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TheKingsDeer.com

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Whitetail-Images.com
Was in deep SW Iowa yesterday and EHD as many have said has taken it's toll. I have personally watched it over in the Loess Hills west of me and it's sad.

So, my question follows the dry discussion, how does one get fresh water to animals in the wild? I see two different issues and that is water for another summer drought season as one and secondly how do animals drink when everything is froze?

I am seeing more ponds being built, but if they aren't spring fed just another midge trap. I live by a number of creeks and rivers and I think the constant flow if water has helped us locally.

Anyway, just curious on people's experience.
 
The key to maintaining fresh water is not of whether a pond is spring fed or has a creek running through it. It is a matter of improving the overall water quality. There are many different management methods that can help attain a superior quality of water. In the pond management industry we use aeration systems coupled with a metering system (used to pump in products) to not only reduce the amount of stagnation, but also to attack the organic matter within the pond. The products I speak of are natural enzymes and beneficial bacteria. There are bacteria products made for water column treatment, and also bacteria produced for organic sediment reduction. We have many clients with "deer ponds" in south west Wisconsin that use our services, products, and overall expertise to keep these ponds "fresh" so that they can overall reduce the risk of EHD.

Now to answer your questions specifically.

Use of a synthetic pond liner, and appropriate engineering techniques can enable for a fresh pond all season (given an appropriate slope, depth, and perimeter berms. Making 2-4 feet deep ponds will land you in a problematic situation year after year.

To keep water open for deer in the winter can be as simple as having an electrical or windmill driven aeration system. Having the diffuser near the edge of the pond will help to keep areas open for drinking. There also other pieces of equipment, simply known as water de-icers, that enable for areas of water body to keep open throughout the winter season. We use these in a lot of harbors to prevent docks from heaving, but the same principle is used in wildlife ponds to keep a drinking area open to wildlife.

Hope this helps somewhat :)
 
Thanks!
Great stuff, and I hope I can apply in my area!

I still scratch my head when it comes to certain areas that are maintained by the state. You take the public forest areas over here in the Loess Hills. Because of the scarcity of water all year I see areas hit very hard with EHD. Animals all congregate at the same source, the biologist know this so why aren't they applying some of these techniques to keep the water more pure?

I will ask today at the DNR session they are hosting on Facebook. See my post in the regular forum.
 
This is a fwiw response, as I am not a water source expert.

I had dozer build a "deer pond" for me about 7 or 8 years ago now. When ehd hit the last couple years I thought surely I would find Mr. Big floating, etc. But I have yet to find one in or around that pond in two years of ehd all around me.

Why? I can't be sure, but I think it is because it is a pretty deep pond. Even when the water level is down there isn't a lot of mud exposed. Also, the water quality is good relative to other ponds I have seen. I suspect that the primary ponds that ehd runs wild around are shallow "saucers" that often have very punky water in them.
 
I just called Dale Gardner and the exposure of the mud flaps ( I think I am saying that correctly ) is where the stinking midges live so it's not the water quality as much as mud exposure just like you guys are saying.

He told me that the South has has to deal with EHD forever and really so have we but until the drought we really didn't no just how bad it could get. EHD6 is a new strain and what happens down there is the animals become immune to the disease but there always seems to be a new strain. ( you guys can reword this like you like and please do so we understand it better )

If indeed global warming is happening and drought becomes more common our animals will eventually die off or be tolerant like southern deer. Or we get back to "normal" weather patterns and the disease goes back into hiding. Dale says we always have some somewhere in the state.

Anyway, it has been a tough two years for sure on our herd. Just trying to understand the very difficult problem.
 
Whitetail-Images I completely agree with you regarding the processes of the DNR when it comes to EHD. Implementing pond management techniques and procedures in order to improve the water quality in these public areas would dramatically help wildlife in general. In Wisconsin our DNR ensures that the majority of ponds that are publicly, and even privately owned (corporate storm-water retention ponds) are managed for the improvement of water quality.

