Household bugs from the west vs bugs from the east

[Vikki]

My first apartment had a bad earwig problem. I'd find them daily on my walls in the kitchen and on the floor. They were coming from a hole in the downstairs closet that had the gas meter in it. One day they all stopped showing, and when I looked in the closet, the hole was covered with a very large spider web and a spider catching and enjoying his feast.

That spider was a welcome room mate for my 2 years living there.

 

[Jeff7]

I thought you people in the east don't use screens on your windows?

Yes, but only because I enjoy donating blood to a billion mosquitoes.


The only time I'd consider having no screens in would be during the winter, and of course, the windows are closed then anyway.

When the time comes to install the window AC, I always get bugs in the house within 30 seconds of opening the window. If it's daytime during the install, I get various flies, wasps, ants, and spiders crawling in. If it's an evening install, it's moths and mosquitoes.
The damn things are everywhere.

I'm sure there are some places where it's a bit safer to open windows without screens, but that surely also depends on your tolerance of arthropods in your house.


And in any case, if I could have a hermetically sealed house at a reasonable price, I'd go for it. I only like having invited guests in here.

 

[SphinxnihpS]

WTH is that?! It looks like a mutant cicada.

Regular cicada on a child's wrist.

 

[SphinxnihpS]

When I lived on the west, the only bugs that ever bothered me were argentine ants... ...relatively easy to take care of.

O'rly?

 

[Bignate603]

We've gotten a few scorpions in the house here, mostly right when we moved in though. My wife was painting some stuff before we moved in and then decided to take a quick shower. We didn't have any furniture or stuff in the house yet for her to put her clothes on so she set them on the ground. One of them crawled into her pants leg and stung her on the back of her though when she put them back on.

She ended up having a pretty bad reaction to it, the doctor prescribed some hefty pain killers and then just a bunch of benadryl for it. She lost feeling an inch or so around the sting for over a week.

 

[davmat787]

Arizona has a terrible problem with scorpions in the southern part of the state. Almost to the point where a house can be invaded to where it's unliveable. Some of the southern states can have simliar issues with brown relcuses.

The scorpions and brown recluse you mention are definately nasty, but the ants I referred to were easily taking down much larger venomous spiders and scorpions, then drag them back to the colony to feed the larvae. Yummy.

 

[Soccerman06]

I live on a lake, so mosquitoes, moths, and a hell of a lot of small spiders. Some nights you literally cannot leave the house without being swarmed with bugs. Think bee hive danger kinda swarms.

 

[SithSolo1]

Keep an eye out for lady bug swarms, house centipedes, fire ants, various bees/wasps, and camel crickets. They all seem to enjoy homes.


Oh, if you see a large red and black "ant" don't piss it off. They call them cow killers.

 

[davmat787]

At least our climate does not allow for spiders that can catch and eat a bird.

 

[Spike]

Seattle area here and not so many bugs. We do get houseflies, stinkbugs, and some spiders but rarely anything else, at least not in the few places I have lived. All in all a good place to live if you hate bugs... and the sun.

 

[Jeff7]

At least our climate does not allow for spiders that can catch and eat a bird.
</img>

If I lived in a place like that, or else one of the regions that's got fun things like brown recluse spiders, scorpions, and turantula hawks.....yeah, I'd definitely be looking for that hermetically sealed house.
That, or else have the thing lined with gamma ray emitters, and sterilize the shit out of the entire house on a daily basis.

I don't usually mind spiders and such all that much, but when they're sufficiently venomous that they can cause gangrene or fatal bites...that's about where I draw the line.


Oh, and another bunch of things I got to experience back at my parents' house, but not so much in Erie: Horse flies and deer flies. They're quick things that land and bite in a hurry. They don't try for stealth either, like a mosquito - their method is to slice open your skin so that you start to bleed, and then lap up the blood. Usually they'll zip in circles around your head and land on a side that doesn't have eyes on it, and attempt to get a meal.
Luckily there weren't many of the huge variety of horse fly around - there are a few types that get to be more than an inch long.

 

[MotF Bane]

Stink bugs are a nuisance, some years are worse than others. I'd like to meet whoever is responsible for them getting to the country though.

