Bugs, Critters, Creepy Crawling things common to Colorado Springs (Fort Carson: Home Depot, buying)

[Nadine]

Originally Posted by Vision67

No ticks. I've had dogs here for 31 years and not one tick.

I've killed two rattlesnakes in the foothills, but their population is low. When I was growing up in Phoenix, they used to come into the house.

I don't want them mislead. Maybe in your area you have not had ticks. But there are ticks, in the spring of the yr. I don't have any right at my home but head for the hills better use insect repellent and put something on the dog. A flea/tick collar is wise even if you do not head for the hills. I have never had fleas on my animals but I do know that prarie dogs, rabbits do. The plague has been found in prarie dogs not positive of what the rabbits were carrying other than rabbit fever. Also we do have West Nile carrying mosquitoes. I have never lived in any other state, am told that more humid states have many more bugs than we. Rattlesnakes--yes we have them but no biggie. Have been told that unless you live where it is below freezing 24/7. No where has less bugs than us dry or semi-dry states.

[Maynerd]

Miller moths! They're completely harmless, but for about 3 weeks every May, they're everywhere.

I had friends visiting from upstate New York a few years ago (but NOT during the Miller Moth migration), and we propped the back screen door open to move some food and drinks to the patio. They were amazed. You could never leave a screen door open where they lived, or you'd get a house full of bugs. Just to show them what it was like in Colorado Springs, we left that door open for well over an hour. No bugs.

[AV Native]

I'll second COflower on the skunks. Here where I'm staying by UCCS in the Cragmor neighborhood, we're catching/trapping a skunk a day right now.

The smell from the skunks gets into the house and into your clothes. Your clothes come out OK, but the windows have to be kept shut due to the terrible odor from perfume d'skunk.

Word to the wise: the local municipal animal care and control workers won't pick up your skunks. Once they are trapped, they cannot be let into the wild again. This means they have to be - ahem - euthanized. Burials take place here onsite once a day, and so far we haven't run out of burial plots. Maybe Evergreen Cemetery in the Springs might want to consider opening a skunk section, eh?

On a lighter and happier note, there's a tremendous abundance of squirrels here. Apparently there are no natural predators for them or the skunks anymore in the local area.

s/AV Native

[FalconMom]

We live out in the Falcon area (east of Colorado Springs) - we moved here from Florida and I grew up in the south - when I heard about the lack of bugs out here - I was dubious to say the least.

We have lived here about a year and a half and have seen the following: a few spiders, one mouse ran into the rental house we were living in - we immediately caught it and let it go in the drainage sewer in the street and some (very few) ants. The only thing about the plains that I've noticed are the flies and they really aren't that bad - not anything like from the south.

Good luck with your move.

[ryanek9freak]

Originally Posted by vfrpilot

We have 'voles'. They are cousins of the mole. Got 'em all over the yard. They eat plants and leave holes. We also have foxes, elk, antelope, deer, porcupines, and the occasional bear. We have seen far less bugs here than in CA or AZ, although we did find a scorpion last week in Pueblo.
Oh yeah we also have woodpeckers. They hammer us in the spring leaving holes in the side of our house that I have to patch before some other little bird make it's nest in the wall. Anyone with suggestions about voles or woodpeckers would be appreciated.

Airsoft Rifle. Gets rid of those annoying birds. I had one for 6 months straight that every day at 7 am would perch on my roof and hammer on the metal gutters for no reason.

Finally drove me insane enough to get my pellet gun and take care of him. The airsoft pellets wont harm the bird, just startle it. One or two times and it will get the hint.

[SDBorn]

We've lived here in the 80919 zip since '97. We've never had any mosquito or mice problem. We had a huge problem with miller moths at our old home, (as well as with raccoons playing soccer on our deck at 3AM), but not up the street in our current home. I think once moths visit and leave a "scent", other moths keep returning. Thank God for the Capistrano swallows that migrate every year to eat the moths.

In our current home, we've never had mice, but we get little lizards inside the house. I'd rather have lizards than mice, but I'd rather have neither!! For the life of me I can't figure out how they are getting in. Are we the only ones in COS with this problem with lizards???

We have the same problem with woodpeckers that Ryan has had with them hammering on the guttering or the metal chimney on the roof as well as on the wood siding. I read that they are protected both by state and federal law...grrrrr...I hate them! They hammer as a way of indicating their territory...so if you pound back they'll think the territory is taken. Problem is, if you work outside the home you are not there day and night to protect your territory. Someday we are getting stucco put on the house!!

We've had bear visit inside our garage, (when we had teen-age drivers at home forget to close the garage door), bear in our fenced backyard...we have tons of deer, we have had two bobcats in our backyard, we've seen fox, heard coyotes and heard mountain lions, we get a few flies and spiders inside and nats and will bomb our home for insects from time to time.

The only ants we've seen are outside, they've never come inside. We love to watch the redtail and peregrine hawks, and find it amusing to watch the magpies gang up on the bigger hawks to shew them away. I am beginning to think magpies are very territorial...why don't they attack the woodpeckers and leave the hawks alone? We do like magpies because they clean up the roadkill, (bunnies and squirrels).

[lalahartma]

Flies, ants, mice, voles, yellowjackets.

[Minz]

I need some help/advice!

In just the last few weeks...I have come across FIVE little mice in my house. 4 were dead thanks to the kitties. 1 was in my cat's mouth but then got lose and ran under the stove.

I lived in Colorado Springs 1 year and have lived in Manitou the last year.

Is this unusual?! I am going to buy humane mouse traps tomorrow but am a bit freaked out at the moment. I don't mind a couple here and there but 5 in the last few weeks seems like a lot. HELP!!!

[otowi]

The only scorpion I ever saw here was in a crevice on some Pikes Peak granite hiking up Cheyenne Canyon somewhere. It was little. Plenty of lizards in rocky, sunny places in summer but generally not around where people live. I saw a rattlesnake at Cheyenne Mountain State Park - my friend almost stepped on it. But nothing here in town. In 'town' I've seen: bobcat, fox, coyote, deer, wild turkey, pheasant, owl, hawk, and moose over the years but rarely - fox is pretty common as well as deer, owl and hawk. Oh and don't forget sasquatch - just kidding - but a few people claim to have sighted him in Green Mountain Falls or Turkey Creek Ranch areas. Bugs - mosquitos, gnats, grasshoppers, crickets, ants, occasionally flying ants, spiders - if you go down to Pueblo you can find some tarantulas I guess, but not here.

[reginhild]

I would use sticky traps - but I'm not worried about being 'humane' to the mice. We did have two voles that fell in window wells outside the new house and died. One vole woke us up at night when if fell into the air conditioner fan outside. Checked in the morning and there was nothing left but splatter.