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“The Texas Hill Country is overpopulated with deer...”

I've been to Bandera twice. My friends live on a high hill outside Bandera. My son drove me there both times. The first time we went, my friend warned us about the deer crossing the roads. They have heavy duty guards on the front of their car and truck due to the deer.

We were watching the road as we went to their house and went up the hill on their private road to the house. When we left that evening, we drove maybe 15 mph as it looked as though the entire population of deer in that county was on my friends’ private road and then the road to get to the main highway. There was every size of deer out on the road - the babies, the moms and the dads - it was family night on that road.

My friends are gardeners and have three gardens. One is a raised garden totally fenced in including wire over the top. The other gardens have heavy duty fence around them. They had a landscape company come in and plan the front yard, putting in plants deer hate and plants that take little water.

They suffer from having little rain. They are on well water plus have a catchment for rain water to help water the gardens.

If you are in the hill country, you likely need every drop of rain water you get and you want more as they do.

A lot of our deer problem in my area stems from city folk who move out here and think the deer are cute. They feed them, then the deer lose their fear to the point that they come up on patios and eat plants there. The deer are so overpopulated that they are essentially runts. I haven't seen deer so small since I was in Germany. With the ongoing drought, there isn't that much natural forage for them.

Neighbors have been talking about wild hog in the area too. I've seen a couple roadkill, but I haven't seen any close to my place, nor do I want to. They are more destructive than deer. Hogs will take down fencing and root through an entire garden in a night.
I wouldn't mind shooting a hog for the freezer though.