Daver, You definitely have the right ideas regarding your pond. You most likely have some nice steep slopes, good depth, and low nutrient loading. Also your last comment is spot on! The shallow "cesspools" are the midge breeding/growing supercenters. An individual may think they are doing a good deed by making shallow "wildlife scrapes", but in fact you could be actually hurting your herd.
 
Also, as it goes for the "mud flaps" or in other words exposed littoral zone, the quality of the soil is also a water quality factor. High organic sediment ponds are the midges' pride and joy to raise their terrible family. This is why we implement synthetic pond liners to remove this as a possibility. Not only is the water going to be cleaner, but you also will eliminate the exposed soil. A midge doesn't quite like burrowing into plastic :) . For ponds that this is not possible we use a sediment reducing microbe bacterium that consumes the high nutrient organic soils which will help eliminate the sludge, improve water quality and water clarity, and overall make for a healthier ecosystem.
 
Great stuff guys! Wow, impressive to say the least. I think I will hang out more in this forum, try to figure out a way versus complaining about things we can't control. Thanks!
 
Team Haastyle said:
Whitetail-Images I completely agree with you regarding the processes of the DNR when it comes to EHD. Implementing pond management techniques and procedures in order to improve the water quality in these public areas would dramatically help wildlife in general. In Wisconsin our DNR ensures that the majority of ponds that are publicly, and even privately owned (corporate storm-water retention ponds) are managed for the improvement of water quality.

Daver, You definitely have the right ideas regarding your pond. You most likely have some nice steep slopes, good depth, and low nutrient loading. Also your last comment is spot on! The shallow "cesspools" are the midge breeding/growing supercenters. An individual may think they are doing a good deed by making shallow "wildlife scrapes", but in fact you could be actually hurting your herd.
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Thank you, in my case at least it is probably one of those, "it is better to be lucky than good", scenarios. As my pond is the way it is due to the terrain I had to work with rather than a deliberate design criteria. :D

But now that we know more, I would definitely strongly avoid the "saucer" shaped pond idea in the future. My pond does have good sloped banks AND I have seeded down the areas where there would be exposed mud...again, "better to be lucky than good", I did this just to add a few more morsels of clover for the deer to eat. But maybe I also stopped a few midges too, who knows. :D

I am pretty sure my little pond is about 10-12 deep too, so that helps. Good topic here, some good ideas and concepts to consider!
 
Thanks guys!
I've thought outside the box & wondered how hard it would be to spray for insects along pond BUT then realize it could hurt the whole ecosystem when you think about it for longer than 30 seconds. And the fact it's hard to take care of creeks. So, in 60 secs of thinking I ruled that one out.

Someone on here did have an interesting thought and did this..... Mixed mineral, corn & the mineral that contains sulfur into it. Deer eating the sulfur mineral that is made for cows to keep flies from biting them. One person that tried claimed success but wondering general thoughts?

I've got a roughly 40-ish acre pond on my place. I'd say 1/2 is shallow & 1/2 is 20' deep. Do you think I should be looking at an aerator or something or what options would I look at in that circumstance?

*and of course the technical right answer is "let nature take its course". and we don't have EHD years every year. at the same time, we help deer in infinite ways otherwise & if I can help them, I personally would do all I could to avoid a big die off like we have experienced.
 
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Interesting thoughts Sligh1.

Only thing to absolutely AVOID is using any mineral with salts. This is based on the research of Ed Schmidtmann, Researcher with the Arthropod-Borne Animal Diseases Research Unit, part of the USDA Agricultural Research Service. I included some quotes from an interview he had.

“One thing that makes this insect very adaptable is its tolerance of salts,” said Ed, “and that seems to be a key feature of the habitat because it allows the insect to live in a pure culture without other insect competitors.”

Salt levels are often high in cattle ponds due to salts fed to the cattle or leached into the standing water from feedlot runoff. These salts kill off other insect populations, reducing the midge’s competitors and giving the midge abundant breeding space.

