The 13-year cicadas have the teebox

[slowRoll]

With the upcoming flood of millions of inch to inch and a half long insects looming near, I wanted to ask :

Will you still go play while they are here?

And do any of our players with over 13 years of experience remember what it was like the last time the cicadas came? Thanks.

 

[smyith]

didnt that already happen like 3-4yrs ago. still have a ways to go before they pop up again. at least it happened not to long ago around here

 

[notroman]

We had the 17-year cicadas come out here in '07 and there were millions of them everywhere. Very noisy. Life went on, people played disc. I don't remember it affecting my game at all.

 

[what'shisname]

I had to look them up. We don't get those buggers up here.

 

[tallpaul]

Crickets and cicadas sing; a rare and different tune.....

 

[The dude on the bike]

We get them every year around august, they must be the every year kind. I like how the step out of there skin an leave a whole empty bug.

 

[Lewis]

The panda eats, shoots, and leaves.

 

[Technohic]

We get them every year around august, they must be the every year kind. I like how the step out of there skin an leave a whole empty bug.

We get them every year but there is some year where there is a mass hatching. I don't know if it lines up with Tennessee as far as the same year or not or if each area has a different year. lol

 

[slowRoll]

I read that as many as 2 million per acre hatch! TWO MILLION. That is a crap load of inch and a half long bugs. I would imagine that a Teebird or such would kill several of these things in flight each time you threw it. That is alot of bug guts being splattered to then be wiped of the disc. None of this sounds pleasant, and that is the reason behind me asking the question. Plus, they sing up to 85 decibels… So much for nice peaceful rounds in the woods after a hard day's work.

 

[slowRoll]

We get them every year but there is some year where there is a mass hatching. I don't know if it lines up with Tennessee as far as the same year or not or if each area has a different year. lol

This is the year if you live in the South. They are called the Great Southern Brood here.

 

[tallpaul]

Their singing is nice; "a rare and different tune".....

*They are also completely harmless; unlike the gross ticks we encountered all weekend....*

 

[weeman]

Nice reference TallPaul. We played the Charlie Vettiner Open in 2008 with them. Think they were the 17-year variety. The noise is like being surrounded by those vuvuzuelas from the World Cup and it rises/falls with how much they're agitated. If you can concentrate while they're out, you can concentrate during anything.

 

[TWO CROWS]

well, we like killin bugs with discs where im at so I look at it as a challenge. I can hear my buds now "Man you must have dropped like fourty that time"

 

[BarkBuster]

Yeah Ill still play.. they will for sure be here.. It seems like we have them every couple of years.. must be different breeds or something.

 

[DavidSauls]

We city folks moved to the country 6 years ago and this is our first encounter. Oh, we'd seen the shells before. But now we like an asterisk to our description of "peaceful private course"; it sounds like the tarmac at O'Hare. That, and when you bump a small tree it hollers at you.

The novelty's worn off. Best suggestion was that we record the sound and, 6 years from now when they're deep asleep, we blast it back into the ground and see how they like it.

 

[bazillion]

I remember those things coming out once when I was a kid. My brother and I would go out in the back yard and smack them out of the air with baseball bats!

 

[chickenonabun]

whoops, I voted wrong. I thought the first one meant i'd play anyways but i guess not. If we had them here i'd still play anyways.

 

[garublador]

I was in Chicago for business in 2007 when they had their 17 year cycle ones come out. I was at the Stephens Convention center parking garage, which backs up to a forest preserve, and they were so loud in there you couldn't have a conversation. It was out of control.

I haven't had to play disc golf for a 17 year cycle season here. Apparently we got some of the 17 year cycle ones last year and no one knows why. It was 4 years early.

I'll probably play that year. They seem to be the worst in the late afternoon to evenings so going out in the morning may help. If you haven't seen them, they are harmless but are big and look mean as hell. Having a bunch of them near you can be pretty unnerving.

 

[crusadersounds]

Most of y'all that have the every year kind are locusts. They really don't bother you too much, unless of course you don't like the sound. I'm a farm kid and I LOVE that sound. That's the sound of summer evenings and it is music to my ears. Now on the other hand, those 13/17 year cicadas, They are NASTY! They used to cover our drive and it was a nasty mess that we had to clean up! If you can deal with distractions, you should be fine to play with any of them.

 

[Dthunderchicken]

It all depends on where they swarm. I remember a camping trip where they swarmed the swimming hole. I was dreading the lack of sleep but where we were camped there were almost no cicadas. The biggest problem I've had with them is when using gas powered lawn tools. They love the sound of my tractor. I was mowing with an old badminton racket to keep them at bay.

As for them affecting my game, I don't see a problem.