 

[TraumaRN]

Only bug that ever really bothers me is Mayfly or shadfly or whatever your wanna call them, living right along the Detroit river/Lake Erie watershed these these hatch in SWARMS. They literally cover buildings, cars, it's seriously nasty for a few days, you walk around downtown and you hear crunch crunch crunch as you step all over them. YUCK. Here is a good example of how they cover EVERYTHING

 

[Soccerman06]

Only bug that ever really bothers me is Mayfly or shadfly or whatever your wanna call them, living right along the Detroit river/Lake Erie watershed these these hatch in SWARMS. They literally cover buildings, cars, it's seriously nasty for a few days, you walk around downtown and you hear crunch crunch crunch as you step all over them. YUCK. Here is a good example of how they cover EVERYTHING

Every few months here, whenever a hatch of those things happens, my lake is covered in their corpses. Then the fish stop biting for a good week and I have to drive 15 minutes to the closest other lake >.> such a hassle.

 

[basslover1]

At least our climate does not allow for spiders that can catch and eat a bird.

I see your bird eating spider, and raise you land dwelling crab:

 

[Brigandier]

I see your bird eating spider, and raise you land dwelling crab:

Crabs are slow, spiders are very agile.

Spider wins.

 

[TraumaRN]

I see your bird eating spider, and raise you land dwelling crab:

Except said land dwelling crabs are about the most delicious thing I've ever eaten. Unless you don't like coconuts and then you'll hate these.

Also when I was in the south pacific these things were the equivalent of deer in Michigan, seemingly everywhere and always ending up as roadkill

 

[Pheran]

I don't really. I pick them up, and throw them outside. They kind of amuse me, they're such clumsy fliers :^D

They were hard on fruit crops last year. They've found a parasitic wasp that can take care of them, but I don't know if they've released them in the wild.

The stink bug plague that just started in the last few years around here is extremely annoying, I find several per day in my house. And seriously, you throw them outside?? Every stink bug I find immediately gets flushed down the toilet. If I could will every single one of them within 100 miles dead, I'd do it without hesitation.

The periodic cicada plagues were worse when I lived in southwest Ohio, but at least they didn't happen that often. Fortunately Pittsburgh is a bit too far north for the cicadas.

 

[lxskllr]

And seriously, you throw them outside?? Every stink bug I find immediately gets flushed down the toilet. If I could will every single one of them within 100 miles dead, I'd do it without hesitation.

I don't want to waste water getting rid of them, and squashing them is inconvenient due to the smell. Throwing them outside is easy, and in the grand scheme doesn't do anything one way or the other to the greater population. I'd like to see them gone also, but they rank fairly low on my annoyance list.

 

[Brigandier]

The periodic cicada plagues were worse when I lived in southwest Ohio, but at least they didn't happen that often. Fortunately Pittsburgh is a bit too far north for the cicadas.

Those "plagues" are free food for a lot of organisms, and the leftovers help replenish soil nutrients. America is much better off for having those pests.

 

[Jeff7]

I don't want to waste water getting rid of them, and squashing them is inconvenient due to the smell. Throwing them outside is easy, and in the grand scheme doesn't do anything one way or the other to the greater population. I'd like to see them gone also, but they rank fairly low on my annoyance list.

The method my parents use is to keep handy a jar with a bit of bleach in the bottom of it. When another stink bug shows up, just use the lid to flick it into the jar. It politely dies without doing very much in the way of stinking up the place.

 

[DCal430]

Except said land dwelling crabs are about the most delicious thing I've ever eaten. Unless you don't like coconuts and then you'll hate these.

Also when I was in the south pacific these things were the equivalent of deer in Michigan, seemingly everywhere and always ending up as roadkill

I raise you this: The largest crab of all. The Japanese Spider Crab.

 

[zinfamous]

Is that not the kind of Cicada you see in the east coast?

nope. cicadas are about finger-sized.



and, despite the scorpions and shit that you'll find in the southwest, I think the freakiest bugs are definitely on eh east coast. giant wolf spiders, stink bugs, massive caterpillar invasions, and, at our lake house on the NC/VA border many years ago, one summer--a complete, and total, invasion of these fuckers:

D:

 

[zinfamous]

]If I lived in a place like that, or else one of the regions that's got fun things like brown recluse spiders,[/B] scorpions, and turantula hawks.....yeah, I'd definitely be looking for that hermetically sealed house.
.

stay out of LA!

http://legacy.lclark.edu/dept/public/objects/BilgerSpiders.pdf

D:

 

[chowderhead]

so what will this year's disease of the summer be?
Last year, the media made a big deal out of bedbugs. Maybe they can do a two for one and go with end of the world beetle or doomsday worm. There is still time to instill fear!