I imagine it was, but with social media as it is now everything is more known that before wouldn’t have been...
Let’s face it, we’re learning what happens a 1k miles away that years ago wouldn’t have made local headlines vs national....
EHD in Ohio?
- Thread starter livetohunt228
- Start date
I imagine it was, but with social media as it is now everything is more known that before wouldn’t have been...
Let’s face it, we’re learning what happens a 1k miles away that years ago wouldn’t have made local headlines vs national....
Spencie
Senior Member
Name a time in the history when deer congregated around single sources of food/supplements/water more than they do now. I am slowly turning over on my feelings about baiting, minerals and man-made watering holes. We're encouraging deer to spend more time in close proximity and things like EHD, CWD and diseases yet to rear their ugly head are the results of multiple deer being in close contact with one another. If you look at the area around Barlow/Fleming where they are finding them, I can't think of a hunter I know in that area that doesn't bait, myself included. Whether you use it to kill deer or to get pictures, it has the same result.
My opinion is that the bigger influence than that is the fact that over the last 30 years residential building has removed a ton of space which has forced deer and other wildlife to seek cover in smaller areas. This has crowded them into feeding and drinking in closer proximity to each other.
Spencie
Senior Member
The mid 2000s is when baiting started becoming a common thing. About the same time EHD became more prevalent.
Ding ding ding.
I can't say I've never shot a deer over bait, or minerals, so I'm not much to talk... But I HATE what the commonality of baiting has done to deer hunting. Obviously the spread of disease concerns me, but also, and maybe moreso, the overall lack of and refusal to learn real woodsmanship in regards to hunting deer. I hate it, hate it, hate it. And the more I learn about deer nutrition the more I believe mineral sites are nothing more than a focal point for congregating deer and obtaining pictures.
The worst known EHD outbreak in Ohio history happened about 10 years ago in Meigs Co. 5 years ago, Meigs came out of obscurity to lead the state in record book entries.
Is there any biological research to indicate a correlation? Not in Meigs specifically as I'm sure the answer is no, but on a larger scale perhaps.
Pretty much all I use mineral sites for is pics. IMO they don't do much for the deer as far as nutrition. The big companies want you to think that though.
What your failing to see Chad is that baiting brings deer into close proximity to one another. If you have midges in the area that carry EHD, and deer spending a large amount of time standing at a bait site, common sense says that multiple deer are more likely to be infected.
Like Jesse said, I'm guilty of the same practices. But I think our need and greed to kill big deer has overshadowed what is right for the deer. We pump these deer full of food and minerals, but are we doing more harm than good? I think it's an interesting theory, and one that could indeed have some merit.
True, if there's water nearby. Another thing to realize also is if there is a shortage of water, deer are going to congregate around what little is left anyway.
Not that I'm aware of. But, I remember thinking at the time that it's awfully coincidental. Lower deer densities and an across the board chlorination of the gene pool may have had an impact.
I wonder what the difference is between states that allow baiting and the ones that do not as far as EHD cases.
It's an interesting correlation for sure. I'd think the lower densities would certainly help. Or course a host of variables play in to the equation here, but it's intriguing nonetheless.
Iowa and Missouri do not allow baiting, they have been hammered with ehd at least twice in the last 5-7 years.
It was widely believed that drought year summers were a culprit in wide spread EHD epidemics. The thinking is that deer and the midges which spread the disease, both congregate at the limited water supply. We had the wettest July in years and a cool damp August which shot that to hell.
The best explanation I've heard from the scientific community is that the midges themselves are cyclical. This has also been a bad year for West Nile virus in mosquito pools and that's been attributed to a 5 year cycle. Has anyone else noticed an uptick in yellow jacket ground nests this year?
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