I remember living in Oz and having a er... flock? of roos running next to my vehicle and they still managed to side swipe my car. Like bounce in your own lane!
Parents had those things on the car in the early 90s. We never hit a deer but I'm pretty sure it's a gimmick. It's supposed to funnel the air and make a high pitched noise that spooks the deer, but... I'm calling bull
Well, we have them on our car and I witnessed a deer pull up short of the road and turn and run away. People say they don't work but I know what I saw. :)
You'd think so, but deer intelligence is working from such a deficit that it may take longer than the Sun has left in its lifespan for deer as a whole to work their way up to that.
Part of that is that there isn't enough evolutionary pressure from cars. We aren't artificially selecting for smarter, more road-wise deer because cars don't kill enough to make a serious dent in the population. The deer's existing adaptation (make lots more stupid deer) is beating out the evolutionary pressure towards deer that are instinctually afraid of cars the way they're instinctually afraid of predators.
I know the ditch move. It's how one got me when I was riding my motorcycle at around 60. Thankfully he hit MY side instead of the other way around so it just fucked up my knee instead of, you know, killing me.
Oof. That's rough. Yeah I got stupid lucky. His skull impacted my knee far as I can tell (happened rather fast lol, and I never saw the one that hit me, I was just completing a lane change and had glanced over to check). So it was like a baseball bat swing to my knee, but I stayed on the bike and upright. Just internal damage... And nothing they ever found in imaging, but it's bothered me ever since.
You’re lucky you didn’t get knocked off! But the knee issue still sucks. I’m sure it makes for quite the story when you say the deer hit you and not the other way around lol
Yup. I am fond of saying I'm one of the few people to have killed a deer with my bare knee. Lol. As far as I can tell it snapped it's neck. Cheers, mate.
If they actually worked, they wouldn’t cost $10, your insurance would calculate them into your policy, and they would be mandated by the government same as seatbelts and airbags.
I’m skeptical that they work at all, but I don’t know much about them. I do know that spooked deer do all kinds of crazy stuff, so I’m not sure how much of an advantage it is to make a noise that’s intended to get them moving.
They dont work. They were big in the 90s, plenty of people still hit deer.
Our units have those big grills on the front and Id suggest to spend for those. I dont even worry about the deer with those things. We hit Four deer one winter with only minor damage once to the drivers side panel. The dumbass deer ran into Us and didnt catch the grill full on, so he kind of got thrown down the side. The cost savings from busted headlights and grills pays for the grill guard many times over.
We have electronic ones on our trucks that we're supposed to turn on once we're on the highway. Only thing they do is give me a headache if I forget to turn them back off before getting our of the truck. Complete scam.
No. But we put decals on the rigs for the critters we've hit. The MICU has 2 hawks, 3 deer an elk, and a couple raccoons. There'd be more, but we couldn't find decals for those animals.
Interesting to me, what's even better is I used to work with a guy that hit a deer. With a plane. While airborne.
Kind of anticlimactic lol. He was a commercial pilot and wanting to land a Cessna he was ferrying for the owner. While in the stall before touchdown, a herd of deer ran across the runway. One jumped up and he didn't have the lift to try and pull up over it.
if it works it seems it would make sound based on the speed of the vehicle...I can't imagine a single tone at a steady volume would do much to either of the deer's brain cells...
I didn't believe in them but my parents have hit multiple deer and I've had many near misses crossing the road in similar areas. Dad got these for me as a joke but I gave a them chance for shizzles. Haven't had a hit or near miss in the 3 years I've had them. One of the pair even fell off. Still no issues. That's my 2 cents.
I work rural in SD, and we don't, but we have a big push bar on our truck. I can't remember for sure, but I thought the Myth Busters proved those things don't actually do anything.
Had a truck hit 4 different deer in less than 2 months. Put deer whistles all over the brush guard as a joke. Same shift had a deer hit the side door on the patient compartment the next night and it wouldn’t open.
