![\"TJ](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/3bca8f07-3010-44be-975d-e5523d2c4ef5_1740783197.jpg\")
<\/a>WEST BEND, Wis. \u2014<\/p>\nDead deer are being discovered around homes in Washington and Waukesha counties, with state wildlife officials identifying epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD), a virus spread by small flies, as the likely cause. <\/p>\n
Michelle Nick, who lives in West Bend, said her property was once a frequent gathering spot for deer, with dozens visible in her front and back yards. <\/p>\n
“Anytime of day you could look out the window, and you’d see the deer,” Nick said. <\/p>\n
That changed last month. <\/p>\n
“In the past couple weeks, the only deer we’ve found are dead deer,” she said. <\/p>\n
Nick said the first dead deer appeared on her property on Aug. 22, and the number has continued to grow. <\/p>\n
“It was a couple days after that we found another one and then another one and then another one,” she said. <\/p>\n
In total, Nick said she found four dead deer in the span of 10 days. She contacted the Department of Natural Resources, which told her the likely cause was EHD. <\/p>\n
The DNR said it has received 600 reports of dead deer in Washington County and more than 100 additional reports in Waukesha County. <\/p>\n
Nick\u2019s husband, Michael, showed 12 News a spot on their land just a few hundred yards from their home where deer carcasses now lie. <\/p>\n
“Yeah, it is sad.” <\/p>\n
The DNR urged the couple to move the dead deer as far away from their home as possible to limit the chance of other animals getting infected. <\/p>\n
Michelle said the situation has been heartbreaking. <\/p>\n
“It is so sad and devastating to our deer population. I hope they’ll come back,” she said. <\/p>\n
The DNR emphasized that EHD does not infect humans. Residents who find dead deer on their property are encouraged to report it to the DNR.<\/p>\n
To report sick or dead deer, report it to the DNR by using this link<\/a>, by emailing DNRWildlifeSwitchboard@wisconsin.gov<\/a>, or by calling 608-267-0866.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West Bend couple find four dead deer in 10 days as DNR warns of spread of EHD The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[353751,275,353748,10740,3149,1746,67123,269863,2976,29084,353750,18324,17711,2853,79,66140,2002,9564,53325,353747,353749,201,1745],"class_list":["post-835579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-back-yard","tag-day","tag-dead-deer","tag-deer","tag-disease","tag-dnr","tag-ehd","tag-flies","tag-home","tag-husband","tag-likely-cause","tag-nick","tag-property","tag-report","tag-science","tag-spread","tag-washington","tag-washington-county","tag-waukesha-county","tag-west-bend","tag-west-bend-couple","tag-wildlife","tag-wisconsin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}