EHD

[tony]

We bought 10 acres of property in Athens county Ohio. Not my first choice of where I’d live. But, my GF is from here, it’s outside of the Berkeley of Ohio and we got it pretty reasonable for the area.
EHD has hammered the deer in this corner of SE Ohio into WV, what’s called the mid Ohio valley. All you smell is death when driving or outside, it’s that bad,
Met with a contractor that’s going to mulch the build site and driveway today. Found a dead fawn as we walked the area. I’m seeing mostly adult deer dying from EHD. I’m sure fawns can get it as well as the midge will bite anything. Or possibly coyotes, it was pretty well decomposed .

You all with whitetail seeing it as well?

 

[TK161BOONER]

Yeah , seeing a dead one yesterday floating in a pond. OH definitely got hammered this year from what I’ve heard.

 

[StuckInTheEast]

Still recovering from outbreak 3 years ago here in southwest Ohio. It was the same way here...every creek/culvert/bridge you drove by smelled of death. Hoping we get some much needed rain and colder overnight temps here soon and don't end up with another outbreak. Deer numbers are still down compared to prior of the outbreak but definitely on the rebound.
Its a ruthless bug for the deer that's for sure. Seems to hit small to moderate size pockets really hard and then be basically non existent 10-15 miles away in any direction.
We took a trip up to lake Erie the year after it hit here and by 20 miles north were seeing deer all over vs none around home.
Still dont see half as many as I used to morning and evenings. Have driven the same route twice a day for many years. Pre EHD, 20-30+ deer in same places everyday. It was a rarity to see less and very rare to seen none in a day. Now, I get excited to see 5-7 along the same route at same times, often still dont see a one some days.
Hope the winter and next couple years are kind to the herd out there, itll take awhile for numbers to bounce back thats for sure.

 

[Gseith]

Lots of dead deer in Caldwell from what I have been told. Not seeing it here north of Akron. Hopefully it stays away from us. It doesn’t look good in the south.

 

[sniper61]

Sw pa here, been working on my son in laws 250 acres for 5 years now . It is all for wildlife. Last year I found 12 dead deer , 5 bucks. None so far this year but 2 miles away they found 2 in thier pond. The heard I built , finally ,has been alot of work and money. To think a tiny bug could destroy it all , has caused me to loose sleep.

 

[doc holiday13]

Its been a thing here this year.. Its been very wet so lots of stagnant water

 

[Smada962]

Its been a thing here this year.. Its been very wet so lots of stagnant water

Stagnant water doesn’t do it. The midge flies that transmit it hatch from the muddy banks of swamps and creeks. So when you get a lot of rain and those water sources swell, then contract, that exposes the mud that the flies hatch from. So typically the worst thing you can have is a very rainy late spring and summer then a very dry late summer. That creates the perfect conditions for the midge flies to thrive and do their thing.

We got hammered last year here in SW Michigan. It typically hits in pockets so some spots are ok still but others got obliterated. One of the better areas in the entire state is just south of where I’ve hunted for years and they experienced a 90% loss. Fields where you’d routinely see 20-30+ deer daily are now empty. Thankfully my area wasn’t hit as bad but my dad and I figured we lost easily half our deer or maybe slightly more, so it’s going to take awhile to recover. We got hammered in 2012 on my land also and that time was worse for us and it took at least 5 years before we had good hunting again.