This is from a great article that I have read in the past about the midge and EHD is found on the Quality Deer Management Association's page titled "Can We Prevent EHD?" by by Lindsay Thomas Jr.
 
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More interesting thoughts being brought out, hmmm. :)

Another FWIW from my perspective...it so happens that our primary mineral site on our place is about 40 yards from the pond I have been referencing. I have not done anything along the lines of mixing sulfur, etc, into the minerals that we put out, but I have wondered a time or two if there would be a beneficial supplement to add.

Now I am pretty sure that commercial "deer mineral" products have to be very careful here on their ingredients and marketing or they can get themselves classified as a drug, etc, and come under a whole 'nuther level of scrutiny. But I have wondered if the "standard" minerals we do provide have somehow helped us avoid the EHD kill off's that so many others have experienced???

Wondering out loud...have the minerals we have supplied, in some possible combination with a good, clean source of water nearby helped "our" deer not succumb to EHD???? If so, what lessons might there be to think about for the future?
 
Good question!
Interesting to note for me.... I had a big farm with about 15 nice, pretty deep and/or newer ponds. Did have a creek running thru center of farm too, I think it dried up, pretty sure. Well, I found maybe 1 dead buck & 4 does on the whole farm. Big place. The farm has been and was loaded up with food plots, standing grain in winter (health improvement), ponds all over, mineral locations in several spots, varieties of food and natural browse from aggressive TSI. 5 dead deer like I said. 1 mile away on a buddies farm without all of this, we found maybe 25 dead deer???? Something like that. stark difference. I guess I have no way of knowing but do wonder if coincidences or if something to it? EHD is known to hit pockets of areas so it would be interesting to find out what those pockets have in common or the commonalities of survival areas?
 
Sligh1 said:
Good question!
Interesting to note for me.... I had a big farm with about 15 nice, pretty deep and/or newer ponds. Did have a creek running thru center of farm too, I think it dried up, pretty sure. Well, I found maybe 1 dead buck & 4 does on the whole farm. Big place. The farm has been and was loaded up with food plots, standing grain in winter (health improvement), ponds all over, mineral locations in several spots, varieties of food and natural browse from aggressive TSI. 5 dead deer like I said. 1 mile away on a buddies farm without all of this, we found maybe 25 dead deer???? Something like that. stark difference. I guess I have no way of knowing but do wonder if coincidences or if something to it? EHD is known to hit pockets of areas so it would be interesting to find out what those pockets have in common or the commonalities of survival areas?
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I've walked my entire 1/2 mile of creek that had pools of water the past 2 years drought and found ZERO dead deer. Zero on the neighbors 3 ponds also and we have a ton of deer. A mile south of me, they had a good die off from EHD. That guy does zero work besides planting some food. My area has everything that Skip describes?? Always wondered why I never found any dead deer???
 
Sligh1 said:
Good question!
Interesting to note for me.... I had a big farm with about 15 nice, pretty deep and/or newer ponds. Did have a creek running thru center of farm too, I think it dried up, pretty sure. Well, I found maybe 1 dead buck & 4 does on the whole farm. Big place. The farm has been and was loaded up with food plots, standing grain in winter (health improvement), ponds all over, mineral locations in several spots, varieties of food and natural browse from aggressive TSI. 5 dead deer like I said. 1 mile away on a buddies farm without all of this, we found maybe 25 dead deer???? Something like that. stark difference. I guess I have no way of knowing but do wonder if coincidences or if something to it? EHD is known to hit pockets of areas so it would be interesting to find out what those pockets have in common or the commonalities of survival areas?
Click to expand...

Can i go fishing here this summer??!?!? :D ;) There's got to be some huge bass in there!!!
 
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My pond, like I mentioned, is maybe 35-40-ish acres. Electricity is far away. Would it help to do just like one aerator and make any difference? Where would I find the best solar or wind powered aerator and would this help at all? Also thinking of winter water source, waterfowl, fish, etc. Any details appreciated!
 
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