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Good EHD article

Fishbonker

Fishbonker

Life Member
Anybody besides me read the “Can We Manage HD Outbreaks?” in the February/March 2013 issue of Quality Whitetails?

The article examines the disease mainly from the standpoint of transmission and outlines what is needed for the midge to reproduce. One of the requirements is a puddle of stagnant water that is high in salts and poop. The edges have to be muddy and stirred up by animal activity.

The article stops just short of saying it, probably because QDMA doesn’t want to upset their advertisers, but think about your mineral pile and how it looks. When I had a mineral pile it was a shallow quagmire with stagnate water, high salt content and deer poop. Is your mineral site contributing to the spread of EHD?

I can see arguments either way, but why take the risk? In the current issue of Quality Whitetails QDMA shows you how to keep your mineral from being decimated by feral hogs. If you must use mineral I would suggest this method. They took a Trophy Rock, drilled a hole in it and put it on a rod high enough off the ground the hogs couldn’t get to it but low enough for the deer to lick. I’m sure the rain will cause some mineral to run off the Rock and into the ground but perhaps there wouldn’t be the puddle of stagnate water that would encourage midge growth and the spread of EHD.

I just do not see the reason to take the risk of spreading CWD and now EHD through the use of supplemtal minerals that have never been proven SCIENTIFICALLY to increase antler growth. Anecdotally, deer minerals work, scientifically, deer mineral spread disease.

For the record, I’m a Life Member of QDMA. I think Quality Whitetails is the best deer magazine out there.
 
In drought years it seems the mineral sites are fairly free of water. If it rains they dry up quick. I wouldn't think the midge would live in that type of environment. A muddy creek bottom with stagnant pools / mud I could see.

On the flip side, deer lick salt, deer get thirsty and would possibly drink more from stagnant pools.

Ban it all. ;)
 
Not a scientific opinion here, but a FWIW, we have found no evidence on our place, nor have any close neighbors that I know about, of EHD this past year. Yet just a few miles away though some I know did have EHD loss, some very significant. FYI, our mineral sites were as dry as a bone last year, I mean a concrete parking lot would not have been drier.

Also, I have a small pond that I had cut in the timber several years back. Because it is so deep, it didn't dry up even in the drought last summer, but it was down probably 3'-4' from lack of rain. (It was back to bankful last week after the snow and rain that we have had this winter.)

Knowing what I do about EHD, I was really concerned that this pond might lead to EHD spread, as there was a "ring" around the pond probably 5'-15' wide of mud. The beasts in our timber were flocking to this pond as though it was a waterhole in the middle of the Sahara Desert, it was a literal cattle yard around that pond all summer and early fall, yet no EHD that we can find.

I know all my neighbors have mineral sites similar to ours, yet no discernable EHD loss. Is it possible that the presence of minerals, and many foodplots too, in the area helped keep "our" deer healthy and thereby avoid EHD? Again, this is not scientific, I am truly curious myself. I am glad that we appeared to avoid the EHD wave that hit all over the Midwest.
 
Every EHD case that we have found this year was near the river, sand bars in particular, where deer trails cross the river. Mud was always stirred up from the deer coming and going from the timber to the bean field.

Our mineral sites were bone dry all year. We had found many, many, MANY deer that had died from EHD before any measurable rain that we had all year, while the mineral sites were bone dry, yet the ponds and rivers were very, very, VERY stagnate and no fresh water coming in.

On the farms we ran mineral the hardest, we noticed the least amount of deer dead, yet 3 miles away, where no mineral was present, there were dead deer everywhere. This is just an observation from someone who puts out more mineral than most people see in a 5 year period. I'm not a biologist, nor a professional, but I do see, study, feed, do habitat work, and improve everything for whitetails year round.

But as usual, it is always the minerals fault.
 
I have never had an issue with any of my mineral sites in holding water, in fact with all of the salt I would think it would actually help to keep the area dry. If anything, just be careful where you decide to put your mineral site. Obviously in bottoms, etc. you need to consider water run off and pooling.
 
yeah, I am the same...none of my sites have ever held water for any periods of time. Also, I did notice too that the farms I had more mineral on, less dead deer, and the farm with none is where I found most. And they are each on a river about 2 miles apart.
 
Fishbonker said:
One of the requirements is a puddle of stagnant water that is high in salts and poop. The edges have to be muddy and stirred up by animal activity..
Click to expand...

This seems a little fishy... like it was thought up by someone who has it out for mineral sites. Most of what I read is that the midges only need standing water to thrive. Mineral sights, even if they were holding water, would be a tiny percentage of the stagnant water available.
 
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I think it's a stretch to say you can manage EHD from what you do with a mineral site.:rolleyes:

From what I understand, the midges do well when there is a flood one year, and a drought the next.
 
Visiting the mineral lick:
IM000284.jpg

IM000293.jpg
 
I don't know the answer BUT.... There is some discussion (& some opinions I've read) that minerals increasing the health, nutrition and immune system of deer- can actually help against EHD killing the animal. I'm not saying it's proven but it does make sense. I do know - my big farm had the fewest EHD kills where I had a ton of mineral VS another farm that's smaller- no mineral about 2-3 miles away had a lot larger kill off. Not saying that's proof BUT I actually think nutrition of an animal is helped by minerals and I do know the stronger the immune system, the more likely an animal could recover from EHD & some do recover. In all fairness, one other variable of my big farm is it's full of tons of good size ponds & the deer have also been helped by year round food plots & have less stress for a variety of reasons.
 
6x6 said:
Yikes, is that date correct? Shed buck right? It looks more like zarcoid tumors on it's face, but definately on his last leg. Was it ever tested?
Click to expand...

The date is correct. I don't know anything else about the deer.

My only comment is that the next time you dine out, are you going to expect a clean glass or one used by a syphilitic HIV positive customer before you?;)
 
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