Deer visit our lawn at night and they invariably eat the grass. Our landscapers just treated the lawn with preemergent crabgrass killer and I am concerned that this will sicken the deer. (In fact, all of our neighbors have their lawns treated this way.) Won’t this poison get into the grass and be ingested by the deer?
Country I don’t think you are giving enough credit to the deer.
If it tastes bad they won’t eat it. If it makes them sick they won’t be back.
If your neighbors have been treating their yards and the deer come back they aren’t being hurt.
I’d take the suggestion that deer know what’s good for them concept with a grain of salt. I don’t know much about deer, but cattle, horses, goats, sheep, llama, pigs and camels will repeatedly poison themselves on toxic plants even after the onset of severe symptoms.
If it’s a pre-emergent I assume it’s been sprayed onto a winter-dead lawn. If so the deer should be fairly safe since they’ll be eating the spring growth and these pre-emergents tend not to be that systemic. However if you can find out what they treated the lawn with I can should be able to get you the material safety sheet and put your mind at ease.
Filling in the blanks about whether live or dead lawn was treated would also help.