Checking feeders

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“They will paw or hit their antlers at the spouts and clean them out for you,” Sekula said. “And, if you have bad coon problems, they’ll clean them out for you, too.”

With rains and the new growth that follows, deer eat less protein. But if deer and exotics are used to feeding on it, they still return.

“They adjust their consumption — that’s the point of a free-choice system,” Sekula said. “In years with good early moisture, we’ve seen protein consumption go up. The natural food is so flush with water, I’ve seen deer get the runs. I think they want some dry matter, fiber and minerals.”

Some ranchers observe deer eating wet feed that has fallen on the ground. Until tiny little bugs show up, then they stay away.

Sekula said the bugs aren’t likely the reason the deer stay away, but rather the result of wet feed.

“Those are probably weevils,” Sekula said. “They will lay their eggs in wet, rotten feed. The feed just isn’t fresh anymore. We see it too on old corn. They can turn it to dust.”

When feed consumption goes down, like in wet springs seen this year in much of the state, weevils become more of a concern.

“When the deer are slow in eating, the longer the feed sits there and the weevils come,” Sekula said. “Sometimes we spray a little insecticide on the inside of the feeder lids; it helps keep them away.”

Cleaning out some feeder tubes doesn’t bother most Texans, though. Usually, once they clear out the tubes, things are back to normal and they return to being thankful for the rain.

The good news after several sub-par rainfall years?

Daniel Kunz, a technical wildlife biologist for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said everything in South Texas is green.

“We started off dry,” he said. “But then we got lots of rain. A good rainfall year makes a huge difference.”

“I think people are going to feel a whole lot different and better about their deer herd by this fall,” Sekula said. “They will have their good Sunday clothes on.”