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Watch for EHD

BSK said:
I've never seen anything like the 2007 outbreak. I was helping the TWRA with their thermal imaging census that summer, and driving around at night you could tell you were getting close to a creek by the absolutely gagging smell of death. I do believe some areas lost well over 50% of the local deer population. A few areas, maybe 70%.
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Yep.
 
BSK said:
For those west of Nashville, in the driest areas (and these drought conditions are forecast to get worse over the next month), watch for dead deer near water sources. Hot dry Augusts and Septembers are when we see EHD outbreaks. Most frequently, deer are found dead in stock ponds and along creeks.
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I was thinking about this very thing yesterday BSK. It could get really bad in the next few weeks if conditions don't improve. I would hate to see another year like 2007 for sure. Better start praying for rain and cooler weather!
 
Quailman said:
I was thinking about this very thing yesterday BSK. It could get really bad in the next few weeks if conditions don't improve. I would hate to see another year like 2007 for sure. Better start praying for rain and cooler weather!
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Rain forecast for westcentral TN for the next 10 days:

Canadian Model - 0.20"
European Model - 0.00"
GFS Model - 0.25"

for the next 15 days:

GFS Model - 0.50"


Climate Prediction Center's 30 day forecast - drought persists in the western half of TN especially south of I-40
Climate Prediction Center's Seasonal (3 month) Forecast - drought develops in West TN west of KY Lake
 
BSK said:
Rain forecast for westcentral TN for the next 10 days:

Canadian Model - 0.20"
European Model - 0.00"
GFS Model - 0.25"

for the next 15 days:

GFS Model - 0.50"


Climate Prediction Center's 30 day forecast - drought persists in the western half of TN especially south of I-40
Climate Prediction Center's Seasonal (3 month) Forecast - drought develops in West TN west of KY Lake
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Yeah, that's not what I was hoping for!
 
Someone educate me on EHD. "Googling" it, states it comes from biting midges. Does water keep the bites from infecting them?
 
CPC's long range forecast does not bode well with this graphic.

1724253853628.webp
 
jb3 said:
Someone educate me on EHD. "Googling" it, states it comes from biting midges. Does water keep the bites from infecting them?
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Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD) is spread to deer through biting midges (no-see-ems). These midges live and breed in the mud surrounding stagnant water. In a hot, dry late summer and early fall, water sources dry up and deer concentrate on drinking from the few stagnant water sources (stock ponds, swamps, etc.) available, which concentrates many deer into a few areas - areas that could carry a high concentration of infecting midges. This results in entire social groups of deer becoming infected - often entire buck bachelor groups. The illness cause lesions on the tongue and the roof of the mouth, as well as a high fever. Infected deer go to these water sources to cool their fever and often die in mass in and around these water sources.
 
UTGrad said:
We need a tropical storm to come up the Gulf and be a tropical depression that spins 2 days of rain over TN.
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I would love that! Currently, only storm forecast to develop is forecast to head into the Gulf and then make a hard right turn into Florida.
 
BSK said:
I've never seen anything like the 2007 outbreak. I was helping the TWRA with their thermal imaging census that summer, and driving around at night you could tell you were getting close to a creek by the absolutely gagging smell of death. I do believe some areas lost well over 50% of the local deer population. A few areas, maybe 70%.
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I believe that was the only year I ever recall finding multiple dead deer. Both at my lease and at LBL.
 
2007 was terrible. Ruined laurel hill. It has never recovered to pre 2007 standards. Pre 2007 it wasn't if you'd see a good buck it was how many. Now your lucky to see a legal one.
 
ImThere said:
2007 was terrible. Ruined laurel hill. It has never recovered to pre 2007 standards. Pre 2007 it wasn't if you'd see a good buck it was how many. Now your lucky to see a legal one.
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Only found a couple at my place, but we have no stagnant water, just tumbling creeks. But the surrounding swamps were death zones.

Some of the creeks in Williamson County were disgusting. Dead deer piled on top of each other. Eastern Williamson County was the worst area I personally saw, although the core of the hot zone was supposedly around Hickman County.
 
