OMG!! Is there anywhere in the US that DOESN'T have ANY of the following...?!?!?!?!?

[perdidobay]

SCORPIONS
SNAKES
TICKS
MOSQUITOS

I've had close encounters of the third kind with all of those. The ones I hate most are mosquitos!

 

[luvflorida]

AZ is home to all the creepy crawlies! There's no doubt about it.

The other day there was a bull snake that was resting near the side of the pool...talk about yuck!

And if you go into the wilderness, (aka Mt. lemmon) theres javalina, coyotes, mountain lions (cougers), black bears, rattle snakes, ect.

But, my thumb of rule is that if I don't bother them, they won't bother me.

I keep hearing about people finding snakes and scorpions in or near their pools. I'm scratching a pool off the list of things I want in a backyard. Ironically, we have an inground pool in our yard back in Maine. I really DID want a pool here in Arizona, but not so much any more!

We've been up Mt. Lemmon but didn't get out of our car until we got to the top. We stopped briefly at a few look-outs on the way down.

 

[pigletgirl]

But when its 110 out, I'm always so thankful for them!

My dad always says we moved into the desert and it didn't come to us, so tough! Haha, needless to say he's the scorpion killer in our house.

 

[TheBigBadWolf]

I've been stung by a scorpion once, and it truly was not that painful. Yes, it hurt, but nothing like I had feared. Wasp and yellow jacket stings are FAR more painful, IMO. If you do get stung by a scorpion, pour some lemon or lime juice on your sting and the pain will immediately decrease. It seems like the pain was completely gone in 10 or 15 minutes, and wasn't very painful at all once I got the citrus juice on it.

I think scorpions are hideously ugly and scary looking, but I will take them over spiders any day of the week!

 

[minniecarousel]

The things that freak me out are mice! Many years ago, we were in a new housing development, with open fields behind us, and were overrun with field mice. I freaked out. Nuthin' like standing on the toilet seat, screaming at the mice, while eight months pregnant! (I just realized this was 30 years ago!)

 

[BeachGirlFLA]

I refuse to visit any state with tarantulas. I know that eliminates some nice areas of the country but I don't care.

You refuse to visit Florida? While they are not native to the area, there is a type of tarantula that lives here now and was introduced from Mexico.

 

[IDoDis]

I've seen more spiders and creepy crawlies in the past month than I have in several years. Maybe it's due to the extra moisture we've had. In the past two to three weeks, we've had two black widows, one sun scorpion, one 5" centepede, one huge orb-weaving spider, and one wolf spider. We've been in our house for 10 years and have never had so many "friends."

I'm also teaching at a brand new school where the dust is not yet settled. We've had our share of rattlesnakes, tarantulas and big black stink bugs.

I do absolutely love that we have very few mosquitoes in the southwest which is a HUGE plus. We can actually enjoy the outdoors without having to spray chemicals all over our bodies to keep them away.

 

[Lanshark]

:

You refuse to visit Florida? While they are not native to the area, there is a type of tarantula that lives here now and was introduced from Mexico.

 

[luvflorida]

My dad always says we moved into the desert and it didn't come to us, so tough! Haha, needless to say he's the scorpion killer in our house.

True, but they don't need to visit INSIDE! There are miles and miles of desert still out there. We have nothing to offer them inside the house. Stay OUTSIDE!

I think scorpions are hideously ugly and scary looking,...

They are VERY scary looking! They don't look like other insects at all.


A side note- I bought a Dirt Devil hand vacuum earlier today. I never noticed the name of the vacuum until my husband laughed and pointed it out to me. It's called the Dirt Devil Scorpion cordless vacuum.

 

[BeachGirlFLA]

:

Look at it this way...they're just big, ugly spiders. They're not nearly as poisonous as most people think. Besides I've never seen one down here. I just thought for some reason that we had them so I looked it up to make sure I was right and I was. Personally, I hate fire ants a heck of a lot more than tarantulas.

 

[Uuaww]

Living in the tropics, centipedes are the worst. They are very very painful and dangerous. One night, one of them had crawled into my shoe and when I went to put my shoe on in the morning... not happy. Foot hurt for days. Fire ants are annoying as hell, like mosquitoes. Want to get away from it all? Northern California away from large bodies of water. Nothing their at all.

 

[Jeanne B]

I've had close encounters of the third kind with all of those. The ones I hate most are mosquitos!

This is so funny to me because living in Maine my entire life I just think of mosquitos as an annoying pest, yet there are people out there who dislike them more than scorpions or snakes, seems hard to imagine. All in what you're used to I guess???

You refuse to visit Florida? While they are not native to the area, there is a type of tarantula that lives here now and was introduced from Mexico.

I'm sure you just ruined her day with that comment!!

I'll take our ticks and mosquitoes any day of the week. They CAN spread disease, but majority of them do NOT. (And for the most part, the things they spread are curable/treatable.)

Scorpions and (poisonous) snakes and spiders...any of those are dangerous any time you see one. I almost fainted when I worked at a store in TX and had one in an aisle.

While we're at it, I'm also grateful we don't have earthquakes, hurricanes, tidal waves, tornadoes... give me a good ol' fashioned snowstorm. Stay home by a wood stove and it doesn't bother you at all!

Ditto!!!

They are VERY scary looking! They don't look like other insects at all.

