State wildlife experts say deer across the Hudson Valley are suddenly dying of a viral disease.

Larry Cobb Jr., a Putnam Valley resident and fire chief, says he and his Highway Department family members have been finding dead deer all over the area the last few weeks.

"They're not near any main roads. There's no sign of trauma or anything. They were just dead in people's driveways or people's yards. And you know, that's not normal," he says.

State wildlife experts say the cause is EHD, a viral disease that only impacts deer who are bitten by infected "midge" bugs. The disease cannot be transmitted between deer.

"When the deer gets bit by one of these gnats that has the virus, it kills them pretty quickly. We think that they're probably going to be dead within 36 hours," says Kevin Hynes, of the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation's Wildlife Health Unit.

Hynes says they know of at least 400 deer in the Hudson Valley that have died from the disease since mid-August.

EHD is rare in the Hudson Valley. The only other times it's been recorded in New York were in 2007 and 2011.

Hynes says some of the deer are near water because they are trying to suppress the fever they get from the disease.

The threat will be over once the first big freeze hits, ending the midges' rampage.

MORE:  DEC