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Ehd and moving forward

M

Mattyq2402

5 year old buck +
I got a pic over night of a 120” 3 year old, this makes two bucks in this age bracket over three spread out farms in SE Ohio. Ehd has destroyed my properties like many on here. I have couple doe and handful of yearling bucks and fawns across the three properties. Both bucks have poor genetic traits that I wouldn’t class in the shooter genetic. With such a hard hit from ehd, would you try and cull this genetic or would you let the farms breathe for the year?

Moving forward, other than locating and plugging mud flats, what can I do to help the herd rebound? Any of you guys getting hit more than once have any strategy other than stand by for a few years?
 
Culling for genetics does not work. That doesn’t mean I have never put a deer on the hit list to cull him. When populations are normal a piece of land will only hold so many bucks because of food, cover, social pressure, etc. so I have targeted older inferior racked deer that I felt would never make booner class, not for genetics but to open up a bedroom for one that might.

Don’t shoot does is my strategy for a bit.
 
Have you been able to hunt yet? I thought I had gotten hit hard based on field observations and cameras and seeing dead deer…I hunted this weekend I was wrong. I saw over 50 does on 5 sits. I still have too many deer despite there definitely being ehd on my farm
 
Had EHD here in 2021 hudson valley NY. Keep your head up and your property work moving.

With less deer, make it a prime spot for the deer you have. Going to need all the fawns you can get. Make good cover and hunt those properties this year, for coyotes.

Used to see 15-20 deer every morning on my way to work. Then it just went to 1 or 2 twice a week. Now I am at 6-8 reguarly every morning. Got a decent 8 pointer in the backyard last year. borther in law got sone early with harvesting, so hunting there durng rifle season was tough.

Home is only 6 or so open acres, but I have foodplots, apple trees, clover in the lawn, and good browse on every edge.

Look at the deer's feet if you do harvest any. Messed up looking hooves means they got it and recovered from it.

EHD is transmited by mosquitoes. Bug zappers and adding that mosquitoe larvae invertibrates helps out. Forgot the species name. Draining any stagnant water can help too. Adding fry minnows to ponds might help too. They'll be small enough to see and eat young mosquitoes. Added bonus to bug zappers is it kills the coddlng moths, so you get less leaf rollers in your apple trees if you have any.
 
I don’t mean to correct you necessarily, I just wouldn’t want wrong info to being spread. Ehd is not spread by mosquitoes but rather biting midges. No-see-ums which are smaller than mosquitoes
 
If you want meat, take one of the young bucks. Leave the does and older bucks to do the breeding.

As mentioned, go after coyotes. Try to take out some females in Spring. They will usually come to bait, as they need a lot of calories to support pups.

Definitely rid yourself of breeding habitat for the midges.
 
As the acorns are presumably finishing up, I have noticed an increase in deer on our cameras in Northern MO. We almost certainly lost some deer this year in addition to the EHD wave last year, but the numbers are slightly better than I was fearing.

We probably had too many deer to begin with, so I don't mind a mild reset of the population. With that said, it destroyed our buck age structure across the three properties. It might be a combination of deer harvest + EHD, but we have yet to see a mature buck across the three farms with 25 or so trail cameras and in-person velvet scouting the bean fields (no corn for miles). In talking with the neighbors, most are seeing the same. We are likely still going to harvest some does to try and get the herd a little more balanced. In the meantime, we don't plan on harvesting any bucks unless there is a fluke mature one that moves through.
 
Hoytvectrix said:
As the acorns are presumably finishing up, I have noticed an increase in deer on our cameras in Northern MO. We almost certainly lost some deer this year in addition to the EHD wave last year, but the numbers are slightly better than I was fearing.

We probably had too many deer to begin with, so I don't mind a mild reset of the population. With that said, it destroyed our buck age structure across the three properties. It might be a combination of deer harvest + EHD, but we have yet to see a mature buck across the three farms with 25 or so trail cameras and in-person velvet scouting the bean fields (no corn for miles). In talking with the neighbors, most are seeing the same. We are likely still going to harvest some does to try and get the herd a little more balanced. In the meantime, we don't plan on harvesting any bucks unless there is a fluke mature one that moves through.
Click to expand...

I hear you. Headed out this week. Only one mature deer I’ve seen. A big old 8. I may forego buying an archery tag and just hunt with my video camera. But you know what will happen if I only have a camera 😆
 
Bill said:
I hear you. Headed out this week. Only one mature deer I’ve seen. A big old 8. I may forego buying an archery tag and just hunt with my video camera. But you know what will happen if I only have a camera 😆
Click to expand...
Yeah, that is exactly what I will be doing. I haven't bought my archery yet and I may just buy firearm for doe management. Otherwise, I will be busy doing habitat work during the firearm season. I honestly don't mind as long as we can get a more balanced herd.
 
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