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EHD in SEK

My brother-in-law took some pics of a sick doe yesterday just outside Tyro. He contacted a KDWP biologist friend of his and the conclusion was EHD. Seems awfully early for that. The biologist said they are worried it could be a bad year for it.

Wet all Spring, but it’s gotten dry and hot fast here... near Pittsburg. Can’t be a good combination.

EHD is the disease that scares me the most. Throughout the years it seems to be very capable of really affecting a herd. I've put considerable time into trying to prevent outbreaks on our place. It's interesting to me because I read so much on here about trying to prevent the spread of CWD (which is poorly understood and rare) but nothing about efforts to prevent EHD (which is relatively common and devastating).

What do you try to do to prevent the spread of EHD? Big deep ponds on all of your properties? Fill in all the deep holes in your creeks?

We could use a little rain out west but it has been perfect weather for a great pheasant hatch. Seems like I see a better hatch in years that are drier than years that are wet. Wheat looks good, corn is coming up. I would much rather have a year like this than the floods of last year. At least with EHD, it is mother natures way of taking care of deer populations. When problems arise, it usually involves man. The "management disease" has hurt deer much more than EHD ever will.

I live in between Caney and Tyro. I haven’t seen or heard of any EHD cases nearby yet, but I’ll keep my eyes peeled.

Cherney... I dig slopping and shallow edges into deeper and straighter banks, and I often add gravel. The midge needs mud... a couple of inches of gravel can take away that habitat. There are also midge insecticides that could be used but I haven't gone that route yet as poisons are something I typically try to shy away from. And, any insecticide that kills midges is also likely to kill any predator insects also. Cattle ponds are by far the hardest to manage and quite honestly I haven't found a way yet. If you dig the banks steeper the cattle just trample it back into a slope. I know fence can be used to keep cattle off of a large portion of pond bank and only using a small section which can be graveled. I know this method is used for other purposes but I think it could be effective in lessening the midge environment. The creeks on our place are mostly gravel so very unlikely to be midge producers when they dry up.

I see. Good ideas. The creeks where I hunt are all mud and when they get low they just turn into stagnant pools every 50 yards.

Those stagnant pools in the creek bottoms are scary. Not much you can do about it other than pray for rain. You could research the midge insecticides... maybe they would be an option for you. If you search "EHD midge insecticide" you won't find anything that is appropriate. If you leave the EHD out of your search you can search "midge insecticides price" you'll find options. But like I said, research how it might affect other things.

Kansan, we must be neighbors, we live on 166 a mile west of Tyro.

EHD devastated the deer population around our property in '11 and '12. What hurt us most wasn't the loss of mature bucks, that is a short term loss; what was really bad was the loss of many of the older does, meaning the good moms. We didn't see the deer numbers anywhere close to what the were in '10 and prior until 2 years ago. The doe my brother-in-law took the pics of wasn't young. I'll see if I can get the pic.

Cat, all of our creeks are mud banked; it's a recipe for disaster when things get dry.

Cat, great information! Thanks.

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