Maybe you folks from other states can give me some advice, my tree stand calls, my bow is ready and my shooting is about as ready as it ever will be and our deer herd is sick! Many dead animals...I've heard blue tongue (anybody know what that is?) I've heard CLS? Thinking maybe I should just let them be this year. Any thoughts
Get out and get them. It probably isn't blue tongue but a very close disease in the same family. EHD is the short of it and is what is killing deer everywhere now. It is related to blue tongue and causes the deer to bleed internally, which is why they look for water.
The thing of it is that it happens every year, just not at this scale nationwide. It is spread by a "midge" or better known flea, and it's results are the same. No prior conditions seem to be the indicator. Meaning otherwise healthy deer are contracting it after being bitten by a flea carrying it.
It is one of those thing the average hunter is just finding out aboout and it will run it's course after we have a severe enough winter to kill the fleas off. As far as not hunting them, well that is your choic but your prescence and killing of some animals will not be the difference. They have been dealing with these types of things for a lot longer than you have been hunting.
Good luck and God Bless
EHD has been present in the herd for around 50 years they say. The worst of it so far is in Ionia with almost 2,000 dead deer found so far. A lot more to come with hunters hitting the woods soon.
I say get out there and hunt, any sick deer die quickly, usually in or near water, due to the fever according to the DNR website.
http://www.michigan.gov/emergingdiseases/0,4579,7-186--283966--,00.html
I'll second what AWPForester said. We saw a pretty good hit from EHD here a couple years ago. We took it easy on the does the following year and the herd has rebounded nicely. From what I've read, the droughts of the last few years have played a major role in all the EHD deaths, so my advice is, pray for rain!
I wont be suprised if 3 OF THE WORSE counties end up with 20,000-30,000 dead deer alone. Not to mentions 10's of thousands in other counties nearby. We got hit with alot more than your average EHD outbreak. Its ugly, super stinky and very quiet in the deer woods.
Here is the state's website with updated information:
http://www.michigan.gov/emergingdiseases/0,4579,7-186--283966--,00.html
I know a Barry county guy who is laying off the deer and going after some turkeys this fall. There are always squirrels and rabbits. Or take a trip up north.
We need some frost!!!
I wondered what the deal with the dead and dying heading for water was. We have a lake next to our football field, I coached a game the other night and several fans couldn't take the smell! I like the turkey idea, we have plenty of those around. Maybe this year instead of bonus points for students that kill a deer with their bow they make in my class I'll give points for turkey.
Another link with info on disease itself
http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10370_12150-26647--,00.html
I work down in calhoun county and my work has approx 300 fenced acres. There were approx 50 deer living in there, and no hunting is allowed. It was nothing to see 20 deer as you drove in/out, but those sightings quickly dropped and now were down to 4 fawns left. This EHD has wiped them out! We had vultures roosting/circling every morning and the smell is awful at times. Drive around even outside of work and you just dont see deer. I told a co-worker that lives/hunts that area the deer were just in the Oaks, but that is not the case now. Once that disease went through here, I realised it was bad news. Unfortunately our state has not been great at getting the word out and many will go out and shoot, shoot, shoot. I agree with Pearl Drums, we will see/hear lots more once the season opens and hunters hit the woods. I walked my friends land with him along a creek and we found 4 bucks and 3 does. All but 1 of them was found by sight, not by smell. For whatever reason, some of them just dont stink, where others are horrible! Another thing that isnt readily known, you cannot pick up these antlers without tagging them. You do not want to try to explain to an officer why you have "antlers attached to a skull" in your truck this time of year, or anytime for that matter that doesnt have a tag. Sheds are a different story.
I was all excite dto hunt Indiana with my buddy from Madison until he informed me they are dying down yonder as well. I believe its all around us. We got a frost a week ago that was supposed to kill the fly. The deer are still dying. From what I gather it only takes a few day to kill them.
Indiana ( Parke County ) has been hit really hard.
I heard they live about 7 days after being infected, and that fawns are imune as long as they are nursing. Of course mom dies, and the fawn gets bit later, dead.... EHD is nothing new, but the states that get it every year some of the deer seem to have built up imunity to it. Here in MI, that is not the case....