#412 - Why EHD Is Getting Worse Every Year—and What You Can Actually Do About It Right Now with Zach Haas of EHDfense
The WHTL Podcast - Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics, Stories & Expert Guests
Jake Hofer
4.9 • 616 Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2026
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We Discuss:
- Poor water quality fuels EHD by eliminating natural predators
- Midges thrive in low-oxygen, polluted water systems
- More water sources = less herd concentration and disease spread
- Deer prefer warm, mineral-rich pond water over streams
- Water management is as critical as food plots and cover
- Small ponds can dramatically increase hunting success
- Agriculture runoff accelerates water degradation and EHD risk
- You don't need big land to improve water conditions
- Fixing ecosystems takes 2–3 years—but results compound
- Water may be the most overlooked "cheat code" in hunting
And So Much More!
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It seems like every year another state is getting decimated by E.D. |
| 0:04.4 | But is there anything you can do to control it or defend against it? |
| 0:07.8 | We're traveling that whole creek as a travel corridor, going to a neighboring farm where it was a cattle pond, getting EHD, traveling back towards a creek. |
| 0:15.1 | And that's how they were dying. |
| 0:16.1 | It wasn't the creek whatsoever. |
| 0:17.2 | This episode of the Whiteale podcast presented by Mourie, we are joined by Zach, who has a |
| 0:21.4 | formal education in biology and aquatics and has been dealing with water quality issues for |
| 0:26.2 | many, many years. And we're diving into what actually is causing E.HD outbreaks, how water and more |
| 0:32.4 | importantly, water quality plays a massive role in it. The midge correlated directly to water quality. The midge |
| 0:39.5 | was thriving in these zones that were so impaired or bad water where all their predators |
| 0:44.5 | didn't exist anymore. If you've been hit with the HD in the past or conditions in your area |
| 0:48.9 | are trending towards another outbreak, now is the time to start preparing regardless if you believe |
| 0:54.1 | in the HD fence or not. A lot of the information here in this episode is going to give outbreak. Now is the time to start preparing regardless if you believe in |
| 0:54.3 | EH defense or not a lot of the information here in this episode is going to give |
| 0:58.4 | you tangible pieces of advice and how to improve the water quality, what to |
| 1:03.4 | avoid. I hope you guys enjoy the episode. Here we go. Not to try to scare anyone, |
| 1:06.8 | but like those midges like let's say southeastern Ohio like Athens Washington |
| 1:10.7 | County where they got just rocked. |
| 1:12.9 | Nothing was done, right? |
| 1:14.2 | Nothing was done by anyone. |
| 1:15.2 | And all those eggs went dormant. |
| 1:17.7 | Same weather patterns happens. |
... |
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