Pharon -- we have books and books filled with techniques on the proper growth and maintenance of grass here in suburbia. A 'proper' lawn is the goal of the average suburban homeowner. The ornamental grass thing is fairly recent -- one more way for landscapers/garden centers, etc. to make more money.
eBeth -- that's what I figured from my research. Hopefully, we'll find a house that's not too close to the natural habitat of the deer (though when looking this past summer we actually saw the deer roaming right through a development of homes so I don't have a lot of hope).
bandylu - Pennsylvania is noted deer territory - check out the number of night-time car accidents involving deer right now - they're all over the state. You may just have to learn a whole new style of gardening.
And not drive at night -- my son had an encounter with a deer when he was in college in upstate New York and they can certainly do a lot of damage (to say nothing of one's psyche when one kills the poor thing).
bandylu - i've got a file on my desk right now - one woman hits a deer with her car, a second woman stops her car to help and walks back to offer assistance, a truck loses control (something to do with a deer again!), hits the car that hit the deer. one woman was killed, the second seriously injured and the truck driver needs psych treatment.
those deer are dangerous. in one of my old territories, they had more deer/vehicle accidents in the autumn than they had vehicle/vehicle accidents.
Now I know I won't be driving at night!!!!!
They can be a nuisance for sure, but they are so pretty and I love wildlife (question is how much will I love them after they eat all my flowers?). I suppose you get used to it eventually. Actually, we won't have much of a choice. I can learn to live with the deer as long as no bears visit my backyard.
ehBeth, how horrifying...
I've had a few near-misses on country roads. They just come out of absolutely nowhere, and they are BIG.
Does anybody know if those thing-a-ma-jigs they sell to put on your grill work? I think they're supposed to make a noise as you drive that will alert the deer.
Speaking of bears, we have friends who had a place in the Poconos and one winter night they had a bear come onto their back deck and look in the back door. I think my dog (and maybe me, too) would be hiding under the couch if that happened.
I have an unreasonable dislike of possums. They're so much larger and toothier and generally less snuggly than one would think they should be. (If one was raised on "Pogo", anyway.) I persist in liking racoons, even though they're destructive and not very hygenic (in terms of disease-carriers), but possums give me the heebie-jeebies.
Bears I like, but I've only seen them out in Nature (Boundary Waters Canoe Area et al), not at my door.
Racoons are quite cute -- we once had two babies in the tree outside our kitchen window. Apparently their Mommy had left them there to sleep through the day, but they decided to explore instead. They came down the tree and found the bowl of water I'd left out for the ducks that visited our yard each day. I came out the front door to snap a photo and after I'd gone back in they came right up to the door and started scratching on the door. Apparently they wanted to come in and see what the house looked like. Eventually they scooted around into my backyard and from there into the neighbors' yards (I heard several of my neighbors shooing them away). Cute as can be, but apparently very, very nasty when they become adults.
My husband made this little guy:
The consencus is that they will quickly get past any scent or automated noise maker you can put out for them. They are good jumpers too. Young trees can be protected with individual mesh fences as there is not room enough inside them for a deer.
Gezzy ran a discussion on this a year ago, more or less and didn't get any useful answers (Gezzy didn't like the shotgun approach). I asked later what she did. She said she just ran outside and chased them off. That could be dangerous, by the way. Deer get real territorial at certain times of the year.
Do you have her address - or need it? I know she wouldn't mind.
No I don't have her address, roger (I accidentally deleted my abuzz e-mail list a while ago). There's always house plants I guess -- plus, we were thinking of getting a little greenhouse to keep me busy. I can't see myself chasing the deer (though that would probably make a very funny sight) and since the dog is a wimp I seriously doubt she'll do any chasing.
Deer are so numerous in suburban NJ, that one of my workers hit a deer on her lunch hour, on a busy 4-lane highway in Trenton.
I have hit 4 deer in my liketime.
There are plenty of deer, all over the northeast.
Why?
We got rid of wolves.
There are some Brown Bears here, too.
And some sort of big cats,that may prey on deer.
So, if you do move to PA, remember you can't have any bird-feeders,outside garbage or plants.
Bird-feeders and garbage attrack bears.
Racoons may carry rabies.They are not pets.
I know a woman who was seriously hurt by a deer and one who was killed.Both women were injured throgh the same means, a deer coming through the windshield.The one who was killed, was going around a traffic circle, so she could not have been driving that fast.
If you thinking of moving from L.I. to PA, remember you're moving from a solid zone 7 to a 6 or maybe, lower.
