Ask Mr. Answer Person: "Isn't it time to do something about deer in the city?"

Pat e-mails Mr. Answer Person: "Don't you think it might be time to address the problem deer are causing within the city limits of Decorah?  I almost hit one on Mechanic street in the middle of the afternoon and it just walked right out in front of me.  I also know of many people who have had deer eating their gardens/flowers.  I for one, spent several hundred dollars on new flower plants and noticed deer tracks in one of my flower gardens recently.  Perhaps a bow and arrow season to reduce the population as I know there are new fawns being born within the city as well.  Hopefully our city will help its residents solve this problem."

Mr. Answer Person says: "There's no doubt deer can cause traffic accidents as well as damage to vegetable and flower gardens.

That said, City of Decorah officials haven't made it a priority to hire bow-hunting sharp shooters to reduce the population of deer in the city.

Maybe that's because a deer population tends to stabilize according to the amount of food available in an area.  Shoot some deer and their number temporarily go down, but the numbers rebound as more fawns survive because there's the same amount of food, but fewer deer splitting the food.

Mr. Answer Person doesn't mean to discourage you, however.  Readers, do you have any suggestions for steps that scare away deer from your property?  Short of using the open carry guns you're all packing now?