I had forgotten all about deer whistles on cars until this post. These were everywhere in 90s. And now they weren't. So I'm going to say they don't work. But yes rural or not it would be nice have something done. I work in rural/suburban/urban county and the deer here are legendary for being as common in roads and yards as squirrels and nothing scares them.
IIRC Richland County (Wis) Sheriff put them on the squads in the early 80's. Their 10-year average of 2 deer hits a year jumped to 6 the 1st year they used the whistles. They took them off the squad cars after that.
Strobes do a lot better just don’t do your shit up like a police vehicle and only use white or yellow. I always hit the light bar and wigwag for deer and it works a lot better than the horn.
Strobes do a lot better just don’t do your shit up like a police vehicle and only use white or yellow. And yes I’m talking about the ambo but I have a light bar on my truck for extra light on county roads with a strobe function is what I’m saying
In Idaho, they used to be on ALL the vehicles back in the day, then they started dying out (assuming because they don’t do anything) anyway, went to buy a new truck several years back that had them installed, after they’d faded from popular use, and the salesman pointed them out as a great “feature” as a selling point.
I looked at them for a few seconds and told him they were installed backwards, and instead of repelling the deer, it was now like a deer call and attracting them towards the vehicle/road. Straight face, dead eye. I told him if we were going to get the truck, they would have to have them reinstalled properly, and they may need to educate their service tech/mechanic.
Salesman was like “oh sh*t! I didn’t know they had a correct orientation!” Started writing notes on his notebook, and was reaching for his walkie talkie when my wife slapped me and told me to stop messing with the poor guy
It is a gimmick. Look at it this way. The speed of sound is roughly 60mph, so if you're driving that speed or faster then you are out running the sound you are producing. Hence why most drivers won't hear our sirens, but will see the lights before they hear us barreling down the road at 70mph.
Since most rural roads are roughly 55mph since the ol "stay alive at 55" propaganda you're not out running your sound, but you're pretty close to outrunning it.
We have similar ones here in Australia for kangaroos and they don’t do shit… but roos are also really fucking dumb so it isn’t surprising.
Am I the only one that read this in an Australian accent?
That's Austrian though
I think it’s pronounced Albuterol
Ohhh, Austria, beautiful. "Put another shrimp on barbie!"
It's funny to me that y'all's equivalent to deer is a giant hopping rat that punches people
Don't forget the camels and rabbits!
I remember living in Oz and having a er... flock? of roos running next to my vehicle and they still managed to side swipe my car. Like bounce in your own lane!
The collective is 'mob'
I hit a deer with a car that didn't have deer whistles on. Sucked.
But then I was driving a car that DID have deer whistles on, and a deer RAN INTO THE SIDE OF MY CAR FULL SPEED.
Take that for what it's worth.
If the deer run toward the car, you mounted them backwards.
Or they are just reallt dumb animals lol
It sounds like it did the trick, I'm sold.
Parents had those things on the car in the early 90s. We never hit a deer but I'm pretty sure it's a gimmick. It's supposed to funnel the air and make a high pitched noise that spooks the deer, but... I'm calling bull
Bull? Was that a pun?
Well, we have them on our car and I witnessed a deer pull up short of the road and turn and run away. People say they don't work but I know what I saw. :)
I had them on my car and a deer robbed me at gun point 😔
How rude! Deer with guns, what is the world coming to?
You know those deer are hunted down. They are defending themselves.
That's what Big Deer wants you to think!
If a Big Deer has a gun I'll listen to whatever he has to say
Not to victim blame, but you had them on backwards.
That happens to me without deer whistles too though
Deer probably saw your car and ran away lol.
Same, my experience is that they don’t work more often than they do but mileage may vary. My dad took them off after the second deer lol
Not to mention you probably outrun the sound just like sirens when you get up to speed for those to work anyway
Sound travels at 761 mph
ok? and? how do you know how fast he goes when he's lights and sirens?
Hold my beer.
Plot twist; they summon fliers!
I know it summons every stray dog in the neighbourhood
Deer are idiots.
They'll just stare blankly at you from further away, or be in the ditch and still wait till the last second to dash on front of you.
