McWally

It’s worse than the DEC thinks, that’s for sure.

Nothing would make Trudeau happier.

Yes, the same Federal system that won’t acknowledge street protesters burning down main streets as criminal. He was peacefully baiting. This nonsense originated in DC.

I agree with Gill T. This is a catch n release state now. Imagine being a police officer right now. Bill had so much land locked down with leases. If you had a neighboring property you loved to waterfowl, you were out of luck.

Talked to DEC yesterday and the Midwest blow in theory has been abandoned. However, my hypothesis that these midges really only live for short durations of time could mean that we may not have to rely on a frost to be out of this. The flare-ups of deer death may simply correspond to the adults emerging and be over before a frost after they complete their egg laying and die off. There are hundreds of species so who knows exactly what the lifecycle is and duration of adulthood, but the observation of areas getting big die offs all at once and then having the area normalize might have something to do with this.

Something to ponder... DEC told me this batch of midges blew in from the Midwest, that’s their hypothesis. And we need to wait for a frost to be done with it. I can see how a huge swath of flies could be updrafted. When we get our midge hatches out here they can form enormous clouds. They can look like six story high tornadoes. Very impressive. BUT these adult midges only have a very short lifespan. No greater than a handful of days....makes you wonder. Definitely does not jive with the narrative.

Spoke to DEC. They know my area is taking brunt of it. The serotype or variety of the disease vector is different than the downstate cases. They have a hunch the flies blew in from the Midwest. All they know is the Genus of the flies and do not know exactly what species is causing it. I suggested a insect survey, but they have no plans for that. It would be nice to know these flies aren’t native to the water bodies here. 10-day forecast has no chance sub 40s. Bad news.

Took a little four wheeler ride tonight and it just reeks of death out there. I’m spooked honestly. Usually jump a half dozen to a dozen doe/fawns on any given night. Nothing out there. This is my first encounter with anything like this, so maybe I sound like a drama queen, but this is twilight zone ****.

Heard story about another breakout in ABay area. Apparently this is a disease they get from midges and a good frost stops the spread by killing off the flies. I don’t see any chance of frost for many days...sucks!!! Buddy shot nice 8 drooling all over, big 10 and nice 8 found too. This is bad! I was hunting a pond on property with daughter this a.m. and we found one dead on shoreline. Apparently they are drawn to water. Vicious disease.

Had like 100 vultures circling property last few days-thought nothing of it, thought they were staging for migration or something. Then, started finding a couple dead deer, thought coyotes or bow hunters....Then my buddy found a huge buck and fawn next door, and then I found several more. Looks like EHD is the culprit.