Do deer whistles actually work?

General Discussion
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21

A Federal Parkway through a National Forrest near my home was a daily route for me for several years and at dark the deer were moving and seemed to take little notice of automobiles with or without the whistles. I have stopped and let more than a dozen pass in single file and flashing the lights and sounding the horn had no noticeable effect on them. Several friends have hit deer with the whistles installed. I just slowed to 45 mph through the area with 100% success.

22

If they do work, what about the dear next to the road? I envision hundreds of dear, their hooves held to their ears pleading, ā€œMAKE THE WHISTLING STOP!!!ā€

23

I blew on one of these whistles almost half of opening day deer season, and never saw a deer. I conclude they do not work.

24

Sadly the short answer is ā€œno.ā€

If youā€™d like to read a longer answer that includes some of the reasons why, you (and anyone else for that matter) can do so at my blog, Next-Door Nature:

Dr. Kieran, Car Talk Wildlife Guru and Animal-Vehicle Biologist

25

Honking you horn works but use caution

26

They donā€™t work at allā€¦I really depended on them until tonight when I went for a ride and I ended up hitting one, thank goodness it didnā€™t damage the radiatorā€¦Just the grill, and the hoodā€¦Most of all, I was really lucky that there was just minor damage and this was on an 89 olds. 98ā€¦

27

Well like I said some years ago, Iā€™m sure they donā€™t work but I put them on both cars over five years ago and havenā€™t hit a deer since. HID and LED lights also help. They donā€™t work on coons though. Perhaps they werenā€™t properly spaced and mounted to get the effect from the two tones. Hey, for $5 what else can I do? Those pesky creatures are everywhere, even in my back yard.

28

My wolf whistle got me slapped.

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30

I think air transmits high frequency sound just fine, what high frequency sound does not do is go around corners. Also, small objects in the air will scatter it. Thatā€™s why bats use high frequency sound. It will resolve small insects that are invisible to low frequency sound.

1 Like
31

I have a set of dragon whistles on my car, and Iā€™ve never hit a dragon so they must work. :wink:

2 Likes
32

All I can say is Iā€™ve blown through one as hard as a could and never had a deer come to me;)

4 Likes