Driving down the road today I saw a black blur spiraling out of the sky. There was a hen turkey with 7 or 8 half grown babies out in a field and a hawk smacked one of the youngsters and pinned it to the ground. I think there are too many raptors and I hate turkeys but it was pretty cool to see.

Why would anyone hate turkeys?

never had deer ticks around until after turkeys started showing up in my area.

Wish there were a few more of those turkey eating raptors in my neck of the woods. Problem is, they like the pheasants and grouse too....

Let me count the reasons....

Never saw a tick on a wild turkey and I've hunted them for around 40 years. Maybe it's a thing but never heard of it before.

Ever see what a turkey does to a brood of baby grouse I have, used to be we would have grouse around even with in low years till the turkeys moved in couldn’t understand what happened till I watched a turner massacre a brood of grouse right in the front yard, didn’t eve eat them

Love having turkeys around.

Have killed a bunch of turkeys over the years, and have never seen a tick on one. Eric

I never have observed a real bad thing having turkeys around. I have seen more positive things having them around. Now I can't that for coon and yotes they destroy more upland game and fawns than the turks. Just me 2¢

Just WOW at some of the comments, lol.
Turkeys don’t carry ticks or bring them around. If anything they eat them.
Turkeys don’t destroy other wildlife. If they did, they’d be extinct in the South where quail is King. There’s not a manager or landowner around that would have turkeys on their properties if they were destroying quail or their nests.
I remember seeing something like that in the Kansas WIHA book many years ago about the myth that turkeys destroy pheasant and quail nests and broods. I thought it was a joke until I talked to their version of DNR and they said that some folks actually believed that so they had to put it in the Regs.

Turkeys are an introduced species here. We never had any until the 80s when they were brought in by an ex Fish and Game employee. We don't have much winter food for them and they are a pest in winter feed lots, roost in barns and deficate on the hay, scratch up gardens and lawns, will eat all the fruit on trees in the fall and has has been mentioned are hard on grouse. They would roost on my moms deck and poop everywhere, she used to shoot them and call fish and game and tell them to come get the dead ones they were laying in the front yard. She still can't feed her cats outside as they come eat the food. All of you that like them can have them.

Folks from southern states come up here to hunt grouse, they say the turkeys have destroyed their grouse population. Can’t remember all the states but Kentucky or Tennessee come to mind. I would like some real science on the matter because there are more turkeys here every year.

Thank you're lovely conservation for that, all they needed to do was dust the turkey's before they released them, there was no money in it for them so they just released the ticks right along with the turkey.

Ill take Nightlifes word...he says he watched it happen. A lot of biologists still buck the notion that wolves will drag a hibernating black bear out of a den and kill it. There seems to be plenty of folks that have witnessed those crime scenes as well. If you put put 100 percent faith in what biologists say and dismiss what hunters and trappers actually witness first hand, I question your common sense. Many biologists spend the majority of their time behind a desk....

Our turkeys will typically have ticks on them. Have seen them under the wings.

A pile of folks have also “seen” black panthers and Bigfoot too, yet no scientific evidence.
Now turkey may be outcompeting for food, but I don’t think they’re on a seek and destroy mission.
I’ve turkey hunted Idaho, I learned their populations are the highest where there’s no hunting or access to hunting. Saw plenty on private lands in peoples yards and everywhere I stopped to ask the people “hated” them but didn’t want them killed, lol. On one property I saw 9 strutters in a pasture on my way to timber company land.

I guess what y’all are telling me is these States collect more revenue from turkeys than upland birds because they’re going to protect their money makers.

I've been killing turkeys for forty-plus years, never saw a tick on one.

A 3,500 acre timber company property and adjoining 7,000 acre State Game Land I hunt has had a high population of both turkeys and grouse for decades. Populations cycle like anywhere else but there have always been an abundance of both.

Give it up man!
Lots of turkey experts around lol.

Our turkeys are loaded with ticks.