[HeatherA]

Do any of you have deer whistles on your Camry? I'm thinking of buying some cheapies from Target as extra precaution for my SE and I want advice on where to mount them so they are not seen and they don't affect the look of my car. My daughter thinks I should put them in the fog light recess and I was thinking maybe the I could attach them some way to the lower grill so they'd be almost invisible.

Any thoughts?

 

[cardsfanpb]

they dont work!!

 

[workerant]

^ train horn might work. LOL

but especially it works on dumb human, the one that standing in the middle of the road talking.

 

[GT-R]

What whistle?

 

[Zembonez]

They are pure marketing hooey.

If a deer pays no attention to your car heading straight for them at 70 MPH why the hell would they pay any attention to a whistle? Somebody is getting rich off of silliness here.

 

[Glenn8963]

if you were to do a search on the web asking if deer whistles work, you would get roughly about a 50/50 response.

to work PROPERLY they must be mounted in such a way as to allow air flow with out obstructions, such as mounting on the fenders. to have a deer whistle mounted in the grille area like the o/p suggests, would adversely cut down the air flow through the whistle, as it would be stopped at the radiator.

truckers have used deer whistles for years with good results. in fact at many trucking companies, the deer whistles are bought by the company and installed on the big rigs. given that repairs are expensive for a big rig (more so than for a car), the trucking companies encourage the use of them. the reason why many car drivers say they do not work is because of improper mounting.

by mounting deer whistles PROPERLY, they DO work.

 

[dolfan]

We live in Kentucky deer country.Everybody in this area has hit a deer sometime and we all use deer whistles,usually after the fact.If its 50/50 better than 0%.Nobody in my family has hit one since installing.

 

[Zembonez]

Absolutely NOWHERE does any proof exist that these are anything but a chunk of ugly plastic.

Believe what you like.

 

[njerald]

3 choices.....

For the best sound, shove them up your tailpipe(s);

For the best looks, throw them in your glove compartment;

For the best disposal, tie them to the undercarriage and drag until they disappear.

 

[HeatherA]

Haha, guess it's hit or miss (no pun intended) on people's opinions of these things. My hubby thinks they're crap. I however have a HUGE fear of hitting a deer and would like to do all I can to avoid such a fate. I live in the burbs, but just on the edge of being in "the country" and have deer that walk through out neighborhood occasionally so it's a valid fear.

Thanks for your thoughts folks!

 

[workerant]

I however have a HUGE fear of hitting a deer and would like to do all I can to avoid such a fate.

Drive slow. :chug:

 

[HeatherA]

Drive slow. :chug:

Haha, easier said than done. Lots of dead deer on the sides of our freeways here. :ugh3:

 

[Joe Dirt]

Up in MI, we have a TON of car-deer accidents. Most of them come from deer running from the shoulders or the sides of the shoulders across traffic. In those cases, the whistles do nothing, we hit one deer that had the whistle my grandmother installed on her Tempo- jammed in it's nostril.

Some tips form the guides we drove with up in Manitoba- that really do work...

For deer in the middle of the road, you should be able to see them if you're paying attention- if you can, drive at them as you stop. If they move, they're going somewhere you're not. Deer don't know the 'you drive on the right' thing, and Murphy's Law states that whatever direction you go, they will go the same way.

Watch very carefully for turns and corners- you will see deer predominantly in two locations- on the road in turns, and in the ditches. Why? Salt. In the winter, we salt corners, and they tread up to the road to lick the salt. The shoulders hold salt from car-spray. During the summer, etc, they're in the ditches since that's where the most water is held, thus lush pants. Other than that- they run around without abandon like idiots.

It's not something that you can buy something to really avoid- we had those whistles before, and they didn't scare deer away. Even when I was running 31 trucks at a long-haul carrier in dispatch, we hit 2 deer. One truck had deer whistles, one didn't. If someone wants to stick them on the side of their fenders like mirrors and think they do something, cool. I just think they're a gimmick meant to illicit the exact response that you're displaying.

My thought- if they did indeed work, the insurance industry would offer to put them on vehicles, since a deer accident is handled as a comprehensive claim- they only get $50 back here in Michigan. I hit a semi truck rim in the road, bumped across the freeway by someone- same thing. Current repair bill is $2,200 of which they get $50 from me. If whistles worked, they'd pay you to put them on, as up here they spend a LOT of money on car-deer accident claims.

 

[workerant]

Haha, easier said than done. Lots of dead deer on the sides of our freeways here. :ugh3:

Yep, but your life could depend on it. Try. have some good music/entertainment in the car and cruise slowly but safely.

"Oooh, deer."

 

[Joe Dirt]

 

[workerant]

 

[ImJustMe55]

In order for something like that to work I would think that it would have to produce a loud and annoying enough sound to aggravate the deer and make them run away from it. Plus I would think that it has to project far enough in front of the vehicle to give a running deer enough time to stop or change directions. With that being said, the only way I could see deer whistles actually working would be if they were powered by electricity and projected in front of the vehicle.

 

[HeatherA]

Well thank you for all of your thoughtful comments. I will save myself $6 and the ugliness of the whistles and just continue to be extra vigilant against the deer.

 

[HeatherA]

That is epic! Thanks for posting.

 

[my.rims.are.stock]

I know this is old news here, but I wanted to comment anyway. When deer hunting, esp w/ a bow we often whistle at the deer to get it to stop and look at us long enough to get a good shot off. It will even stop if it's running to look. If I was to apply this to the road I would think I deer running across the road would stop to look for the whistle, give that "Deer in the headlights" look and get smashed. That's just my $0.02.