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Total EHD casualty count in Iowa

Deer Nut

Deer Nut

PMA Member
I am curious as to how many suspected EHD deaths our members can confirm. I use the word "confirm" lightly because most of us cannot be for sure when we find a dead deer, without obvious injury, as to what the cause of death was. I personally wouldn't know what to look for. Let's use this thread to tally suspected EHD kills in Iowa.
 
Good post. Impossible to ever know, but I would suspect way more than the DNR thinks. Also depends on where. Some spots bad others nothing at all. I my property I've found 15 bucks. All in creek bottom and in close proximity to each other, thus assuming ehd. Not to mention numerous does. It sucks bad
 
"Van Buren County" - I have heard that county has been hammered by EHD & I thought I saw in the regulations the other day they had one of the highest antlerless permits in the state. Sure would make sense that the DNR could adjust permit allocation based on a massive EHD kill or something?!?!?

There's no doubt in my mind the season before took 10's of thousands of deer. I was on some blocks in my area where 15-20 deer were found. And that's just what was found. My opinion would be the vast vast majority of EHD deer are not discovered in the summer. Possibly a good bit are walked upon as a rotted carcass and pile of bones later (most will just walk by & hardly give it a thought). My opinion is 10's of thousands dead last year and feel bad for the areas that got blasted this year.
 
I agree with Skip, if something dies early enough in the summer that thing will be reduced to bones only in just a few weeks. If it dies when it is cooler in the fall there is often some more flesh left behind.

We have yet to find a deer that we suspect was an EHD death on our place, but we know many people not too far away that have found plenty of them. (Our farm is in NE Davis County, but only 400 yards from the Van Buren line.) Whether it is EHD or over harvest or whatever, it is startling to see how far the deer numbers have dropped in "our" region in just a couple of years.
 
I found 7 last year on my Warren County farm, 1 buck and 6 does...nothing this year.

Dented the population a bit, but still plenty of deer in that area
 
I realize that EHD is not spread deer to deer but I wonder if the properties with stagnant standing water where the midge's, gnats and mosquito's breed more prevalent have a bigger problem than properties with free flowing rivers, streams and springs. I only have standing water on wet years and those seem not to have as big as EHD outbreaks.
 
Found a dead doe in September and a dead buck last week. The bucks rack was snow white and part of him seemed like he was in the velvet stage. Wonder how many I would have found if I would have been lookin?
Talked to a friend of mine and he said they found a lot of skeletons in Clayton co. while shotun hunting.
I'm with Skip wonder how many are actually laying around that haven't been found.
Shedhunting will tell the tale in areas.
 
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Found 3 small buttons dead in Salix,Ia public ground. Right up the trail from a water source.
 
Much of southern iowas deer herd drinks from crappy little ponds I would assume. Lots of dead deer, too many to count. Enough to lay off the does I am sure :D
 
5 bucks in Tama County (3 in ponds & 2 in creek) and 1 buck in Decatur County (creek) and that's not even looking for dead deer just going in to bow stands. Have several bucks missing since September. Would be $ that after the season is over and I walk the creek's I will find several. I think it is worse in some areas than most realize. Depressing...
 
I live in North Central Iowa, Webster County. I have not found any on our farms and the neighbor hasn't either. However, the numbers seem way lower than last year. I hunt about every day and have not seen near as many. Plus, I have seen only 3 killed on the highway. Last year by this time I counted at least 15 hit by vehicles (which seems to be a normal number each year). Anyone else in this area finding lower numbers?
 
Ehd

I live in east central Ill., A year ago we were in a drought almost all summer and I started finding dead deer in August of that year. I just followed the stinch of this disease, in alittle over 3 months I found over 60+ within a two mile area of river and creek bottoms. I am sure we had at least a 90% kill, this fall we have some deer but not the huge ones that we had. And also the buzzards and coyotes would not touch the bones, only eat maybe a little on the ends of the antlers. It hit alittle south of here again this year, you will see a big drop in car deer accidents, and very few deer tracks in the woods and snow
 
A year ago we were in a drought almost all summer and I started finding dead deer in August of that year. I just followed the stinch of this disease, in alittle over 3 months I found over 60+ within a two mile area of river and creek bottoms. I am sure we had at least a 90% kill, this fall we have some deer but not the huge ones that we had. And also the buzzards and coyotes would not touch the bones, only eat maybe a little on the ends of the antlers
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Similar situation for me in SE Iowa. Stagnant water the last two summers...found over 20 in two years...predators don't touch most.
All the mature deer are gone...the woods are fairly quiet. 2-5 years before decent hunting again (if the tags and seasons are reduced) ??
 
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