St. Charles, Geneva, Batavia? (Victoria: neighborhood, live, zip code)

[chet everett]

While I won't say that there are no buggy spots along the Fox, generally the water moves pretty swiftly and I have personally never encountered any more mosquitoes along its banks through SC, Geneva or Batavia than I do near some of those stagnant "ponds" in the newer subdivisions...

As to smells, it IS a river and the banks do smelly "rivery" especially in the hottest wettest parts of summer, but nothing that is particularly offensive nor carries for any great distance...

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by animallover22

Hi! Has anyone had experience with bugs or bad smells from the river in St. Charles, Geneva or Batavia? I'm considering moving to that area.

Bugs along the river can be bad at times, especially right in downtown St. Charles. Not many mosquitos, but these little river bugs that cling to your car like cement. Theyre not constantly around, which is weird. Some nights theyre bad, other nights you wont see any of them. Youll see lots of spiders in the downtown area where the lights are, though. The spiders are harmless, but gruesome looking to an arachnophobe. They make big, beautiful webs near the lights that attract the river bugs and they eat like kings. I snapped this shot last fall...



You also get the big fishing spiders along the rocky banks of the Fox. Theyre big, but harmless as well. This one had a 2-3" leg span.


Youll find tons of webs under the bridge structures, etc. In fact, you can see one, on the closest pillar in the shot if you look carefully...

[animallover22]

I don't think you'd find that second picture on any tourism pamphlet. Wow. That's a big guy.

[chet everett]

With webs like Steve has spotted this sounds like a plus to me... Hey you don't thing there is any chance those spiders might have passed through a certain cyclotron beam on Batavia's west side... spidey sense is tingling!

[nJohn]

I'm going to be very paranoid tonight after seeing that second picture, Steve-o.

I dislike spiders very much.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by nJohn

I'm going to be very paranoid tonight after seeing that second picture, Steve-o.

I dislike spiders very much.

Poor spiders.

Really, there is absolutely nothing to be afraid of. Theyre actually our friends, they eat and kill the harmful bugs (ie mosquitos, cockroaches, etc).

[gardener34]

Yep - we live on the river and we get monster spiders. Luckily they are outside. I have rarely found one inside. One came out of our barbecue grill though once. Bugs can be bad along the river but they are very seasonal/cyclical.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by gardener34

in SC, 60174 is east side, 60175 is west side of the river.

60174 extends well into the west side, all the way to Randall Road for the most part. Almost all of the incorporated portion of STC is in 60174.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Steve-o

Some pics from the east side:

This house is actually on the west side, albeit only by a couple of blocks.

Anyway, to the OP: "east side v. west side" is irrelevant in terms of quality of life and quality of housing. Both sides have anything from apartment buildings and very modest ranches all the way up subdvisions full of multi-million-dollar homes. With that in mind, I'd stay on the east side because trying to get across the river during normal commute hours mightily sucks.

I also wouldn't write off Geneva just because it's not right on North Avenue (aka Route 64, aka Main Street in St. Charles). You can cut over from Roosevelt (aka Route 38, aka State Street in Geneva) to North Avenue on Kautz Road. It takes about 3 minutes. Again, stay on the east side of the river for ease-of-commute purposes.

[Steve-o]

Dang, youre right. Thats next to Lincoln Park. Thanks for pointing that out. DOH!