I had a hunch that you were getting tired of Garden Pests in the insect form, so I figured we would look at a pest that is a little larger, the White-Tailed Deer. Now I know most people may not automatically think of cute little Bambie sneaking into their garden and completely destroying their crops, but it does happen quite regularly, especially when the White-Tailed Deer is having a tough time finding their natural food source. So what do you say, are you up for learning a little more about this awesome animal that just happens to like garden food? Of course you are!

The White-Tailed Deer can be found from southern Canada all the way down to South America, and just happens to be the smallest member of the deer family in North America. Just make sure you don’t mention anything to them since they are a little sensitive about their height. During the summer you will normally find these beautiful creatures hanging out in fields and pastures munching on the yummy grasses. As I mentioned, if our wonderful little deer has a tough time finding natural food then they start wandering into the urban areas. At this time they will start looking for tasty plants such as roses, alfalfa, corn and other vegetables to chow down on. You can tell when you have a White-Tailed Deer raiding your garden by the jagged bite marks left in the leaves of your plants. Oh yeah, there are also the hoof prints throughout your garden.

The sneaky thing about the White-Tailed Deer is the fact that they tend to come out at dusk or dawn to feed so you may not always see them tromping around your precious work of art. Even if you d0 manage to catch a glimpse of them, they can get out of dodge pretty quickly if they need to. The White-Tailed Deer can run up to 48 km/hr (30 mph) and even more impressive, they are capable of leaping an astounding 9 m (30′) in a single bound. I don’t even think Superman can leap 30 feet in a single bound (only tall buildings).

White-Tailed Deer Fast Fact – The White-Tailed Deer is sort of a success story in the United States. At one time, the population of these majestic animals were quite low due to over-hunting. Since then the Government stepped in and put some strict regulations in place and as a result the White-Tailed Deer population is rebounding quite nicely. I love good news stories.

So this is probably the largest garden pest we will be talking about this week so be prepared to head back to the insect world tomorrow. I hope you enjoyed today’s Wild Fact.