Todays visitor outside my office @ home

[Firefyter-Emt]

8:15pm tonight.. My little friend was back. The 2 younger boys got to see her this time..

[birol]

Startx : you are making me give up camping , EEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKK

Deer is so beautiful looking animal, maybe we will be lucky when we are there !

[tlhdoc]

 :p  

I am loving it.

[NightOwl]

OK, I have got an actual "outdoor wisdom" kind of question here and would love to know if anyone can give me some information. We have a lot of those long-legged purty little rats in our part of the world and they are a genuine menace on the highways when they decide to cross at the same time some poor vehicle is occupying the same space. Some people use those things you put on your bumper that create some kind of whistle sound audible to the deer.
 
Has anyone used them or have knowledge of someone who has?
 
And I am not even going to get into the grim details of vegetation destruction  done by deer, rabbits, and groundhogs when they want the tender greens found in the gardens and yards of NorthEast Georgia! ( Aarghh! )) Needless to say, we do not regard them as "charming novelties" where I live.
 
TICKS--now that is another matter. There are two main kinds to watch for kinds: first, the usual ones which drop onto you from the trees or get on your dog. They are easy to spot and can carry some bad stuff like Rocky Mt Spotted Fever and paralysis.
 
But the ones which are now a newer source of worry are the little tiny black "deerticks" about the size of a pinpoint. Their most common carriers and hosts are deerfooted or kangaroo mice, deer, and rabbits. It is these little guys (very hard to spot on yourself or someone else) which cause Lyme Disease which can be hard to diagnose at first and can have longlasting effects on your health.

[MommaMia]

Some people use those things you put on your bumper that create some kind of whistle sound audible to the deer.

Has anyone used them or  have knowledge of someone who has?
 

When I hit a deer 3 years ago ($2500 worth of damage and the sucker got up and ran off) I had these things on my car.  They were there when I bought the car used.  When the police showed up to write up the accident report I asked him what his experience was with them.  He said, "Seems to me that with the number of cars I have seen that have them that have hit deer, the gadgets make just enough noise to catch the deer's attention so they end up standing in the middle of the road with the car barreling straight towards them,  the deer wondering what that funny sound is!!!

But the ones which are now a newer source of worry are the little tiny black "deerticks" about the size of a pinpoint.  Their most common carriers and  hosts are deerfooted  or kangaroo mice, deer, and rabbits.  It is these little guys (very hard to spot on yourself or someone else) which cause Lyme Disease which can be hard to diagnose at first and can have longlasting effects on your health.

Apparently the ticks need to be attched to the person for 12 hours for the disease to be transmitted.  The trouble is that these little deer ticks are so tiny that it can easily be more than 112 hours of them gorging themselves before they are pig enough to spot.

I understand from my doctor that anyone even suspected of having Lyme Disease should be automatically started on antibiotic therapy even before a clinincal diagnosis is made.  My aunt had it for years before she was diagnosed correctly and has suffered permanent liver damage because of the chronic infection.

[angelsmom10]

I've heard the same thing about those things for the deer.... not worht the money.

[NightOwl]

thanks, guys--I wont waste my money on them.  Maybe I'll just spend it on some tick repellent! :J

[MommaMia]

thanks, guys--I wont waste my money on them.  Maybe I'll just spend it on some tick repellent! :J

Or get some Guinea Hens.  Those things (we had 6) were amazing at getting rid of the ticks!   Never saw a single tick while we had them.  Then we lost a couple to coyotes, winter came  and we ate the rest.  Yup, you heard me right!  Ate them for New Years Eve dinner.  They were quite tasy too!

[NightOwl]

Cindy, people in the deep south value Guinea Hens for their great appetites for pesky bugs and also, they make great Burgler Alarms. It still is possible to see them in rural Georgia strutting around rural front yards and when "company" arrives, whether invited or not, they set up such a racket that NO ONE could be unaware someone had arrived.
 
But you ATE your very own Guineas? I am shock-ed! :J Well, at least you havent eaten your kids' Guinea Pigs (have you?) I TRIED one time years ago--we had a dead Guinea Pig in the freezer waiting for the Michigan winter to end so that we could give her a proper Christian burial. I forgot she was there and along in April sometime, took out what I fondly believed was a roast to thaw for dinner. It wasnt until the "roast" had sat on the counter de-frosting for several hours that I realized to my horror that a glazed milky-blue eye was staring at me through the wrappings. Now I may be slow, but never yet saw a roast with an eye so came to the brilliant conclusion that it was Clothilde and not only would I have to bury her, but I'd have to change my menu. Dang! I bet Martha Stewart never had to deal with something like that!

[NightOwl]

Ahem--another hi-jack has occured!  Drat--Cindy you are SUCH a bad influence on meeeee    :J
 
I must admit Lee, it is a beautiful picture and I know the kids must have loved seeing her. She is beautiful even if she and her family do regard our gardens as fodder.

[MommaMia]

Ahem--another hi-jack has occured!  Drat--Cindy you are SUCH a bad influence on meeeee    :J
 

Oooh Gee, sorry!  Funny how that can happen so quickly!

[NightOwl]

yeah, Cindy, and I'm sooooooooo easy, too. :J