Does your city have a pest problem-spiders, roaches, bed bugs, mosquitos, rats etc.? - Page 9

edale · #**161** Posted **Apr 12, 2021, 8:07 PM**

I saw my first wild tarantula last year at Lake Casitas, CA, which is basically just inland from Ventura, or slightly west of Ojai. It was cool to see, but also scared me shitless to know those things were roaming around where I was camping. It was my first time camping...probably my last lol. I don't do well with bugs and snakes and shit. No thank you.

JManc · #**162** Posted **Apr 12, 2021, 8:20 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by harryc

A blessed concert - looking forward to our next big brood.

I'm used to hearing cicadas around here especially towards the end of summer (not to mention the cats bring them in the house and letting them loose) but don't think I ever heard them quite as loud and ubiquitous as Chicago.

Steely Dan · #**163** Posted **Apr 12, 2021, 8:23 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by JManc

I'm used to hearing cicadas around here especially towards the end of summer (not to mention the cats bring them in the house and letting them loose) but don't think I ever heard them quite as loud and ubiquitous as Chicago.

Were you here for one of the GIANT "17 year" broods?

There was a big one back in the 80s when I was a kid growing up in wilmette and I remember my dad using a snow shovel to shovel up the hundreds of thousands of dead cicadas off of our sidewalk.

Mother nature does strange things at times.

But even in regular years, the loud background hum of cicadas is the sound of August to me. Even here in our "city" neighborhood we have enough legacy trees such that you can hear them LOUD and clear.

JManc · #**164** Posted **Apr 12, 2021, 8:33 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Were you here for one of the GIANT "17 year" broods?

There was a big one back in the 80s when I was a kid growing up in wilmette and I remember my dad using a snow shovel to shovel up the hundreds of thousands of dead cicadas off of our sidewalk.

Mother nature does strange things at times.

But even in regular years, the loud background hum of cicadas is the sound of August to me. Even here in our "city" neighborhood we have enough legacy trees such that you can hear them LOUD and clear.

I was last there in summer/ fall of 2019 and my ears rang they were so loud and it was virtually everywhere apart from the concrete jungle area around Michigan Ave. If that wasn't the 17-year season, I could only imagine the sound...

SFBruin · #**165** Posted **Apr 13, 2021, 5:28 AM**

Seattle has lots of outdoor spiders in the summer. There are also these lime green grasshoppers that are kind of cool, and seem harmless as far as I can tell.

Everything seems to disappear in the winter as far as I can tell.

CaliNative · #**166** Posted **Apr 13, 2021, 9:05 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by edale

I saw my first wild tarantula last year at Lake Casitas, CA, which is basically just inland from Ventura, or slightly west of Ojai. It was cool to see, but also scared me shitless to know those things were roaming around where I was camping. It was my first time camping...probably my last lol. I don't do well with bugs and snakes and shit. No thank you.

Some people keep tarantulas for pets. The bites hurt but aren't deadly. Scorpions can be deadly. In some parts of the world tarantulas and scorpions are eaten. Cambodia for example.

CaliNative · #**167** Posted **Apr 13, 2021, 9:15 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChiMIchael

You haven't? I've been in Edgewater for about 6 years and German cockroaches have been a big issue for me.

Also, I wish some of those falcons come the to Daley Plaza. The pidgeons have really taken over.

The roaches in Houston are scary big.

CaliNative · #**168** Posted **Apr 13, 2021, 9:19 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

apparently potato bug can refer to 3 very diffferent bugs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato_bug

One pest I remember seeing in New Mexico was the vinagaroon

(wikipedia)

Once in a while you see these in California, but the are called "whip scorpions" here and are smaller, maybe an inch long. They are harmless. That thing in your hand is scary big.

CaliNative · #**169** Posted **Apr 13, 2021, 9:25 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Centropolis

i’ve had the pleasure of living in a house around kansas city with Arachnophobia levels of brown recluses. a recliner was filled with so many baby spiders that i chucked it out a window.

i have had necrosis on my foot bad enough that the doctor drew a circle around the decayed tissue to monitor spread but fortunately it did not get too large. i’ve had at least two fairly bad bites.

Are they usually found in garages, or are they in the house? Do they live outside in the yard also?

harryc · #**170** Posted **Apr 13, 2021, 11:44 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by JManc

I was last there in summer/ fall of 2019 and my ears rang they were so loud and it was virtually everywhere apart from the concrete jungle area around Michigan Ave. If that wasn't the 17-year season, I could only imagine the sound...

LOL - you have heard nothing yet - apparently this is year 17 !

[ correction - year 17 for the brood along Ill/Ind border - the real show will be in 2023 ]

Quote:

According to the University of Illinois, the northern Illinois brood, known as Brood XIII, will emerge in late May 2024 and "has a reputation for the largest emergence of cicadas known anywhere."

Channel 5

JManc · #**171** Posted **Apr 13, 2021, 6:12 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by harryc

LOL - you have heard nothing yet - apparently this is year 17 !

