bug questions

[Rance]

Well...if you inflated the boat yourself (lungs) they may have been attreacted to the carbon dioxide that you exhaled to fill the boat? That is weird.

[Arcticthaw]

All the roaches I have seen in Alaska have been imported by people traveling here. A home may become infested, and they are on most of the military bases in the utilidoors. Especially the ones around swimming pools or other damp locations. For those that may not know it all the roaches I have ever seen can fly.
Fairbanks has enjoyed a hot dry summer also and the mosquitos have been very managable. Though they tend to hang around the spruce trees here.
I have been battling carpenter ants also this year. Read up online about them, makes you want to really attack them as they can have multiple sattelite nests. I tried some of that "B" brand powder and it din't do much good. Ended up with Hot Shot ant spray that kills for up to 14 days. That knocked them back a bunch, though I don't think I have won the war yet. A few years ago I had the whole place sprayed for ants. Inside and outside the house. Outside the seperate garage and green houses. That took care of them for over a year or so and did a number on the check book also. So I tried the low tech approach this year.

[Will d s]

How are the spiders in the Anchorage area I heard that there are not really any dangerous ones that far north?

[Arcticthaw]

Originally Posted by Will d s

How are the spiders in the Anchorage area I heard that there are not really any dangerous ones that far north?

The brown recluse has come north in someones luggage! I know Fairbanks has some, along with lots of other non poisinous spiders, so I would believe they are in Anchorage area too.

Keep this in mind, spiders eat mosquitos and other flying insects
I watched a spider catch 3 mosquitors one night on the window screen. That is more than the average person gets each day.
If you read up on the brown recluse their name gives how they tend to be. Just watch when you get wood from the wood pile and things like that.

One of the great things about Alaska is that the indiginous dangers are large enough to see from a long way off!

[rissa]

Originally Posted by Tressa

Not sure about Juneau but I do know that my cousin in Peterburg was bit 3 years back, fortunately they were able to take care of it before it too much damage.

There are no poisonous spiders in AK. The brown recluses that come around here are brought in by tourists then they die in the winter. There is no poisonous spider that can live in AK.

[Arcticthaw]

Originally Posted by rissa

There are no poisonous spiders in AK. The brown recluses that come around here are brought in by tourists then they die in the winter. There is no poisonous spider that can live in AK.

Unless it finds a nice warm garage or crawlspace?

[tessa_marie]

Last spring when I was up in Talkeetna, I saw the "early" mosquitos....now, those things were FUNNY! Didn't take any speed to squash 'em! Soooo slow! I think, though, that this summer I'm going to catch a nice big mosquito and put it between clear film and send it to my parents in WI! hehehe (but I'm kinda weird like that)

[Glitch]

Originally Posted by tessa_marie

Last spring when I was up in Talkeetna, I saw the "early" mosquitos....now, those things were FUNNY! Didn't take any speed to squash 'em! Soooo slow! I think, though, that this summer I'm going to catch a nice big mosquito and put it between clear film and send it to my parents in WI! hehehe (but I'm kinda weird like that)

There are a species of mosquito in Alaska (Culiseta Alaskaensis) that lives as an adult under the snow, usually in leaf litter, beneath loose tree bark, or in dead tree stumps all winter. This is the first species to emerge each spring, usually from mid- to late April.

Many insects, including mosquitoes, survive temperatures below freezing in Alaska. This freezing tolerance is accomplished by two different biochemical processes. In the first process, the insect's body water is replaced by glycerol, a type of carbohydrate, which acts as an antifreeze and keeps the body cells from rupturing when temperatures reach the freezing point. In the second process, called "supercooling," the insect's body temperature is lowered below the freezing point without its fluids solidifying.

[missyM]

I spent two weeks in the King Salmon/Naknek area in July. I don't know why it is, but the KS air terminal has a "welcoming committee" of black flying things (they don't bite, but like to buzz around the face. Ankles are safe, even bare ones.) Twelve miles away in Naknek, they are nowhere to be found. Not that I'm complaining about that!

[rotorhead]

When we moved in here in SE, one of the guys unpacking the truck had a huge, angry sore right on the back of his neck. Turns out he was bitten by a spider while moving someones boxes into a house in Juneau, probably a brown recluse. It didn't seem to hurt him much, but it was at least as big around as a silver dollar and had the typical "bullseye" look of a bad spider bite, with the surrounding skin slowly becoming necrotised and an unhealed sore in the middle, ugly.

I've also personally seen a black widow living in a house in the Anchorage area. Yes, it's too cold for most spiders outdoors, but they have no problem making it through the winter in the warm areas like near a water heater or such.