Very cute, but modern survival instincts are lacking.
Eventually they have to adapt to cars due to evolutionary pressure right
I mean technically, yes? Not fast enough for my insurance though.
Urban hedgehogs famously did it years ago - they run instead of rolling into a ball.
You'd think so, but deer intelligence is working from such a deficit that it may take longer than the Sun has left in its lifespan for deer as a whole to work their way up to that.
Part of that is that there isn't enough evolutionary pressure from cars. We aren't artificially selecting for smarter, more road-wise deer because cars don't kill enough to make a serious dent in the population. The deer's existing adaptation (make lots more stupid deer) is beating out the evolutionary pressure towards deer that are instinctually afraid of cars the way they're instinctually afraid of predators.
I know the ditch move. It's how one got me when I was riding my motorcycle at around 60. Thankfully he hit MY side instead of the other way around so it just fucked up my knee instead of, you know, killing me.
I had a patient with an open tib/fib fracture from a deer running into him while he was riding his motorcycle.
There was deer hair sticking out of the wound…
Oof. That's rough. Yeah I got stupid lucky. His skull impacted my knee far as I can tell (happened rather fast lol, and I never saw the one that hit me, I was just completing a lane change and had glanced over to check). So it was like a baseball bat swing to my knee, but I stayed on the bike and upright. Just internal damage... And nothing they ever found in imaging, but it's bothered me ever since.
You’re lucky you didn’t get knocked off! But the knee issue still sucks. I’m sure it makes for quite the story when you say the deer hit you and not the other way around lol
Yup. I am fond of saying I'm one of the few people to have killed a deer with my bare knee. Lol. As far as I can tell it snapped it's neck. Cheers, mate.
First, thats an elk. 2nd, naw, I've seen them since the 70's and never found that they did anything.
That elk identifies as an deer, SIR.
If they actually worked, they wouldn’t cost $10, your insurance would calculate them into your policy, and they would be mandated by the government same as seatbelts and airbags.
They don't work. This is the vehicle equivalent of a snake bite suction kit.
Wait is there a snake bite suction kit on Amazon lol
There have been dozens of versions snakebite suction kits sold online and across major retail stores nationwide.
Yes, and they're all just as bad as you can imagine.
I’m skeptical that they work at all, but I don’t know much about them. I do know that spooked deer do all kinds of crazy stuff, so I’m not sure how much of an advantage it is to make a noise that’s intended to get them moving.
Just like sirens on the public, the deer don't give a shit about the whistles. You'll hit them with and without.
They dont work. They were big in the 90s, plenty of people still hit deer.
Our units have those big grills on the front and Id suggest to spend for those. I dont even worry about the deer with those things. We hit Four deer one winter with only minor damage once to the drivers side panel. The dumbass deer ran into Us and didnt catch the grill full on, so he kind of got thrown down the side. The cost savings from busted headlights and grills pays for the grill guard many times over.
https://preview.redd.it/le0mwm6jrv5g1.png?width=828&format=png&auto=webp&s=f8f0c0d6c1cde328c49177d8b0d7c458e0b44d54
They don’t fucking work
I put them on my Chiefs truck, hit a deer like 2 weeks later
They are a gimmick, don't bother.
"However, our data suggest that deer whistles are likely not effective in altering deer behavior in a manner that would prevent deer-vehicle collisions."
We have electronic ones on our trucks that we're supposed to turn on once we're on the highway. Only thing they do is give me a headache if I forget to turn them back off before getting our of the truck. Complete scam.
These have been around a long time. Back in the late eighties we had them on our busses. I was in one when a dear ran into the side of our unit.
these have been proven to not work
No. But we put decals on the rigs for the critters we've hit. The MICU has 2 hawks, 3 deer an elk, and a couple raccoons. There'd be more, but we couldn't find decals for those animals.
Interesting to me, what's even better is I used to work with a guy that hit a deer. With a plane. While airborne.
Story time!
