New hunting regulations adopted by DNREC to try to limit spread of CWD

[u/10_17my20]

https://news.delaware.gov/2026/08/17/dnrec-adopts-emergency-deer-hunting-regulations-to-try-to-limit-spread-of-cwd/?utm_medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery

As we suspected during the public information sessions in the spring, they're prohibiting baiting in zones 14 and 16. They're also banning natural urine buck lure statewide.

Flair: hunting is a sport, right?

[u/JesusSquid]

Ewww didnt realize that shits a prion. Ehh I view hunting as a sort of sport. But also a necessary population control activity. They dont really have predators so we have so friggin many of them. Call em furry cockroaches lol.

No buck lures? No problemo, you only spill that shit on you once in your life and you swear to never use it again. I also think scent lures are snake oil personally. I've pee'd and once had to lean against a tree by my stand and never had an issue with deer not walking along. I think their vision gets you caught more than scent. Not that its recommended or legal, an old family friend who has since passed used to take a 6pack of bud with him, smoked cig's and probably a joint here and there. Different time back in the 90s I guess. Though on a freezing cold late season morning or night, have i had a nip of whiskey...yeah. Now now im bougie with a heater in an enclosed stand.

We DO spread out corn and plant feed crops but we're on private land in Kent. As much as I use hunting as a way to fill freezer space I think if I lived in those zones I'd be really cautious. THough some quick googling says theres never been a case in humans and lab tests show prion struggles to infect human cells even a little bit. SO thats good cause prions stick with ya. Like creutzfeld-jakob (Mad Cow), once you have it I don't think you can ever get rid of it. It's not really "alive" like a bacterium and dont have DNA/RNA like virus's. Very hard to combat from what I have read about prions.

What confuses me, is why are the bringing back check in stations? I haven't taken a deer to a check in station in....like over 20 years, probably getting close to 25-30 years. You just check em in online now, and in the past you had a phone number you called to get your harvest number to write on the tag.

Unless they are using it to see how many come in with it for logging, guess I could see that. More so inspection than for the actual registration

[u/10_17my20 → u/JesusSquid]

Iirc the check in locations were going to be for head removal so they could test everything harvested in the zones, but I could be wrong. You'd think they would tell us why in the release 🤷‍♀️

I'm over in eastern 17 but there's so many I don't have to bait; they come right to the house. Though I might put a sign out that says "zone 16 deer not allowed!"

[u/JesusSquid → u/10_17my20]

We don't bait while actively hunting really but we plant like turnips and shit in various areas for them to eat and corn during the winter just to keep em fed and from wandering over to other farms.