DEER WHISTLES

[Deer Slayer]

While we are at it, no modulated head lights. They stop people frome pulling out in front of you. People just stop and look at the modulated head lights, so do the deer. I have killed two deer and one Goldwing. Deer just dart out stop and die.:yikes:

 

[BajaRon]

It is unfortunate that Deer Whistles do not work. Every scientifically done test I have ever seen has found absolutely no advantage to using Deer Whistles.

Then again, every one of these testing programs have been paid for by a Road Kill maintenance service.... Hmmmm.....

 

[MikeinGA]

They work!

My whole life I lived near deer and never hit one. The deer whistles will help you see the deer at night. The deer hear the sound and will look at you and the headlights reflect off the eyes of the deer, the same with sun light during the day. When you see them you can avoid them. Deer move more at night then during the day. It's what you don't see, that will get you. It helps the good rider, ride safer. That's IMHO.


Mike

 

[pitzerwm]

While driving with my sister in law in her Toyota Matrix around 7pm..speed went from 55 to 40, near my home. Saw what I at first thought was a brown paper bag sailing past the windsheild, which in fact was a deer leaping, and clearing, the front of the vehicle...close, but no cigar..
I agree with keeping on your toes while riding/driving,but, sometimes you never see it coming.

I agree that you ALWAYS need to pay attention to your surroundings. BUT in Montana I witnessed a full grown 10 point buck run across 3 lanes and a medium within the blink of an eye. It had to be 150' and I didn't get my foot from the gas to the brake. It ran into the rear side of a Uhaul trailer in front of me in the outside lane. That driver never saw him and never touched his brakes. I'm still having problems accepting what I saw.

Thankfully, I have not hit any. One did jump off a cliff and ripped off the fender of my father's Lincoln. Looking at the OP's pix, shows that it can be ugly.

 

[redflasher]

I was an LEO for over 24 years. My MOS included being an accident reconstructionist as well as accident investigator. I saw a lot of dead deer and smashed up cars/drivers including a couple of fatals for drivers. Lots of deer whistles on the wrecks as they were towed off the highway. No way is a stupid little piece of plastic going to be louder than the engine/vehicle noise generated while driving down the road.

 

[robmorg]

I agree that you ALWAYS need to pay attention to your surroundings. BUT in Montana I witnessed a full grown 10 point buck run across 3 lanes and a medium within the blink of an eye. It had to be 150' and I didn't get my foot from the gas to the brake. It ran into the rear side of a Uhaul trailer in front of me in the outside lane. That driver never saw him and never touched his brakes. I'm still having problems accepting what I saw

You are correct. Of course we should all be vigilant, but all too often, those deer seem to come out of nowhere. It's indeed a scary thought. :yikes:

 

[Bob Denman]

I was an LEO for over 24 years. My MOS included being an accident reconstructionist as well as accident investigator. I saw a lot of dead deer and smashed up cars/drivers including a couple of fatals for drivers. Lots of deer whistles on the wrecks as they were towed off the highway. No way is a stupid little piece of plastic going to be louder than the engine/vehicle noise generated while driving down the road.

While I DO agree that the whistles are not effective; it's not for the reason that you suggest. The whistles are making their noise up in a frequency range, that the deer can hear... and it's an unusual noise for them to be hearing: they notice it. :shocked:
It's that nobody can predict what they will do, AFTER they notice it! :yikes:
Often; they just look at the sound source...
But when they decide to run; there is NO way to tell the direction!

 

[pickelhead]

They work for Dogs

I don't know how they work for deer, but it has stopped the neighborhood dogs from chasing my Spyder!

 

[robmorg]

This discussion seems to be leading to one obvious conclusion... Our government needs to spend more of our hard earned tax dollars for programs that will train the deer how to more successfully avoid collisions with moving vehicles. :sour:

 

[cognaccruiser]

My whole life I lived near deer and never hit one. The deer whistles will help you see the deer at night. The deer hear the sound and will look at you and the headlights reflect off the eyes of the deer, the same with sun light during the day. When you see them you can avoid them. Deer move more at night then during the day. It's what you don't see, that will get you. It helps the good rider, ride safer. That's IMHO.


Mike

My experience is the same as yours except I don't have a deer whistle on any of my vehicles. At night we drive through a heavily populated deer area. They look up as we approach and we can see the lights reflected in their eyes. Often many eyes. They do hear the vehicle coming and we get the same result which leads me to think that they would look up just based on the sound of the vehicle coming. Usually we are going fairly slow through some of the area and they hear us and probably see the lights first anyway.

Gary

 

[Netminder]

The last deer I hit ( I have hit three, two no whistles, last one whistles) the cow came out and I was able to avoid it and for a split second thought "wow that was close" only to hit the calf dead on!:yikes: About 3k of damage. I am on the fence of whether they work or not, and as said above awareness of your surroundings and decreasing your speed are your best bet, but I figure for the price of them it is an added feature in my avoidance strategy!:thumbup: I live in an area with a big deer population and have had friends following me and said they have seen deer on the side of the road tilting their head like they were hearing something, as will my dog used to wail at a certain speed when he had his head out the open window! So whether they work or not, they are a cheap addition to the fight! JMHO.

