Too many deer

[Wooden Arrow]

manage the WMA correctly to increase carrying capacity

Holston Defense here asked the TWRA once what the easiest thing to do to help feed the deer was. they told them "fertilize your honeysuckle." deer eat those leaves year round apparently. they like kudzu too, but its leaves brown and die back in cold weather.

 

[DoubleRidge]

Holston Defense here asked the TWRA once what the easiest thing to do to help feed the deer was. they told them "fertilize your honeysuckle." deer eat those leaves year round apparently. they like kudzu too, but its leaves brown and die back in cold weather.

Love the honeysuckle and blackberry patches that we have in various places on the powerline that goes through the farm...we rotate bush hogging different strips keeping it at different growth stages and they will hammer it and the taller stuff they will bed in and turkey will also nest in it...great habitat for a variety of reasons....but I've never tried to fertilize any of it? Interesting.

 

[BSK]

Fertilizing honeysuckle is a great tactic. If you still have it. In many parts of western Middle and West TN, deer ate the honeysuckle out of existence years ago. I have very little on my place now. We used have big thickets of it.

 

[oldmanelrod]

How can we start reducing all the deer in these subdivisions? With no dogs running loose and all the salad available they are populating like rabbits. The bleeding hearts think it's because the wildlife is being driven out of their natural habitat but they are wrong. The deer eat everything residents put in the ground, get hit by cars, and are a nuisance. Any suggestions?

I live in the Elkmont Rural Village and we have 1,000 plus acres, close to 45 years old, that is dedicated to trails and wildlife. This area is in addition to the area dedicated for houses. We had the same problem you described. Shrubs, flowers, and fruit trees were subject to the deer. They, the deer, had no predictors as the Elkmont Rural Village requires dogs to be fenced in or on a leash. Owners could not expect shrubs, flowers, or fruit trees to do well because of the deer. Then the state of Alabama, property owners, and leadership opened the 1,000 acres to deer hunting with a bow and six years later you can tell a difference. Only property owners can hunt the area and it adds to property value.

 

[BigJohnJTP]

Quite a few years ago my hunting buddy and I stopped going to Catoosa to hunt squirrels because after the first weeks of squirrel season the locals had beaten us to it. Not that I resent them but reality is reality. Where hunters abound - after a few weeks - the game does not. It was unreal to go to Catoosa, walk around all over the woods and hardly see a squirrel unless you got a long way away from the roads. Then we would come home and there were lots of squirrels running around my property! I sometimes in the past have hunted them in a subdivision (carefully) with a air rifle by just secluding myself in the woods when the season starts when there are lots of leaves and foliage for "privacy." I wanted to add a few squirrels to the freezer before the season is over in the next few weeks, but the freezing cold has made the outdoors ""less enjoyable" and I have new neighbors on one side that might wonder what I was doing sitting under a tree with an air rifle. (Gasp!) So I decided to check out the Dave Canterbury (my favorite "survivalist") recommendation that you be prepared to trap with Conibear 110's if the SHTF instead of relying on hunting. Here's result from a half-dozen 110's set out around the suburban property for a couple of days near where the remnants of squirrel-cut hickory nuts remained. I got 5 squirrels while sitting in my cozy warm house.

and

Dave's recommendations from years ago though he has many many newer videos -

 

[yellalinehunter]

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