[ correction - year 17 for the brood along Ill/Ind border - the real show will be in 2023 ]

Channel 5

According to Wikipedia about Brood XIII for 2024:

Quote:

They can number up to a million per hectare

If Chicago is ~59,000 hectares, that's 59 BILLION cicadas..just in that city.

Steely Dan · #**172** Posted **Apr 13, 2021, 6:17 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by JManc

If Chicago is ~59,000 hectares, that's 59 BILLION cicadas..just in that city.

like i said earlier, back in 1990, my dad used a snow shovel to clear the dead cicadas off of our side walk.

it was as if it had snowed a couple inches..... of dead bugs.

it's ridiculous when the big brood comes. they say the northern illinois 17 year brood is the largest such cicada event in the entire world.

edale · #**173** Posted **Apr 13, 2021, 7:11 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

like i said earlier, back in 1990, my dad used a snow shovel to clear the dead cicadas off of our side walk.

it was as if it had snowed a couple inches..... of dead bugs.

it's ridiculous when the big brood comes. they say the northern illinois 17 year brood is the largest such cicada event in the entire world.

With the way Cincinnati makes a big stink about the cicadas, I would have thought it was ground zero for them.

I was a freshman in high school the last time the cicadas invaded en masse, and I remember it was really a weird time. I worked at the neighborhood pool, and skimming them out of the gutters was like a full time job for a week or so when they were at their worst. They were so loud, and I remember seeing trees that were literally covered in them from top to bottom

JManc · #**174** Posted **Apr 13, 2021, 7:13 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

like i said earlier, back in 1990, my dad used a snow shovel to clear the dead cicadas off of our side walk.

it was as if it had snowed a couple inches..... of dead bugs.

it's ridiculous when the big brood comes. they say the northern illinois 17 year brood is the largest such cicada event in the entire world.

That's both intriguing and disgusting. lol

Were there other animals that came out of the woodwork that scavenged on them? Racoons? Rats?

Steely Dan · #**175** Posted **Apr 13, 2021, 7:29 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by JManc

That's both intriguing and disgusting. lol

Were there other animals that came out of the woodwork that scavenged on them? Racoons? Rats?

i don't really remember, but i'm sure the birds had a field day.

it's funny, the last time the 17 year brood came out of the ground was 2007, and i was living downtown in marina city back then, and in a hyper-urban environment like that, the cicadas were kind of a non-event (they need soil to grow in, pavement is no bueno).

so 2024 will only be my 2nd real Brood XIII rodeo in chicago, and now that we live in a leafy green city neighborhood, it'll be interesting to see how it goes down here. We'll probably have a lot, but also likely far less than my childhood home up in the burbs, where they covered the ground like snow in places.

Buckeye Native 001 · #**176** Posted **Apr 13, 2021, 8:14 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by edale

With the way Cincinnati makes a big stink about the cicadas, I would have thought it was ground zero for them.

I was a freshman in high school the last time the cicadas invaded en masse, and I remember it was really a weird time. I worked at the neighborhood pool, and skimming them out of the gutters was like a full time job for a week or so when they were at their worst. They were so loud, and I remember seeing trees that were literally covered in them from top to bottom

I think my memory got distorted over time, but I vaguely remember them smelling, and the little fuckers were just everywhere. Might be why I dislike insects so much. I also remember going to the town square in Mariemont once during a brood awakening and with all the trees, it was a nightmare.

In Arizona, we have palo verde beetles, which are terrifying to look at (they're so big) but are best described as "giant, harmless flying idiots"

CaliNative · #**177** Posted **Apr 14, 2021, 4:43 AM**

Do Canadian cities and towns have any pest problems to rival those in America? Insects, spiders, bedbugs, snakes, rats, coyotes eating pets, etc? Vancouver--pumas and grizzlies coming down from the mountains on the north side? Winnipeg? Calgary? Toronto? Montreal? Fess up.

CaliNative · #**178** Posted **Apr 14, 2021, 4:52 AM**

One of the scarier spiders. Are they common in Sydney suburbs? Anything to rival them in Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane? Snakes? Any close encounters with crocs? Deadly jellyfish? Sharks?

CaliNative · #**179** Posted **Apr 14, 2021, 5:03 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by JManc

That's both intriguing and disgusting. lol

Were there other animals that came out of the woodwork that scavenged on them? Racoons? Rats?

I bet they are loaded with protein. Does anybody have any good cicada recipes? I have heard of people who pick the big green tomato hornworm caterpillars off their tomato plants and cook them. There are you tube videos. No thanks.

Steely Dan · #**180** Posted **Apr 14, 2021, 5:11 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaliNative

I bet they are loaded with protein. Does anybody have any good cicada recipes?

Back in 2007, when the last round of brood XIII swung through town, I remember some local chicago pizzerias cashing in on the event by offering cicadas as a pizza topping.

I didn't try it.

I'm a traditionalist: sausage, onion, giardiniera.

Stamp it.