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

[ChrisLA]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan

Ah yes, these are very common in the LA suburbs.. Gnarly bugs

wikipedia

They are also very common in the inner city where I grew up in south central. We would see dozens of them running on the city sidewalks, my mom would always freak out. I now live in the west San Fernando Valley and haven’t seen one yet in the 7 years I’ve been here. What I do see are snake lizards and there’s a huge ant problem like I’ve never seen anywhere else in Southern California. We can’t even leave an open bag of potato chips out, nor water in the storage container of my espresso machine. The ants are at it’s worst during in the early part of the fall season. We have to stored chips, even crackers in the refrigerator or we would come down to the kitchen in the morning with thousands of ants. My guess is this area known as Warner Center was probably Orange Groves, or some other type of fruit farm.

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by hauntedheadnc

When do we get to talk about pest plants? Apparently, kudzu and wisteria are locked in some kind of eternal gang warfare here in Upstate South Carolina. It's to the point that any time you start researching what to put in your garden here, you are begged not to plant any kind of wisteria that isn't native to the Americas. On the drive between my house and downtown Greenville right now you are presented with the sight, several times, of vast tangles of purple blossoms that have consumed entire groves of trees. In researching it some, I've learned that wisteria has a tendency, once it reached the top of a tree, to send out tendrils that latch onto the crowns of other trees and start growing across and down the next tree, then the next, then the next, and so on. You end up with groves of tree tied together at the top, so if one falls, they all bear the weight and can go down with it. Up in Asheville, wisteria wasn't an issue. The winters got cold enough to keep wisteria in check and at most, you'd see it having only taken over one tree, and only then if it had had decades to grow.

Yes, non animal topics are fair game here. Slime molds have always intrigued me. At one stage of their life cycle they move around like animals.

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

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.

In Mexico you can get grasshopper tacos. Why not cicadas on pizza?

[CaliNative]

mo

Originally Posted by ChrisLA

wikipedia

They are also very common in the inner city where I grew up in south central. We would see dozens of them running on the city sidewalks, my mom would always freak out. I now live in the west San Fernando Valley and haven’t seen one yet in the 7 years I’ve been here. What I didn’t see her snake lizard there’s a huge ant problem like I’ve never seen anywhere else in Southern California. We can’t even leave an open bag of potato chips out, nor water in the storage container of my espresso machine. The ants are at it’s worst during in the early part of the fall season. We have to stored chips, even crackers in the refrigerator or we would come down to the kitchen in the morning with thousands of ants. My guess is this area known as Warner Center was probably Orange Groves, or some other type of fruit farm.

Looks like a giant cricket. Those potato bugs or "Jerusalem crickets" have big mandibles--looks like they could draw blood if they bit you. Little black Argentine ants are a problem practically everywhere in SoCal, including here in San Diego County. Every few months they invade homes. Real pests.

[tayser]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

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?

They're scavengers - so you really only see them on the ground, in gardens or backyard pools. They can come into houses but gardens are probably where you'd have an encounter.

They're really only in the Sydney area.

Snakes can be an issue anywhere in Australia really - although I've only seen a Brown in the wild once. Snakes are very easy to deal with though: if you see one, don't antagonise it/walk away. If you encounter a cut* snake, run in the opposite direction!

The most frequent critter encounter you're likely to have in urban/rural Australia, however, is with a Huntsman spider. Big, ugly, but fundamentally harmless (they actually fulfil a role: they eat flies lol) - they live in trees normally and will evacuate/make their way into houses before rain starts.

* mad/pissed off/angry - we have an expression for it: "as mad as a cut snake"

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

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

brown recluses seem to like being in undisturbed, climate controlled areas in their northern range. however i have found them outside in places like southern louisiana.

the interesting thing about brown recluses is that housing age doesnt seem to matter much. check out this mcmansion in the suburbs of st louis being gassed due to a massive brown recluse infestation:


cbs.com

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by tayser

They're scavengers - so you really only see them on the ground, in gardens or backyard pools. They can come into houses but gardens are probably where you'd have an encounter.

They're really only in the Sydney area.

Snakes can be an issue anywhere in Australia really - although I've only seen a Brown in the wild once. Snakes are very easy to deal with though: if you see one, don't antagonise it/walk away. If you encounter a cut* snake, run in the opposite direction!

The most frequent critter encounter you're likely to have in urban/rural Australia, however, is with a Huntsman spider. Big, ugly, but fundamentally harmless (they actually fulfil a role: they eat flies lol) - they live in trees normally and will evacuate/make their way into houses before rain starts.

* mad/pissed off/angry - we have an expression for it: "as mad as a cut snake"

Interesting. What is considered the most dangerous city in Australia for snakes/spiders etc? Sydney? How about shark attacks? Crocs--the far north near Darwin? Is the risk exaggerated?

