nearly the same place 2 years apart. The dates were only one week different. I now have an electronic one ordered as a fellow rider has one on his bike and is on/off at the flip of a switch, no bugs to clog up the very small hole. I have run the paired type on my Gold Wing for years. One thing to keep in mind is how do you measure the deer you have not hit. You'll never know. If you drive a lot your chances go up. I live in a rural area with a major interstate highway 2 miles away. If I ever put very good lights on one of my T's there will also be whistles.

http://advance.uconn.edu/2002/021118/02111812.htm

WE have them here for Kangaroo's. Bloody waste of time. When they are whistling, you are moving a lot faster than the animal you are about to hit, they seem to only draw the attention to the animal that they are about to recieve a rather large enema. Bet the inventor and resellers are laughing all the way to the bank.

When you want a dog to come to you what do you do? .......

Frankly Craig, when I whistle I'm hoping a Lauren Bacall look-alike will show up.

This reminds of the lady who asked the game wardens to please get the "Deer Crossing" sign moved to a different place. She said too many deer were getting hit there and they needed a safer place to cross.

I read the instructions on a pair and from that, I have conluded that 99% of them are mounted wrong. They say they have to be up in free air, like on your fender or something. Most people, understandably, mount them to the bumper or in the grill or some place they are not readily seen, but then the air flow is disrupted. You'd probably have to see your car in a wind tunnel to determine the optimum mounting point, and who's gonna do that?

In this morning's paper - Volvo is working on a radar sensor and infrared camera system that will hopefully reduce roadkill:

http://www.startribune.com/business/131113913.html

Hunters can reduce car damage and road kill a lot cheaper then an auto company. Not only that the food isn't wasted rotting along side the road and insurance rates could be lower.

Ever notice the places that have more deer problems then other places are the areas where hunting is very limited or not permitted at all. There are several states that have a feed the hungry program where hunters donate venison to help feed the needy.It's a benefit to all...people get fed and cars don't get damaged.

Oh, but it's so inhumane to shoot an animal.....It's much better to eat something that is raised shoulder to shoulder without ever seeing the light of day and gets to watch what happens to every other one in front of it as they go to slaughter......

It's more humane to shoot the deer and keep the population in check than to watch them dragging a broken leg from the roadway off to die a slow death or to see their carcasses smeared and splattered on the highway. I'd much rather see them harvested than become buzzard bait.

We not only have a deer problem, we have turkeys as well. Yes, they will come through a windshield or break out a plastic grill very easily. Hey there's an idea, maybe I should start building turkey whistles.

If the whistles work, I would think the insurance companies would give them away to reduce claims.

I cant say yes or no. Had them on a station wagon as I dove in the mtns around Redding, Ca, never hit a deer but came close.

Great input, guys. I had no idea there would be so many contradictory opinions and findings.

I doubt the U Conn report: "The hearing range of white-tailed deer, the most common species in the United States, is between 2 kHz and 6 kHz..."

I can't believe animals that depend on hearing to survive would hear only to 2 to 6 KHz, and especially with the deer's big ears. Heck, I used to hear the 17KHz from flyback transformers in old TVs.

Here's contradictory info from wiki:
"Communication
White-tailed deer communicate in many different ways using sounds, scent, body language, and marking. All white-tailed deer are capable of producing audible noises, unique to each animal. Fawns release a high-pitched squeal, known as a bleat, to call out to their mothers.[24] A doe makes maternal grunts when searching for her bedded fawns.[24] Grunting produces a low, guttural sound that will attract the attention of any other deer in the area. Both does and bucks snort, a sound that often signals danger. As well as snorting, bucks also grunt at a pitch that gets lower with maturity. Bucks are unique in their grunt-snort-wheeze pattern that often shows aggression and hostility."

Grunts sure aren't in the 2 to 6 KHz range..
rdr

All I know about this subject is that some years back the trucking co. I worked for put them on all their trucks, said the insurance co. had done a study that showed they worked. Don't know if they really did but the company believed in it enough to state that as long as the drivers kept them on that they would not lose their safety bonus if they hit a deer. KB

A buzzard feeding on road kill flew up into and out of a state pickup about 10 years ago.Driver never did really convince the commitiee that he had a buzzard do all the damage till he sent photos of the buzzard with glass in it's feathers that was on the side of the road.

Whoever makes radiator ornaments could come up with a cool one for a T.

If it makes the deer stand still, that's better in most cases.

rdr

Anyone interest in a Fish Whistle? Every tackle box should have one?

This story is at least third hand, but was told for the truth:

Deer had become such a problem in an Eastern GA county that one of the insurance companies sent someone from the home office in Atlanta out to the local agency to investigate the high number of claims due to hitting deer. At something like 11 AM, the guy from Atlanta smacks a deer that ran out in front of him.

I didn't 'Snopes' it, but the guy who told it to me, told it for the truth.

Well,here is some new reseach,just came in!
I was sitting here in the recliner in my radio and ebay shed,dog in lap assleep,and heard this big KABLAM.
Sure enough my nieghbor on his way to work smacked a big buck.
Ran into our woods but I cant find him so maby he went on down to the river and will fall and rot there.
Anyhow,I was on my golf cart,backed into a tree and my flashlight fell off.I had to go look for it.As I headed back to the house,I spotted something shiny in the road.It was a chromed plastic deer whistle that got knocked off Al's Nissan.So Did it bait the deer into the road? Was the deer deef eared? Or was the deer seeking female companionship so diligently that he did not hear the whistle?or did he think God turned the street lights on for him so he could cross the road?
HUM?

Mack, thats really a good one!

Reminds me of one learned first hand...one night at a big company dinner the Chariman wanted praise for investing in what was near a triple redundant lightning arresting system on every building we owned! (The contract went to a buddy of his, but thats another story).

So as he boasted on and on, all those who were involved and in 'the know' with it sat there a bit smug and unimpressed. Frustrated he finally blurted out...well, nothing has burned down due to lightning, guess they da*ned well worked and my idea and OK for it was brilliant!"

Ahhh....what it takes to be a Chairman

Deer whistles don't work. I recall a study by the Michigan State Police where they installed the whistles on all patrol cars and saw no reductions in deer/police car accidents. While looking for this study on the internet tubes, I ran across the same study done by the Ohio State Police. Quoted below:

According to an article called "Blowing the Whistle on Deer Scare Devices" in the Mid-February 1993 Farm Journal, the Ohio State Police installed deer whistles on their patrol vehicles; however, they reported finding no significant decrease in collisions between patrol cars and deer. The same article indicated that a panel of the World Society for the Protection of Animals could find no data proving "that such a device can actually stop an animal crossing the road, which is the main purpose of the device." Finally, Washington State University researcher Leonard Askham felt the evidence tended to favor a conclusion that deer whistles do not work. "Even if the devices were effective," Askham warned, "they would soon become clogged with insects and dirt and stop working."

That should put the subject to bed.

Deer damage is a major problem here in the UK too, so if you do find something that works, let me know and I'll clean up!

Alternatively I could just start marketing the whistles 'as tested by California Highway Patrol'.

You could, but then you would have to put a disclaimer on them stating that they cause cancer. I don't think the state of California has ever met a product that didn't cause cancer. If I lived there, I would move away before I got it.

Well first of all, most of you guys probably are not aware of this, but you have to believe in them to make them work. Too many of you just have too little faith. Mind over matter principal at work here! Chuckle