Roaming deer antagonize Jefferson City gardeners

Howard Cerini has tried human hair, peppermint oil balls, flashing lights and sounds, deer spray and granules to deter deer from eating plants in his Jefferson City yard.

Nothing has worked.

Cerini’s neighbor, Lance

Hale, was a new homeowner excited to make his yard beautiful. His plans were foiled this spring by hungry deer, who ate all his hosta plants “like they were at a salad bar.”

“Then (the deer) walked on down and hit my neighbor down the hill a little bit, so it just really upset her because she’s 93 years old, doesn’t have much longer in her house,” Hale said. “She has beautiful plants and they were up, and it was looking great and then one night they came through. The next morning — nothing, it was just twigs sticking up.”

The deer have likely cost Cerini and his neighbors tens of thousands of dollars, he said, between damage to their plants and yards, and money they spent on efforts to deter deer.

Despite Jefferson City customer service saying they direct deer complaints to the animal control department, overseen by the police department, police Lt. Dave Williams said animal control does not control the deer population within the city limits, though there are ordinances regarding animals in the city.

City codes regarding animals include Sec. 5-12 about dead animals and Sec. 5-18 about animals disturbing the peace.

Cerini said he has contacted the city regarding the issue, but they directed him to the state Conservation Department.

Conservation’s response is that the deer population has generally increased, but is not at a level of overpopulation.

“I don’t want to dismiss people’s feelings about the number of deer that they’re seeing and whether they think that’s too many or too few,” said Kevyn Wiskirchen, DOC’s private lands deer biologist. “That’s certainly

valid … there are people, many many people who think there’s too many deer, but from a herd health standpoint, they’re still in good shape.”

The deer still have enough food and a safe habitat, Wiskirchen said. It is possible for the number of deer to start to rise above the level socially tolerated, when a majority of people think there are too many deer. Wiskirchen said generally the state does not seem to be at that level yet.

The DOC does three annual surveys to get public opinions about deer numbers, given to firearm hunters, archery hunters and agricultural producers.

Wiskirchen said recent data from Cole County indicates 59 percent of firearms hunters think there are about the right number of deer, compared to 7 percent saying too many and 31 percent saying too few. For archers, 65 percent say numbers are about right compared to 10 percent who say there are too many and 26 percent too few. For agricultural producers, 48 percent say deer numbers are about right, 35 percent say too many and 13 percent too few.

Overall most of the survey results have shown some saying there are too many deer, but about an equal number have said there are too few still, so the state is at a good middle ground, Wiskirchen said. Overall, he thinks complaints regarding deer haven’t increased.

“If I didn’t have the population models and the survey work that has indicated that in most counties they have a slowly increasing population … and I was just going based on the feedback and the complaints from the public, I wouldn’t really detect a trend, an increasing trend,” Wiskirchen said.

Hale said he could understand why feedback was mixed and compared it to a tornado. One part of an area might be drastically affected and another part might not. He and his neighbors feel there is an overpopulation in their particular area, he said.

Hale’s brother, Kendall Hale, said he also had an issue with deer in his yard, seeing up to five in his front yard one or two nights a week. He lives on the west side of town, as opposed to Cerini and Lance’s east-side homes. Kendall said he knew someone who had issues on the south side of town and thinks it’s a citywide problem.

Todd Spalding, director of Parks, Recreation and Forestry for Jefferson City, said deer have been a problem at the city golf course, trampling greens and making indentations with their hooves that the department has to repair. He also said this had been an issue all seven years he has worked in the department of parks and recreation.

He’s not aware of deer being a problem at any city parks, where plants are already disrupted by people picking flowers and other disturbances, Spalding said.

The primary method used to combat high deer populations is hunting, Wiskirchen said. To keep deer populations at an ideal number, the DOC is increasing the number of hunting permits for the fall, in some cases doubling them, among other changes to hunting seasons that will allow hunters to bring the deer population down.

In Jefferson City, archery hunting is allowed on private property within city limits as long as it follows DOC rules and regulations.

Cerini said at his age it was not feasible for him to shoot deer in his backyard or neighborhood.

Spalding said some golf courses and city parks departments will apply for a special permit to hunt deer. One year, his department tried this at the city golf course but the deer “got the memo” and were not at the course that day.

Apart from hunting and methods Cerini has used — such as deer spray and flashing lights — netting and fencing can be another option, Wiskirchen said. He also said people should make sure and reapply deer spray after plants get wet.

It’s been difficult to get responses, particularly helpful responses, from the DOC, Cerini said. He said he finally got a response from DOC Commission member Barry Orscheln. Cerini said Orschlen refered him to the DOC’s regional resource management supervisor John George, who offered to come speak with Cerini and his neighbors.

Lance said he understood they would never be able to keep deer completely out of their neighborhood, but that right now there are too many.

“If we want Jeff City to be a city of homeowners and pride in their place, in their houses and making them beautiful, making the city beautiful, something needs to be done about the deer,” Lance said.

Added Cerini: “There is a problem here, there’s no way of getting around it. It is here, like it or not, and your feelings of too many deer, not enough deer, I understand that, but if you’re on the losing end of this argument, it adds up. It’s a problem, right straight up.”