 

[Saluda]

So whether they work or not, they are a cheap addition to the fight! JMHO.

That's how I feel. I have always run them and I always will. About $ 4.00 for a pair now. Some believe and some do not.
Through the years have seen about 25 deer, but never in front of us. If that's been good luck that's OK too. Realize the rest as far as slowing down and being alert.

 

[AY4B]

Interesting thread. Im still hopefull they work but will not count on it. Ive never used one but if I did, Id use the Spectrogram app on my phone to measure and see the sound waves. From the info I have been reading, some may not make any noise at all. It seems the electronic ones are better than the air at making the noise. How the deer react is the big question. Another question is what do the deer hear?

 

[NautiBrit]

Many years ago I read an article in Motorcycle Consumer News, MCN, that was penned by our own Fred Rau. He tested many samples and came to the conclusion that they didn't work. I had an opportunity to talk to Fred about his testing and he confirmed that none of the whistles he tested were effective.

 

[zuni]

Okay,so I have read all the studies that say that the deer whistles are useless pieces of plastic that at best only help support the economy because you are spending money for them. That being said I have them. I frequently travel in areas with many stupid deer. Thankfully they are Florida deer so only the size of large dogs. I ruined one deer's evening (and my own) when he decided to dart in front of my Explorer. I was able to drive away with a little front end damage and a broken headlight but the deer was not so lucky. I have counted as many as 40 deer along the road in an evening and typically see 10 to 20. Prior to the accident I didn't have deer whistles. Everyone else driving in the area swore by them and I figured heck for $6 why not. 3 years now with no strikes. Do they work, probably not. Is is coincidence, probably. Am I going to take them off, no. I am as aware of them as I was before, hell I'm counting them so it's not that I'm not looking. So far they have not been inclined to run in front of me which is all that matters.

CJ JAX

 

[Peter Aawen]

Not many Deer down-under, but there's lotsa Roo's on the roads!

I haven't bothered to track down the details, but a couple of the Universities here in Aust did some fairly comprehensive research & testing on all of the electronic "Hopper Stoppers" as they are called down here that were available at the time.... we don't have too many deer infested localities, but hey, we certainly do have many areas with kangaroo & wombat infestations, and even a few areas that have issues with the numbers of camels or cattle & sheep on the road! Since hitting any/all of those animals can do some pretty horrific damage to a vehicle, fatalities resulting from animal strikes aren't un-common! Anyhow, I'm pretty sure the Universities came to the same conclusion as the referenced investigations into the air driven jobbies - if they work at all it's purely co-incidental!

From my own experience after more than 40 years driving vehicles around this country, vehicles ranging from heavy transport trucks & Semi's thru to motorbikes large and small and everything in-between, racking up quite a few (million) miles of driving on roads with animal problems in the process, both with and without these devices (yeah, we've tried them all! pps that pretty much agrees with my experience! The only thing that really works in minimising the risk of animal strikes is slowing down and taking extra care when you are in areas where animals are prone to wander onto the roads.... and remember that here that pretty much includes all of the country anything more than a couple of miles outside of the towns/cities - at times/places/seasons the animals on the roads have been known to reach concentrations of hundreds per mile!! :yikes: Besides, here in Oz someone hits a roo in the middle of one of our cities fairly often - you'd be surprised at how far these things can travel into a city, and there's literally millions of them around, but not one of them knows or obeys the road rules for safe crossings!! :shocked:

Still, I 'spose if it floats your boat to pay for & install devices like that and ride (or drive) under the misapprehension that it's somehow making things safer for you, then I'm OK with that, just so long as I'm not forced to install one too! :2thumbs:

 

[Saluda]

(Glad I have your permission to buy and install something on my Spyder. Who's attempting to force you to install them !)

For what this is worth, have exchanged PM's with Peter which is maybe what I should have done first. I consider him a gentleman and do respect his opinion. (Still keeping the deer whistles but did want to update this post)

Thanks, Mike

 

[Bob Denman]

Saluda,
Your Signature Line says, "Never stop questioning."

Why? :dontknow: :roflblack::roflblack::roflblack: :joke:

 

[Woodsrider]

I love our threads, really . Me and a Connie 14 met a deer at high speed 2.5 years ago and I'm permanently a different person for the experience. The titainium plates and screws, the aches, it's all good fun and worth the stories of flipping over and over (which I don't remember any of).

After that I rode with an electronic whistle....and came to a complete stop if I saw a deer anywhere. When I bought the 2014 Spyder, the whistle didn't go on, I'm past it finally, it was my third deer hit, second on a motorcycle, and odds are it'll happen again. Maybe they hear it, doesn't matter, stupid forest rat just heads off in a random direction no matter what.

 

[Saluda]

Isn't it self explanatory ?