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

brown recluses seem to like being in undisturbed, climate controlled areas in their northern range. however i have found them outside in places like southern louisiana.

the interesting thing about brown recluses is that housing age doesnt seem to matter much. check out this mcmansion in the suburbs of st louis being gassed due to a massive brown recluse infestation:


cbs.com

I was cleaning my garage the other day and noticed some small dark brownish spiders on the underside of a styrafoam container in the garbage. I stopped the work. Should I spray raid insecticide in the garbage container? How big are these recluses? These spiders were small, a few millimeters long, maybe 3. Is there a way to protect yourself--gloves? I live in San Diego area so i suppose recluses live here.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

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.

definitely not my hand! some brave Wikipedian's hand. I'm terribly scared of bugs and would run away fast. Maybe it's why I like winter... no bugs!

[CaliNative]

Fire ants are nasty.

[hauntedheadnc]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

Fire ants are nasty.

Yep. And conventional wisdom here warns against running over one of their mounds with the lawnmower because, the danger of them running up your legs notwithstanding, they get slung everywhere and just start building new nests wherever they land.

[urban_encounter]

Sacramento has the biggest “pest” problem in the State. Thankfully though, they mostly confine themselves to the Capitol building. .

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by hauntedheadnc

Yep. And conventional wisdom here warns against running over one of their mounds with the lawnmower because, the danger of them running up your legs notwithstanding, they get slung everywhere and just start building new nests wherever they land.

Do the fire ants invade houses or do they stay outside? Must be miserable for outside dogs and kids. We have to talk the covid into going after fire ants and brown recluse spiders.

[hauntedheadnc]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

Do the fire ants invade houses or do they stay outside? Must be miserable for outside dogs and kids. We have to talk the covid into going after fire ants and brown recluse spiders.

As far as I know they're content to stay outside. However, this is my first time living anywhere that has them so I don't know for sure. I can tell you though that if they do stay outside, it's probably because they're as properly terrified of the gigantic roaches inside as anyone else.

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by JoeMusashi

The biggest pests in Milwaukee are odors from Lake Michigan.

Milwaukee sometimes smells terrible in certain parts of the city due to natural rotting Cladophora algae. Other times it is dead alewive fish washing up on shore. And other times it’s wind blowing odors from a sewage plant that is used to create Milorganite fertilizer off the lake into some neighborhoods of the city.

Is this the water they make the beer with?

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by hauntedheadnc

As far as I know they're content to stay outside. However, this is my first time living anywhere that has them so I don't know for sure. I can tell you though that if they do stay outside, it's probably because they're as properly terrified of the gigantic roaches inside as anyone else.

Are the fire ants invaders from the tropics or are they native to the south?

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by urban_encounter

Sacramento has the biggest “pest” problem in the State. Thankfully though, they mostly confine themselves to the Capitol building. .

They are recallable.

[CaliNative]

1. Grizzly bears. Would not hike alone in places like Glacier N.P., Yellowstone or Alaska. Even wearing a cow bell won't protect you.

2. Cougars (puma/mountain lions). They do ambush lone hikers in CA and elsewhere.

3. Sharks, especially Great Whites, Tigers and Bull sharks. Never swim in early morning or dusk or at night in California, Hawaii, Cape Cod, South Africa or parts of Australia. You're asking for it. Bull sharks occur in both salt water and rivers and lakes connected to the sea.

4. Salt water crocs. They WILL eat you. Like bull sharks, they can be found in both salt water and fresh water areas with sea access, most famously in N. Territories Australia.

5. There is a species of jellyfish in Australia whose name eludes me that can quickly kill you.

6. Polar bears. I once was a field geologist on the north slope of Alaska where there were polar bears. We carried rifles and bear spray. The bears did come around at night, but never saw one. But we saw the big paw prints in the snow. Churchill on Hudson Bay is loaded with polar bears. Like grizzlies, you don't want to startle them. I like polar bears at a distance, and feel bad about their sea ice going away because of global warming. But keep your distance.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

6. Polar bears. I once was a field geologist on the north slope of Alaska where there were polar bears. We carried rifles and bear spray. The bears did come around at night, but never saw one. But we saw the big paw prints in the snow. Churchill on Hudson Bay is loaded with polar bears. Like grizzlies, you don't want to startle them. I like polar bears at a distance, and feel bad about their sea ice going away because of global warming. But keep your distance.

I slept in these tents ~6 yeras ago: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/e...ice-sheet-news

I'm going back this summer. They said they have a different sleeping solution for us this year, but I'm not sure what it is. Either way, I'll be working several miles from the station much of the time. Hopefully our snowmobiles can outrun the bears

[hauntedheadnc]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

Are the fire ants invaders from the tropics or are they native to the south?

According to DHEC, the South Carolina state environmental agency, fire ants were introduced to the US in Alabama in the 1930s and have spread across the South since then. DHEC notes they are especially prevalent in South Carolina, and can be found in every county in the state.

For what it's worth, kudzu, perhaps the iconic pest of the South, is an Asian invader that was introduced to the US in Philadelphia at the 1876 Centennial Exposition, when it was used to decorate the Japanese pavilion.