LANSING, MI (WTVB) -  A killer disease transmitted to deer by bugs called midges and exacerbated by the warm dry summer has prompted the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to limit how many deer you can harvested in some counties, including Branch County. It’s primarily in the southern half of the lower peninsula where there has been higher than usual levels of EHD. 

So far the DNR has counted 13,000 dead deer, but they expect that number to rise 3 or 4 fold when hunters hit the woods. There will be limitations on the number of deer that can be harvested on public lands in the southern half of the lower peninsula, and further restrictions on private lands in Branch, Kalamazoo, Ionia, Kent, and Van Buren Counties, where EHD has been most severe. Check with the DNR for details. Michigan’s Firearms Deer season begins this week on Thursday.