I went to the Virgin Islands for the first time 3 years ago, had NO idea they had scorpions there and had never seen one previously...one night I'm walking from the kitchen of our villa to DD's bedroom and there's a live scorpion in the middle of the floor, talk about panic!! I had no idea what to do...yelled for DD and ex-DH, called the villa agency and asked them what to do (I'm sure they thought I was a complete idiot when I called late at night in a panic to say "We have a scorpion in the villa, do we kill it or throw it outside?!!" ). Being from Maine where we deal with nothing more than mosquitos and an occasional tick I was totally out of my element. The rest of the week we were always looking out for them when walking around the villa, and no more bare feet!! I'd only seen pictures of them previously but seeing a live one??? They're just the creepiest thing ever IMO!! (But it didn't stop me from going back to the Virgin Islands a second time and even Arizona the following year!! )

 

[luvmy3]

Alaska


We have everything except scorpions. Luckily our Northeast winters keep everything else away, but once Spring comes they are all back.

 

[RadioNate]

OP - is your pest control dusting in the house and putting down granuals outside? We lived in Texas and had a huge scorpion problem. Our first pest control service company did nothing. They did the generic baseboard spray and some spraying outside.

You need a place that uses dust (Delta Dust to be specific) in all the cracks and crevices and treating the outside with broad spectrum granular pesticides labeled for scorpions. After switching companies we kept them out.

 

[BeachGirlFLA]

Living in the tropics, centipedes are the worst. They are very very painful and dangerous. One night, one of them had crawled into my shoe and when I went to put my shoe on in the morning... not happy. Foot hurt for days. Fire ants are annoying as hell, like mosquitoes. Want to get away from it all? Northern California away from large bodies of water. Nothing their at all.

Fire ants bother me more than mosquitoes, though. I have scars on my feet from fire ant bites and those bites can definitely bother me for a few days. I've found a pretty easy way to deal with mosquito bites although it sounds a little strange. I lick my finger and then touch it to wherever the bite is...stick salt to the bite after that and it will feel better very quickly.

 

[luvflorida]

OP - is your pest control dusting in the house and putting down granuals outside? We lived in Texas and had a huge scorpion problem. Our first pest control service company did nothing. They did the generic baseboard spray and some spraying outside.

You need a place that uses dust (Delta Dust to be specific) in all the cracks and crevices and treating the outside with broad spectrum granular pesticides labeled for scorpions. After switching companies we kept them out.

I'm calling our pest control company first thing Monday morning. I know they've sprayed inside and outside the house. They go along all the baseboards, windows and doors. They know we called them specifically about scorpions, but I don't believe they've applied any kind of granular substance.

The company did say that they couldn't guarantee we would never see another scorpion. Their pesticides do kill most other bugs however, and that reduces the food supply for scorpions, causing them to look elsewhere for food. Since the company has sprayed, we have not seen any other bugs in the house, so that's a good thing. We see a lot of carnage outside the house, bugs of all shapes and sizes on their backs with their skinny legs in the air. Out of the dozens and dozens of dead bugs, I've only seen maybe two dead scorpions. They must be difficult to kill.

Thanks for the info! I'll try anything to keep the ugly creepy things out of my house!

 

[RadioNate]

I'm calling our pest control company first thing Monday morning. I know they've sprayed inside and outside the house. They go along all the baseboards, windows and doors. They know we called them specifically about scorpions, but I don't believe they've applied any kind of granular substance.

The company did say that they couldn't guarantee we would never see another scorpion. Their pesticides do kill most other bugs however, and that reduces the food supply for scorpions, causing them to look elsewhere for food. Since the company has sprayed, we have not seen any other bugs in the house, so that's a good thing. We see a lot of carnage outside the house, bugs of all shapes and sizes on their backs with their skinny legs in the air. Out of the dozens and dozens of dead bugs, I've only seen maybe two dead scorpions. They must be difficult to kill.

Thanks for the info! I'll try anything to keep the ugly creepy things out of my house!

Yeah - I'm a bug magnet. Seriously. I should be a pest control person or at least an entomologist with all the stupid bug issues I have.

I type this as my ankle is swollen the size of a ping pong ball because a fire ant got me at my son's flag football game!

Because of the exoskeleton scorpions are hard to kill and they are right on with reducing the food supply.

We had good luck with dusting around the windows and any outdoor cracks.

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

I've been stung by a bee before (not in Arizona) and it wasn't so bad. Everything I read, though, about a scorpion's sting sounds absolutely horrible! I've read that the sting is extremely painful and that the effects (pain, numbing) can last for weeks. And of course, it's the baby scorpions that sting the worst and they're smaller and harder to see. If I ever do get stung, I hope I have the same reaction as you!

I agree, I don't mind either if I find them first. I'm so afraid of one finding me or another family member first! I HATE not feeling comfortable in my house, always on the look-out for a scorpion. The lizards I can live with. They are harmless and kind of cute.

My scorpion sting occured in Savannah, but I "brought" the scorpion from South Carolina. It was about 1-1/2' long including the tail. It happened during our first night in our new house, and half of my worrying was that I didn't know how to get to the hospital if needed! I guess I was lucky. I must have gotten a scorpion with a less severe sting. Maybe regionally they are different?

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

You refuse to visit Florida? While they are not native to the area, there is a type of tarantula that lives here now and was introduced from Mexico.

:

They also have huge mice, some are the size of a human!