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Neonicotinoids insecticide & deer health- causing big problems???

I snared a ton of coyotes around my neighborhood and it sure seemed to help , I’ll have to do it every year I’m sure but coyote pictures went down and deer pictures/ sightings went up. Also seems like I have more twins this year.

Also I had no idea snaring coyotes was so easy, anyone could set a dozen along their way to work in the country and put a dent in them.
 
BearCreek said:
Same story to the east of you at my place in Illinois. I've harvested one doe on 200 acres since 2020. Expand that out to 600 acres and I estimate 1-2 does a year max, yet I see no additional deer accumulating on the properties. Good year this year for fawns per camera data, so we will see what transpires. I'm starting to question whether properties that are over 30% ag fields will ever over-populate with deer. Maybe its a social issue? Does running off other does?

The biggest mystery to me is why four year old bucks do not return once turning five. We will acquire footage in mid January of these bucks, seemingly healthy, that have been home bodies for multiple years, then gone once its time to harvest. Do these bucks die? Relocate once they turn 5? I only mention this because I could easily be convinced that there is some other source of mortality out there, beyond EHD/CWD/predators that is unknown or being overlooked.
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Interesting point on them vanishing at 5, we have experienced the exact same thing with home body bucks 3 out of the 4 years we've owned one place. It's demoralizing!!! We confirmed they survived hunting seasons, yet they haven't shown up the following hunting season. I picked up sheds from a 2024 buck, who we passed 5 times, and he's a no show this year. We passed another in 2023 that showed up a couple times in velvet in 2024, but then went missing. Doesn't make sense.
 
MN Slick said:
Interesting point on them vanishing at 5, we have experienced the exact same thing with home body bucks 3 out of the 4 years we've owned one place. It's demoralizing!!! We confirmed they survived hunting seasons, yet they haven't shown up the following hunting season. I picked up sheds from a 2024 buck, who we passed 5 times, and he's a no show this year. We passed another in 2023 that showed up a couple times in velvet in 2024, but then went missing. Doesn't make sense.
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I think a lot of people struggle with this. Especially when you get them on camera all through Jan/Feb/Shed Season..
 
A pretty regular poster on these forums said a few yrs ago that in cwd WI they were losing that age class buck to cwd
 
This thread has kinda derailed from the original post, but I think a huge reason we are losing mature bucks is cell cameras. There isn't hardly a big deer out there that isn't known by someone. Properties that don't even get hunted have cams on them to see if a big one is present to hunt. I would be all for a ban on them, and I use them a ton. We need to start walking back some of the advantages to the hunter and give them back to the deer. Tag soup once in a while is good for the herd and age class.
 
Those time lines listed are very relative to what I have observed in regard to declining deer numbers in many states. I have thought for years that there is something other than EHD and CWD bringing our herd numbers down. Probably has effects on turkey population too.


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