I live on a country road, so I see a lot of wildlife, as most of us do. All, good for flies of course. Deer, chipmunks, squirrels, dogs, cats, etc.
Today, driving home from the pond a chipmonk ran across in front of me. Now me, if something runs out and dies, they were stupid. My wife, she’ll feel really bad and cry etc. So anyways, back to the story. The chipmonk, runs across the road, I miss hitting it. And I’m not sure how, but I did. My wife, in a high pitch tone is saying “Run little chipmunk, run”.
So it makes it. And my wife slaps me and screams at me “You were AIMING for him!!!”. So I laughed.
Now I’m not saying I wasn’t aiming for him, but I’m not saying I was either. I just wasn’t swerving for the little bugger. Fresh layed gravel etc. Swerving would have been a bad idea.
So, it got me wondering if any of you actually aim for the little guys running across the road.
I’m going to pick up some Borax incase I do run one over. Afterall, no reason they should goto waste and rot, and be ran over 100 million times.
I do find though, I nearly run over squirrels a lot now that I fish almost every day. And travel almost 90% gravel roads. Alot of which are treed on both sides. Just hope I don’t hit something bigger with my cavalier haha.
Tip that actually works well. ( Unless you need the fur )
You know how the squirrels or chipmunks will run back and forth unable to make up their mind till you run over them. Even dogs and cats sometimes seem unable to make up their minds. HIT THE HORN! 99% of the time if you hit the horn the animal will run straight off the roadto safety. The sound makes up their mind instantly. If there is a dog or a cat on the side of the road a beep will often cause them to turn and look at the car and thus avoid it. Works for deer too.
True Brother In law story. My bro in law put deer whistles on his truck. He regularly drove from Vancouver to Calgary on a commercial run. He dropped by the house to say hi one day. I noticed the whistles had been taken off leaving marks where they had been. I asked him how come you took them off. Didn’t work was the reply. I said did you hit a deer. Nope. Then they must have worked I said. He looked startled, then got quiet for a bit. Then He said maybe I should put them back. I swear that a true story.
I only aim my car at politicians unable to make up their minds while crossing the road and NO I won’t beep the horn!
BTW Otto:
You MAY want to check your local laws regarding the harvest of road kill. There is a myriad of laws covering that situation and it isn’t worth the hassle just for some free chipmunks or fuzzy caterpillars.
I can honestly say that I have only intentionally hit one animal and that was a cat that the car in front of me had hit. The poor thing was spinning in circles with his hind legs going about 100 miles per hour and his head and shoulders rotating on one spot. I had to put it out of it’s misery.
I will always avoid a critter unless it means I will go off the road or hit another car. There are far too many volunteer road kills out there for me to add to the carnage.
Also, I’m pretty sure it would be bad carma to intentionally hit a critter for fly tying material. I’m sure the fish gods would make sure that you introduce bugs to your other materials and you wouldn’t catch any fish on the flies you tied with the materials harvested from the “murdered” critter anyway. Just a thought…
Ok, I can’t really imagine anyone trying to hit an animal to collect tying material…that would be sick…
Two other things…
Remember far more people are hurt or killed trying to swerve and miss an animal and then tunning off a road or into the path of another car. I have taught a number of kids to drive and I tell them… If an animal runs into their path… hit the brakes & hit your horn…then hit the animal if you have to…do not swerve.
Also, check into any research…Deer whistles are worthless.
You’re correct. Swerving is just too dangerous. My wife, will swerve and kill everyone in the car before she hits a little chipmunk. Well, maybe she won’t but she’s still crazy about saving the little critters. I refuse to swerve, even for dogs, or deer. I do apply the brakes and use the horn though.
As for the deer whistles. I think they work. I’ll do a search on them to find out. But a buddy of mine was always slowing down for deer around here or hitting his brakes hard to avoid them. He put on the whistles and noticed he wasn’t slowly down for deer, ever. Going off his research is where I made my conclusion they worked.
i know this is starting to get a little off topic, but one thing i heard is that if youre going to hit a deer and you just cant stop in time, dont brake. by braking, the front of the car pushes down making it possible to flip the deer up into the wind sheild. if you dont brake, you are probably going to hit it straight on and more or less push it over on its side. it’ll still smash up youre car but i personally would rather the car get hurt than me.
I’ve got an older freind of mine (80"s ) that walks the road every morning approx 6 miles, and he brings me ALOT of road kill. I keep borax in the house ha ha ha
NO not it at all. you should brake, but if you cant stop in time, just let up on the brake, so the front of the car lifts up and hits it in the body. if you just keep holding the brake down, the front of the car will stay down and possibly flip the deer up onto the hood.
Swerve to avoid a small animal,use controled braking instead.
I have covered to many accidents were people have been badly hurt , because they did not want to hit a small rodent; and have had collisions with other vehicules, and private property.
Also your insurance company will cover the dammages on your vehicule if you hit a small animal ( low initial deductable on your part ), But if you hit another vehicule, or someones personal property, you will be paying the full amount of the deductable, and probably your premium will be going up!
The majority of accidents with large animals like deer, usaually see the animal projected away from the vehicule, even if the front end of the vehicule is downwards due to braking.
Only three times in 20 years have I seen large animals go into windshields;
1- Projected into the other lane/car after being initally hit by a vehicule going in the opposite direction.
2- A moose being hit in the legs by a small vehicule, he fell on the car, on top of the people sitting in the car; had to cut the moose in two to get the people out; can you say STINKY!
3- the animal actually jumping/bounding into the windshield as the car goes by.
On another note,
I have heard that if you have the proper thread size on your vehicule, it can actually skin the caterpiller, and leave only the pelt on your tire in the thread; LOL!!
It IS easy. That’s what Braun coffee gringers are for. Of course, you need to dry those caterpillars copletely before you put them in. You don’t get wing material, just dubbing…
Ed
P.S. The fuzz on stinging nettles is NOT good for dubbing…
