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"I've never seen them in bloom because deer gobble them up before they are much more than a bud," said Evans, who woke up recently to find the posies at her Seminole Drive home munched to nothing for the third spring in a row.

Evans isn't alone. Deer are raising eyebrows everywhere in Mt. Lebanon, bounding into traffic, leaving behind droppings and feasting on well-groomed gardens. Commissioner David Humphreys said he has been receiving at least one complaint call a week about deer.

"This has been an issue for a number of years now," municipal Manager Stephen Feller said. "Every indication that we get from our animal control officers is that the deer population is not decreasing."

Humphreys said most of the complaints he's heard are about deer eating plants, but for Feller the big concern is about the damage deer are doing on the roads. There were 187 deer-vehicle collisions in the municipality between 2000 and 2004, spiking at 59 two years ago before dipping to 49 last year, according to Feller.

Officials are weighing deer management options, including repellents and birth control, adding fences and signs and controlled archery hunts, which have been conducted in neighboring Bethel Park and Upper St. Clair. There were 204 deer-vehicle collisions in Upper St. Clair last year.

"We have a fraction of the problem Upper St. Clair has," said Feller. "However, we need to evaluate the issue in a similar way that they did. There is a variety of options to protect the personal property of the residents and for that matter to control the size of the deer population. We'll explore all of the options and see what makes the most sense for this municipality."

For her part, Evans doesn't want a controlled hunt. She enjoys seeing deer and rabbits scampering around her neighborhood.

"It lends an almost Disney-esque quality to life in Mt. Lebanon," she said. "I'm willing to sacrifice my tulips to keep the pastoral charm that lured me into the municipality in the first place."

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