Archery Season Opens Saturday, and Texas Wants Deer Hunters Watching for Screwworm

Archery season for white-tailed deer opens Saturday across Texas, and by the state's own accounting it should be a good one.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologists put the statewide herd at an estimated 5.64 million animals, buoyed by three consecutive years of above-average fawn survival. Late spring and early summer rain repaired habitat across most of the state, and antler quality should run slightly above average in the Cross Timbers, Edwards Plateau and Eastern Rolling Plains. The Edwards Plateau alone holds nearly two million deer.

Then there is the other half of the department's October 1 season outlook, the part about a parasitic fly.

For the running case count and county map, see our Texas screwworm tracker.

The hunt as a surveillance network

With New World screwworm confirmed in Texas this year, TPWD is asking hunters to fold wildlife monitoring into their season. Trail cameras should be checked for animals with open wounds. Deer taken during the hunt should be looked over during field dressing and processing. Anything that looks like an infestation goes to a local TPWD wildlife biologist, who can collect photos, video and location details.

"I think with deer season, more people out there with eyes on animals we don't always see, is going to be a really fantastic tool for us managing this infection," Dr. Sarabeth Hill, an assistant professor of veterinary practice in parasitology at the Texas Tech School of Veterinary Medicine, told KCBD in Lubbock.

Deer are a reasonable place to look. The flies lay eggs in open wounds and mucous membranes, and rutting season is hard on bucks — fighting produces exactly the kind of broken skin the parasite needs. Hill noted that no infections have been reported in Texas deer so far, but the surveillance window is short and the stakes are steep. TPWD notes the outbreak of the early 1900s, and again in the 1950s and 1960s, cut the state's deer population by somewhere between a third and a half before eradication work brought it back.

Hunters have one advantage the surveillance system does not spread across the landscape: sheer numbers of eyes. Tens of thousands of them will be sitting in blinds from Saturday onward.

What to look for, and what to do

An infested wound is hard to mistake once you see it — open tissue crawling with maggots and a foul, rotting smell. Larvae of the screwworm fly feed only on living tissue, which is why the parasite kills untreated animals and why the flies are not interested in dead ones.

That last detail matters for hunters. A deer that has been shot and field dressed is not an infestation risk, and it is not a reason to write off the meat. Hill's practical advice: examine the animal during processing, discard the muscle around an affected wound, and treat the rest of the carcass as normal, since the larvae stay in the wound track.

Reporting runs through three channels. Native wildlife sightings go to a local TPWD biologist or the department's wildlife line at 512-389-4505. Livestock and exotic wildlife go to the TAHC on-call veterinarian at 800-550-8242. Human exposure goes through a health care provider and the state health department. TPWD publishes a Hunter and Landowner Guide for New World Screwworm alongside general wildlife and deer-breeding-facility guidance.

As of this week, USDA lists two active Texas cases — one in Crockett County and one in Presidio County. Infested zones around those premises carry movement certification requirements, and a surrounding surveillance zone is blanketed with sterile fly releases intended to collapse the wild population.

Season dates are October 3 for archery, October 30 for the youth-only weekend and November 7 for the general season. Hunters should also review chronic wasting disease rules, which allow deboning but govern how unused carcass parts may be disposed of.

Hill's summary of the screwworm ask was narrower than all of that. "If you're out in the field this season, and I hope lots of people are, just take an extra second to check over those animals," she said. "I do not think there is reason for panic."