The Brood XIV, or 17 year cicadas are really out in force recently in Tennessee. All day, every day, that's all you hear. They're so loud that you can hear them at a high volume even in the house.
I've noticed that gobbling has dropped off dramatically since the cicadas have emerged. I haven't hunted much since they emerged due to near daily rain and the wife getting injured.
So do you guys think it has any effect on turkey behavior, especially since they don't appear every year?
It has to be positive for the population due to the abundance of food.
But, hearing a gobbler seems to be very difficult. A few years ago, we had a big year of cicadas in North Georgia, a buddy and I went trout fishing and literally could not hear each other from 5 feet away. The noise was so loud and annoying that we finally just went home.
THey were bad last year or the year before in middle Georgia, but it was tolerable and I could still hear birds when they were close. What I heard trout fishing that year would have made hearing a gobbler nearly impossible
It will make for a good hatch in those areas.
It interferes with your hearing not turkey gobbling.
Poults will fatten quickly. A good thing. :turkey2:
They will be eating so many that they won't gobble with their mouths full. No seriously, I think it bothers us more than it does them as far as hunters hearing the gobble.
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remember back in the day turkey hunting and thinking they were sawing timber up the road! that droning sound..... found out later it was a big hatch.