I don't doubt that at all. But in "bigwoods" it's not thick. Just the same habitat everywhere - big open hardwoods with little undergrowth. The only thing that drives deer movement in that situation is terrain. And looking around, there will be 20 ridges that are all about the same. And deer use all of them.
@BSK i have to agree with @UCStandSitter on this one. That said highway can move from time to time but for the most part of what i've seen they stick to a specific path for a good while.
I've heard that placing your salt lick on a stump or log off of the ground can help eliminate the spread of diseases between deer. don't really know how true that is but i do know that the salt lick will dissolve into the stump over time and the critters will chew the stump to get the minerals and it lasts alot longer.
Interesting. I'd be curious to hear BSK's expert opinion on this. I am all for whatever I can do to prevent CWD in my area and if that means I have to dump minerals all together I will do so. I currently use a block in some locations and Bag R Bucks in others which hang from a tree and drip down into the soil underneath over time. @BSK do you feel like either method is better from a health perspective? Matter much how blocks are deployed or is it all bad?
Salt licks are great for everything but CWD. The ultra-high salinity of the lick itself tends to kill most microbes (salt crystals burst their cell walls). However, CWD isn't a living thing. It is just a short string of amino acids. And it turns out an ultra-high salinity environment actually makes the amino acid bonds stronger, not weaker. In essence, a high salt environment makes transmission of the disease MORE likely instead of less likely, and since most deer in the area will all lick the same salt lick, and CWD prions are certainly carried in saliva...
In ridge-and-hollow bigwoods, there are deer highways (usually ridge-lines), but where they are changes from year to year. One year it's "this" ridge. The next year it's "that" ridge. Over 20 years of studying deer movement, I've found predicting which ridges will be the hot ridges before the season begins is virtually impossible. It just comes down to trial-and-error each year to find where the "highways" are located that year. Why deer change which ridge-line they prefer using year-to-year in a big, unvarying habitat expanse is beyond me.
So basically, no salt/mineral licks then?
I buried all of mine. Those west of Nashville, I would suggest doing the same.
Hmm. What about for products like Bag R Buck? Any better in terms of spreading disease since it drips into the ground? Would that be equivalent to burying the blocks? If so, I could just switch over to them across the board. They seem to last a lot longer anyway and I see the same amount of traffic.
I guess I'm confused on the burying of the blocks then? I was thinking you meant burying them would disperse it into the soil and that wouldn't be as bad. I'm guessing I am misunderstanding the intention of burying them then?
I buried them so deep deer can't find them anymore.