BSK said:
Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD) is spread to deer through biting midges (no-see-ems). These midges live and breed in the mud surrounding stagnant water. In a hot, dry late summer and early fall, water sources dry up and deer concentrate on drinking from the few stagnant water sources (stock ponds, swamps, etc.) available, which concentrates many deer into a few areas - areas that could carry a high concentration of infecting midges. This results in entire social groups of deer becoming infected - often entire buck bachelor groups. The illness cause lesions on the tongue and the roof of the mouth, as well as a high fever. Infected deer go to these water sources to cool their fever and often die in mass in and around these water sources.
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Maybe giving them better water sources on private farms could actually help the herd? https://www.tndeer.com/threads/diy-watering-hole.452958/#post-5911199.🤔

We have about 3/4 of a mile along an old river channel that is partially filled in with sand. It is dried up in spots and pockets of water with a lot of mud. There is other water nearby though. I took the dog for a walk this morning and went to a few places I could possibly see if there were any dead deer. Have the china virus, so I wouldn't be able to smell a dead deer unless it was pretty close.
 
Stewart County didn't make that chart but it's bad in the south and southeast of the county. I have my help pumping water from the Cumberland watering my rice and corn duck holes at Cumberland city.
Holding off planting any plots at this point. No need in wasting seed till there is some moisture in the ground.
 
BSK said:
Only found a couple at my place, but we have no stagnant water, just tumbling creeks. But the surrounding swamps were death zones.

Some of the creeks in Williamson County were disgusting. Dead deer piled on top of each other. Eastern Williamson County was the worst area I personally saw, although the core of the hot zone was supposedly around Hickman County.
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I can attest to that for Hickman. I just graduated college and had all fall to hunt. I think I sat 14 or 15 times without seeing a deer.
 
At one time, the TWRA had a map of the areas most effected by the 2007 outbreak. It was posted on TNdeer, but I don't have a copy of it.
 
BSK said:
I've never seen anything like the 2007 outbreak. I was helping the TWRA with their thermal imaging census that summer, and driving around at night you could tell you were getting close to a creek by the absolutely gagging smell of death. I do believe some areas lost well over 50% of the local deer population. A few areas, maybe 70%.
Click to expand...

I was living in Clarksville at the time. There was a late freeze that year- like April 9th it was like 18* after being in the 80s and 90s in March. Everything was burnt from the frost and late coming back. Then it didn't rain from then until more or less October- like 5" of rail all summer and never more than 1/2".

I think some areas lost 90-100% of their deer and some lost 10-20%. It was absolutely dismal in some areas and I think it took 5 years for some areas to recover.

Catoosa got hit about 5 years ago in the bicolor area-2016-17 I think and I believe is just now coming back.
 
Savage said:
I was living in Clarksville at the time. There was a late freeze that year- like April 9th it was like 18* after being in the 80s and 90s in March. Everything was burnt from the frost and late coming back. Then it didn't rain from then until more or less October- like 5" of rail all summer and never more than 1/2".

I think some areas lost 90-100% of their deer and some lost 10-20%. It was absolutely dismal in some areas and I think it took 5 years for some areas to recover.

Catoosa got hit about 5 years ago in the bicolor area-2016-17 I think and I believe is just now coming back.
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Correct Savage. 2007 was the Perfect Storm. First the very hard freeze (teens) after a very warm early spring. Most trees had to put on a second set of leaves. This was too much for many trees and that year and the next saw significant tree die-offs. Then we had an exceptionally hot summer, with numerous days near 100. Then throw in the severe drought that year. Then the EHD hit. And of course, the late freeze killed off the entire acorn crop that year. Took YEARS for Nature to bounce back from that one.

Interestingly, the deer local to my area suffered so much from the conditions that several of the bucks we killed in 2007 did not fully mineralize their antlers, as mineralization occurred during the peak of the EHD outbreak in August. These bucks' antler tips were black, and you could dig your fingernails into the antlers. Eventually, these tips just crumbled away.
 

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