Kind of anticlimactic lol. He was a commercial pilot and wanting to land a Cessna he was ferrying for the owner. While in the stall before touchdown, a herd of deer ran across the runway. One jumped up and he didn't have the lift to try and pull up over it.
I know that the Danish police have them installed on their new police cars.
Back in the late 80s when they first came out, my dad put some on my mom’s new car. Two days later, we hit a huge buck. Coincidence?
This kinda makes the whole topic moot…
https://preview.redd.it/lytn6krdpz5g1.jpeg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=953f55bc028977e8645cdc8dada80ca2bbf7ea37
“Why would they put the deer crossing signs on the highway? Or the interstate?”
I love that clip!!
if it works it seems it would make sound based on the speed of the vehicle...I can't imagine a single tone at a steady volume would do much to either of the deer's brain cells...
I didn't believe in them but my parents have hit multiple deer and I've had many near misses crossing the road in similar areas. Dad got these for me as a joke but I gave a them chance for shizzles. Haven't had a hit or near miss in the 3 years I've had them. One of the pair even fell off. Still no issues. That's my 2 cents.
We have those whistles on all our ambulances, I feel like they are helpful.
I work rural in SD, and we don't, but we have a big push bar on our truck. I can't remember for sure, but I thought the Myth Busters proved those things don't actually do anything.
Had some on my personal truck. I completely smoked a deer. I took the whistles off that day
Had a truck hit 4 different deer in less than 2 months. Put deer whistles all over the brush guard as a joke. Same shift had a deer hit the side door on the patient compartment the next night and it wouldn’t open.
I had forgotten all about deer whistles on cars until this post. These were everywhere in 90s. And now they weren't. So I'm going to say they don't work. But yes rural or not it would be nice have something done. I work in rural/suburban/urban county and the deer here are legendary for being as common in roads and yards as squirrels and nothing scares them.
IIRC Richland County (Wis) Sheriff put them on the squads in the early 80's. Their 10-year average of 2 deer hits a year jumped to 6 the 1st year they used the whistles. They took them off the squad cars after that.
My mom worked as a claims secretary for State Farm in the early 90s. You know the ONE thing every deer claim had included in it? Deer whistles. Lmao.
We had some on our ambulances back in the 2000's, we still hit deer every now and again. Waste of money we decided.
My service has these on all of the ambulances. It turns on at 50 km/h. We still hit deer.
Definitely won’t work. (I’ve hit 2 deer with ambos)
Strobes do a lot better just don’t do your shit up like a police vehicle and only use white or yellow. I always hit the light bar and wigwag for deer and it works a lot better than the horn.
Oh and deer whistles don’t do shit
Bro. For the ambo…
Strobes do a lot better just don’t do your shit up like a police vehicle and only use white or yellow. And yes I’m talking about the ambo but I have a light bar on my truck for extra light on county roads with a strobe function is what I’m saying
In Idaho, they used to be on ALL the vehicles back in the day, then they started dying out (assuming because they don’t do anything) anyway, went to buy a new truck several years back that had them installed, after they’d faded from popular use, and the salesman pointed them out as a great “feature” as a selling point.
I looked at them for a few seconds and told him they were installed backwards, and instead of repelling the deer, it was now like a deer call and attracting them towards the vehicle/road. Straight face, dead eye. I told him if we were going to get the truck, they would have to have them reinstalled properly, and they may need to educate their service tech/mechanic.
Salesman was like “oh sh*t! I didn’t know they had a correct orientation!” Started writing notes on his notebook, and was reaching for his walkie talkie when my wife slapped me and told me to stop messing with the poor guy
They don’t work. I’ve hit deer with and without deer whistles on vehicles.
It is a gimmick. Look at it this way. The speed of sound is roughly 60mph, so if you're driving that speed or faster then you are out running the sound you are producing. Hence why most drivers won't hear our sirens, but will see the lights before they hear us barreling down the road at 70mph.
Since most rural roads are roughly 55mph since the ol "stay alive at 55" propaganda you're not out running your sound, but you're pretty close to outrunning it.