• Welcome, Guest! We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMW MOA forum provides. Some forum content will be hidden from you if you remain logged out. If you want to view all content, please click the 'Log in' button above and enter your BMW MOA username and password.

    If you are not an MOA member, why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the BMW Owners News magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMW MOA offers?

audible or inaudible deer deterrent device

nelliott

Cowboyatheart
A fellow rider told me the other day that there are these little "whistles" that you can mount on your front forks, as air passes through them, they whistle at a range that humans can't hear but deer and other animals can. He said they warn the animals ahead of you and it scares them off the road. I have not been able to find the product.

Has anyone heard of this? (no pun intended). And do they actually work?
 
Dad has them on a couple of bikes and swears by them. Deer look at me when I ride by, they take off in the opposite direction when he does. You can get plastic simple ones or electronic ones with on/off switch. You can hear the electronic one, it's a high pitch hum.
 
Don't waste your money. Buy a "Guardian Angel" bell instead. They work on ALL Goldwings and many HD's :dance
 
Years ago they started to put them on a lot of the Police cars around the region, but then studied the deer strikes prior and post and found no difference in the number of collisions.
 
I use the visual alerts. Mine are mounted just above and to the right and left of my nose.
 
And do they actually work?

The short answer is that they don't work.

For a longer answer, type this into Google's search field: studies whistles deer

You'll get several pages worth of information leading you to summaries of various government, university and insurance company studies that found them ineffective.

My personal take on it is that deer evolved (or were created, if that's your preference) to be wary of predators and their behavior patterns. Deer really aren't the brightest bulbs in the Mammalia class, and they just don't know what to make of lights, whistles, and vehicles. Wolves don't move at 65mph down the highways, cougars don't blow whistles and coyotes don't wear lights, so these items pretty much leave deer stumped and looking like, well, "deer in the headlights."

Deer don't have the foggiest notion that a vehicle heading their way is dangerous until it's right on them. They have no notion of what a high-speed impact could mean, and a whistle does nothing to help enlighten them.

When deer encounter something unfamiliar and potentially dangerous, instinct simply tells them to remain, more or less, motionless. When that unfamiliar thing is finally identified as something big that's moving into their perceived safety zone, their fight or flight instinct kicks in. Not having the mental vocabulary to know what the heck a moving car, or motorcycle or whistle means, they pretty much just freeze up at first, then bolt, totally confused, in any one of a dozen different directions — including straight at you.

Now if some manufacturer can figure out a way to fool deer into thinking motorcycles are rapidly approaching wolves, cougars or hunters, I think we might have a realistically workable product.
 
After hitting a deer a couple years ago I did some searching and reading on the various forms of deer whistles and alerting devices. I came to the conclusion that there was serious need for something better, somthing that might actually work.

I spent many hours, (well maybe minutes actually) developing a new deer warning device that could be attached to my motorcycle. I've been testing this invention over the past year and a half, and while I have seen several deer while riding, I have not had another collision with one since installing this device on my motorcycle. I must thereofre conclude that my testing has produced 100% positive results. I am not planning to market this invention, but am happy to share it with all motorcyclists to the betterment of the community.

Scroll down for a look at this amazing, yet simple device.


































































IMGP0568.JPG


:laugh:laugh:bolt
 
Dad has them on a couple of bikes and swears by them. Deer look at me when I ride by, they take off in the opposite direction when he does. You can get plastic simple ones or electronic ones with on/off switch. You can hear the electronic one, it's a high pitch hum.

Yes, yes you can hear them (and quite well, to) and its very anoying to folks sleeping when you pull into camp at 10 PM at night! :stick so yes those need an on/off switch! if'n I had been a dear (or buck) with antlers there'd have been one ihru someones tank!

As for working with deer, I suppose if they were sleeeping..... :laugh

RM
 
ah come on Jeff, all the snoring from camp drowned it out.
 
Deer scarer thingee

"...Scroll down for a look at this amazing, yet simple device..."
Ed - What exactly are we looking at here? I know that deer are apparently color blind, and that they can't see certain colors at all, and that hunters wear reddish high viz attention getting clothing ("Hey, hoser - I didn't know deer could climb trees, but sure as shootin' they's one a dem up in that pine tree yonder. You got a better angle on it, so you go 'head and knock that eye catchin' buzzard outta that tree."), so I guess your invention is that red thing with the holly leaf shaped design (or maybe it is supposed to be the footprint of the big butted lounge lizard) on it.
I know you aren't going to sell them, but if you did, how much would you want for a couple of them? And do they come in any other colors?
 
"...Scroll down for a look at this amazing, yet simple device..."
Ed - What exactly are we looking at here? I know that deer are apparently color blind, and that they can't see certain colors at all, and that hunters wear reddish high viz attention getting clothing ("Hey, hoser - I didn't know deer could climb trees, but sure as shootin' they's one a dem up in that pine tree yonder. You got a better angle on it, so you go 'head and knock that eye catchin' buzzard outta that tree."), so I guess your invention is that red thing with the holly leaf shaped design (or maybe it is supposed to be the footprint of the big butted lounge lizard) on it.
I know you aren't going to sell them, but if you did, how much would you want for a couple of them? And do they come in any other colors?

reminds of the lyric to an old song about hunting..

"Two game wardens, 7 hunters and cow" for which the hunter got a citation, it seems cows were out of season! Ha Ha! (thank you Tom Lehrer...)

RM
 
To answer the original question, you can buy them in K-Mart for around $7 , I can't prove that they work, but have a set of both of my bikes and have not seen a deer yet. They are in great abundance here in Georgia, may be coincidental but....
The ones I bought were made by "Bell" who also do a lot of bicycle accessories, in my opinion they're worth trying for a minimal investment.
Cheers,
Ian :bottle
 
"...Scroll down for a look at this amazing, yet simple device..."
Ed - What exactly are we looking at here? I know that deer are apparently color blind, and that they can't see certain colors at all, and that hunters wear reddish high viz attention getting clothing ("Hey, hoser - I didn't know deer could climb trees, but sure as shootin' they's one a dem up in that pine tree yonder. You got a better angle on it, so you go 'head and knock that eye catchin' buzzard outta that tree."), so I guess your invention is that red thing with the holly leaf shaped design (or maybe it is supposed to be the footprint of the big butted lounge lizard) on it.
I know you aren't going to sell them, but if you did, how much would you want for a couple of them? And do they come in any other colors?

I just went to a local decal shop and had them made for $4 each. He said he would keep the digital template on file and could make more anytime I wanted. They can be made in any colour that they have the vinyl decal material in. I chose yellow for no other deep scientific reason than that it matched my yellow GS. :D
 
To answer the original question, you can buy them in K-Mart for around $7 , I can't prove that they work, but have a set of both of my bikes and have not seen a deer yet. They are in great abundance here in Georgia, may be coincidental but....
The ones I bought were made by "Bell" who also do a lot of bicycle accessories, in my opinion they're worth trying for a minimal investment.
Cheers,
Ian :bottle
Let me get this right: you live in Columbus ,GA and you haven't seen any deer around there? Huh...:brow

Anyway I had to read this thread
 
Back
Top