# Salt licks and corn **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 14, 2007, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salt-licks-and-corn/419234 "2007-09-14T21:54:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dauerbach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c2a13f/32.png) [@dauerbach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dauerbach)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salt-licks-and-corn/419234/1 "2007-09-14T21:54:37Z")
We are not hunters. However, we hate deer, as they destroy all our plantings. We have this guy who has requested and received our permission to bow hunt on our land. I know he uses salt licks and corn to get the deer to cluster around his stand. Two questions. First, is he really just attracting deer and exacerbating our landscaping probems? Second, is using salt and corn illegal. I really don’t want to be dragged handcuffed into jail because I gave this guy the permission to bow hunt on our land. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salt-licks-and-corn/419234/2 "2007-09-14T21:58:44Z")
Nobody is going to have a clue until, at the very least, you tell us where you are. ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salt-licks-and-corn/419234/3 "2007-09-14T22:01:50Z")
Don’t know where you live, but I believe around these parts the hunter could be in some serious trouble for baiting deer. I’d pull up CDOW regulations but, unless you’re in Colorado, they may be irrelevant. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salt-licks-and-corn/419234/4 "2007-09-14T23:31:22Z")
[QUOTE=Bobotheoptimist] Don’t know where you live, but I believe around these parts the hunter could be in some serious trouble for baiting deer. I’d pull up CDOW regulations but, unless you’re in Colorado, they may be irrelevant. [/QUOTE] See, I was going to say that feeders are okay on private land in Texas (I don’t know for sure). ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salt-licks-and-corn/419234/5 "2007-09-15T00:14:29Z")
See? We need to know from whence you post. Colorado Division of Wildlife Big Game Hunting brochure states: IT’S AGAINST THE LAW TO: 9. Use dogs or bait to hunt bears, deer, elk, pronghorn or moose. Bait means to put, expose, deposit, distribute or scatter salt, minerals, grain, animal parts or other food as a lure, attraction or enticement for big game. Scent sticks that smell like food are illegal for bears. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salt-licks-and-corn/419234/6 "2007-09-15T01:35:38Z")
In Minnesota, you can place salt licks out, but not food/grain as bait. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salt-licks-and-corn/419234/7 "2007-09-15T16:03:27Z")
In Indiana, you can put out salt and food to get deer in the habit of coming to your spot, out of season. It had better be gone when the season opens, though. The waste grain in a recently harvested field does not count as bait. There are legal lures, too. Deer are intensely curious, and they hear and smell very well. Bucks are lust-crazy, and they check out anything vaguely hormonal. Used tampons and even used condoms, nailed to trees, will attract lovelorn bucks. Those things don’t smell like a doe, but they sure smell sexual. A little radio or iPod hung in a tree is peculiar enough to draw a curious deer or two. ---
**Author:** ![seenidog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@seenidog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seenidog)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/salt-licks-and-corn/419234/8 "2007-09-15T17:07:41Z")
In Wisconsin this would be illegal, and add apples to the list of forbidden bait. In some areas of Wisconsin it is now illlegal to use such baits for any reason, including photography and just because you like watching the deer while sitting on the back porch. These restrictions are an effort to slow down the spread of a certain disease ( I think it is called CWD,Chronic Wasting Disease) that is made worse when deer become too populace in a given area. Mrs. Seenidog says it is already too late, as she claims I have had Chronic Wasted Disease since the 70’s.