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Killing more deer is not the answer

5K views 10 replies 8 participants last post by  critter gitter 
I agree the disease is more frequent in mice, squirrels and small game than deer and you can't wipe them all out. It's transmitted mainly by the black legged tick that's what needs to be controlled. If the deer have lime disease you can't get it from eating them and they can only pass it along at birth no other way to pass it on except ticks.


Go to here and perhaps you'll see my point

DVBID: Transmission | CDC Lyme Disease

If there is over population then that's a different matter but increased deer hunting based solely on the control of lyme disease is ridiculous IMO.
 
Although adult ticks often feed on deer, these animals do not become infected. Deer are nevertheless important in transporting ticks and maintaining tick populations.

This was the part that got me, last few lines of ticks life cycle. Deer are simply carriers ,but very little of the public come in contact with deer. Seems to me more concern should be paid to rodents, squirrels and family pets that will bring the disease closer to and into the home.

Really don't see how hunting more deer would help at all. A hunter can't tell if their carriers or not. Say you have 100,000 deer in your area and 1/3 were infected. In harvesting more in all likelihood only 1/3 of the deer harvested will be infected. Say you take out 90% of the herd, now you only have 10,000 and 1/3 of the herd is still infected. Have you really gained anything?:coffee:
 
Went to Conn. site and was reading article under lyme disease. Apparently they too say deer don't become infected but as major host of the tick provide life to it. They have studies that say by reducing deer , they used an electric fence in study, you can reduce tick population by around 80 %. So by managing the herd they could greatly reduce the tick population.

DNR, do you know if they actually want to increase limits or are they trying to hunt in areas that hunting hasn't been allowed? Expanded hunting as stated in your original article could mean either without knowing what the Bill actually seeks.
 
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