When I was a young teacher in Eastern Iowa in the early ‘80’s, I purchased my first new vehicle. One evening I was driving around town and happened upon my good friend the police chief. He said, “I noticed you got a new truck. You better put some deer whistles on your truck real soon. I said, “Deer whistles?” After explaining what deer whistles are he told me that all city and county vehicles are equipped with deer whistles. In addition, he told me tht the DRN has them on their vehicles. I quickly drove to the nearest auto parts store and purchased a set of deer whistles. In fact, I purchased the deluxe chrome whistles because the box proclaimed that they stayed cleaner that the standard model.
What a sense of security. I am now protected from hitting a deer and I don’t have to worry about driving at dusk in wooded areas, or slowing down at the edge of wooded areas near the river, or watching for deer late at night. I am safe.
About a year later I was driving night and saw a deer on the side of the road about 500 yards ahead. I thought to myself, “Boy! I am glad I have deer whistles.” I got closer and closer to the deer and it did not move. The deer just kept eating grass in a calm manner. I slowed down to about 15 mph and started slowly passing the deer. Just as I started to go past another deer jumped out of the ditch and hit my front bumper. I stopped. The deer ran off apparently unhurt. I immediately jumped out of my truck and checked for damage. I was relieved to see that there was no damage other than the loss of my left front deer whistle, broken off at the stem.
I started wondering if these things really worked. I contacted the company and asked them for research-based evidence on the devices. About a week later I received a big manila envelope full of information. I was excited! The packet was full of testimonials from police departments, sheriff departments, city councils, mayors, etc. etc. I again called and asked for research and was sent a pamphlet on their latest model that hooked up to the battery of your car and did not rely on air movement and a pamphlet on a deer whistle cleaning kit. There is no research that proves a device really works.
Since that fatal night I have done an extensive search for any unbiased information on deer whistles. Here is what I found:
· The devices do produce high frequency sound between 16 and 20 kHz.
· Deer, like cattle and most other farm animals, do not hear in that frequency range anymore the humans do. In fact, deer cannot hear frequencies from 6 to 20 kHz.
· Long term studies have been done and the results were inconclusive. The only fact derived from these long term studies is that you are as likely to hit a deer using deer whistles and you are if you do not use deer whistles.
· There is no way to predict what a deer will do when located near a road.
· Different studies using deer whistles from different manufactures reported that there is inconsistency in frequency production among the different manufactures.
· The industry sells millions of these devices every year and makes millions of dollars in profit. The average mark-up, above the cost of manufacturing, is nearly 200%.
I must now admit that I was fooled as I know many of you have been. In fact, I would guess that at least 30% of those that read this article have deer whistles on their car. Some of you will not believe the facts in this article. Some of you will immediately take the deer whistles off of your car and not let anyone know that you ever owned them. I just hope that all of you drive more carefully after reading this article because, at worst, you are less certain of your deer whistles.
By the way, I was asked by a very intelligent friend of mine why I did not have a deer whistle on my motorcycle. Apparently they now make a deer whistle for motorcycles, but if one will work on my motorcycle why do I need two on my car?
If you would like more information on this topic or information on agriculture, horticulture,
4-H/youth, communities, families, or continuing education, contact us at the Buchanan County Extension Office at 319-334-7161 or email us at xbuchanan@iastate.edu
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