Deer Whistles

Recently I inquired with a young woman in sales at a Royal Distributing (power sports parts, accessories and equipment) outlet whether or not they had any deer whistles. "You mean for like hunting?" she asked. The images that response conjured up kept me laughing all day. I ended up going to Canadian Tire, who I know carries them. Which brings me to the subject of this post.

Do deer whistles really work? A colleague at work recently totaled his bike chasing dragons in Virginia. He missed the deer and hit a concrete culvert instead. Luckily he was wearing full gear and he landed in a swamp. Deer 1, bike 0, game, set, match. I bought him a Guardian Bell and a pair of whistles. I must say I have never heard a single first hand account of someone with them on the vehicle having hit a deer. Still that doesn't mean they work. But the ones I bought are made by Bell, the helmet folks who know a thing or two about safety. So has anyone here ever hit a deer with whistles on? I'm looking for stats or provable first hand accounts as opposed to a friend of a friend of my cousin if you get my drift.

My magic eight ball says

"NO"


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer_horn

The previous owner of my old Goldwing had deer whistles on the bike and I had several close calls with deer. One was within 6" of my left grip.
One near miss was commuting to work at 5:00AM. I just passed a Semi traveling 10 under the speed limit and a Doe was standing in the center of the highway. (It looked like she was checking out the yellow line.) If I hadn't been paying attention, I would have split her in half. I missed her by 6".

Another time while commuting, a buck decided to cross the interstate between a semi and my car. He didn't make it.
I don't think a deer whistle makes more noise than a 18 wheeler.

In my humble opinion, being aware of your surroundings and not over driving your lights is a lot more important than bells and whistles.

Sure they work - in that the people that sell them make money. They exist because people buy them. They are bought because they can never be proven or disproven to work.

I don't have deer whistles and I've never hit a deer in 1.2 million miles of driving. So if I had had the whistles and also never hit a deer, what would it prove?

They should call them rhinoceros whistles. I am sure they would work for that (at least in North America).

A quick literature review (I do medical research for a living) says 'No'. No evidence they hear in the ultrasonic range, vehicle noise drowning out the whistle, and no known sound frequency that's proven to scare deer. Now if you roll down the road sounding like a wounded deer, maybe you'd be onto something!

I don't believe that there is any sound that will motivate a deer in any direction other than a predator coming at them in a quiet area. I used to be a locomotive engineer for Union Pacific. We used to hit deer with trains up in the mountains ALL the time! There wasn't much of anything one could to to avoid it either. I've heard many different techniques of trying to gently persuade the deer off the tracks and none of them worked. If we came around a bend and surprised the deer with the lights they just freeze. Blow the horn, and they freeze. Turn off the lights and they are still temporarily blinded from the lights and they freeze. All the while they can still hear the locomotives coming closer to them yet they freeze. They are somewhat unpredictable creatures in that they won't always do what you expect. Some of the above mentioned methods worked for some engineers some of the time with some deer but not all or anywhere near enough to say those methods were truly effective.

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JDE said:

I don't believe that there is any sound that will motivate a deer in any direction other than a predator coming at them in a quiet area. I used to be a locomotive engineer for Union Pacific. We used to hit deer with trains up in the mountains ALL the time! There wasn't much of anything one could to to avoid it either. I've heard many different techniques of trying to gently persuade the deer off the tracks and none of them worked. If we came around a bend and surprised the deer with the lights they just freeze. Blow the horn, and they freeze. Turn off the lights and they are still temporarily blinded from the lights and they freeze. All the while they can still hear the locomotives coming closer to them yet they freeze. They are somewhat unpredictable creatures in that they won't always do what you expect. Some of the above mentioned methods worked for some engineers some of the time with some deer but not all or anywhere near enough to say those methods were truly effective.

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Did Union Pacific try loud pipes on the locomotive?

No. I was in a minivan when it hit a dear. It had 2 of those suckers on the front.

670cc said:

Did Union Pacific try loud pipes on the locomotive?

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Not my thread, but I vote this the BEST ANSWER!!!

I believe I have seen a lot of reviews that claim they are a waste of time.

670cc said:

Did Union Pacific try loud pipes on the locomotive?

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They tried it on a couple locomotives for research purposes, but scrapped that idea. Once they found out that the loud pipes did not in fact save any lives.

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Years ago in my car I came up over a small hill on an 80 km/h (50 mph) road. There was a deer standing in the ditch to my right, it looks at me and I look at it... the deer starts frantically climbing out of the ditch, I hold my speed and move over to the other side, I see he is coming onto the road, I've made it past...bump...no not quite, it ran into the back quarter panel of my car and made a dent. Those things are really stupid!

Another spring day at dusk, on the same road but years later, a deer came galloping across the road, his chest and my front fender met, the force must have spun him around as there were dents all the way down the drivers side of my car and the side mirror was gone. With better timing he could have come right through my windshield. Those things are really scary!

I've seen some deer on my NC, but nothing close...not yet.

Maybe instead of camouflage, sitting perfectly still in a cold tree stand for hours and lathering up with deer piss cologne, hunters should just ride straight for them on a motorcycle!

About ten years ago I worked part time at an O'reilly Auto parts store and people bought these things all the time. Especially the older folk which swore by them. Some people really believe they work but I'm not in that camp. Deer are retarded and they are even worse in November. Have you ever blown into a coke bottle and it makes a sound? I think they call it Helmholtz resonance. It would seem that the wind would have to hit these Deer Whistles at a specific angle to work. Just like a regular whistle where you need a certain amount of velocity behind your blow. I don't think these deer whistles are making any noise at all half the time. LOL!

No they don't work. What does work great are DEER CROSSINGS. It's just a little time consuming to train them to use the buttons so the amber lights flash warning people they are about to cross.

I had deer whistles that a PO had installed on the Honda Silver Wing scooter I used to own. I was leaned over on the Interstate entrance here in Montpelier (we have only one) and had a doe run across the lane right in front of me. It was so close I could have counted its' eyelashes. No, they don't work.

They are a placebo. If they make you feel better, buy one.

They work on motorcycles because any rider who goes to the trouble to research them, purchase them, install them, and admire his handiwork is likely more aware of deer then the average biker.

Just mount a .50 Cal on your handlebars and blaze away when you see them. I bet that would work.