By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

TOLEDO, Ohio — Want to keep pesky deer from eating crops?
Simply have plenty of acorns available for them to eat – that’s the suggestion from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife.

“I have a few apple trees near my house, and any evening in July and August you’ll see the whitetail deer eating away at the apples,” said wildlife biologist Mike Reynolds. “As soon as the white oak acorns hit the ground, those deer disappear. Acorns are a preferred food source for these deer and they like acorns as much as anything else.”

Most farmers don’t pay much attention to the bitter acorn – but they should. Acorns are loved by deer, turkey and squirrels. In areas with poor acorn population, wildlife such as these are more likely to be feeding around agricultural areas and forest edges.
“In good acorn years the farmers should experience less deer damage in the fall,” Reynolds said. “The acorns won’t influence the movement of deer in the summertime, but in September and October these deer should be moving away from the farmers’ fields and into the woods, seeking these acorns.”

The Division of Wildlife is currently participating in a multistate, ongoing research project to estimate regional acorn production throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. Wildlife biologists hope to use the acorn production information gathered in the study to forecast wildlife harvest and reproduction success rates on both a local and regional basis.

This year the Division of Wildlife employees scanned the canopies of selected oak trees on 38 wildlife areas in the state to determine the percentage of trees that produced acorns and the relative size of the acorn crop. Results varied regionally, but an average of 42 percent of white oak trees and 30 percent of red oak trees bore fruit this year. That’s good news for the deer.

“White oak is preferred by deer much more than the red oak because the red oak have chemicals that make them bitter,” Reynolds said. “The white oak acorns taste just like candy to these deer.”

The eastern third of Ohio is primarily forest and oak trees are more abundant in that part of the state. These acorns are the lure to the thousands of deer inhabiting the adjacent woods and forests, giving farmers in this region time to harvest in relative peace.

On the other hand, Reynolds and his staff don’t recommend that farmers in the western part of Ohio plant their crops too closely to woods that are full of oak trees.

“This would attract deer and over the course of the years, there would be a lot of damage,” he said. “By giving them an abundant winter food source you’d have them near your property often. Those living near the forests don’t have to worry because the deer are out getting those acorns while the farmers harvest their crops.”
Ohio’s fall crop of acorns will provide a vital food source for more than 90 forest wildlife species. According to those at ODNR, white oak acorn production is about the same as last year, but red oak acorn production declined by 57 percent from 2007.