Bears in Georgia!!!!!!!!!!????????????? (Helen: live, food, porch)

[atlantagreg30127]

OH, I just LOVE this one...

Hey Janette... guess what? We now have a BIGFOOT in Paulding County! Yeah, really! So here's the thing - you need to move out here. Once Bigfoot hangs out on your deck a few times, those little squirrels and raccoons won't bother you one little bit! The Paulding Bigfoot sightings online (great stories): ParaResearch - Strange Creatures (Cryptozoology)

[janette moss]

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

OH, I just LOVE this one...

Hey Janette... guess what? We now have a BIGFOOT in Paulding County! Yeah, really! So here's the thing - you need to move out here. Once Bigfoot hangs out on your deck a few times, those little squirrels and raccoons won't bother you one little bit! The Paulding Bigfoot sightings online (great stories): ParaResearch - Strange Creatures (Cryptozoology)

Well, I see BIGFOOT'S cousins moved out west and are destroying the area, breaking in homes and playing in hammocks. Out west they also have "bear-proof" gargage cans. That says the bears must be a problem there. When I visited Georgia this past summer, I heard of a bear causing an accident, a cub getting hit on I-75 and one in a backyard. Out west has a major problem compared to the "three little bears in Georgia".

[json]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Janette, you are an IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Scraper Enthusiast]

Originally Posted by Prichard

Being from Florida, we have to deal with these nasty critters constantly. I've never seen any in Atlanta, or north of Atlanta - I would be surprised if they are that far North. But, I have heard that the southern half of Georgia has fire ants.

The good news is that they won't eat your house like termites, carpenter ants, or wood boring beetles.

The bad news is that they are very aggressive, build large mounds in your yard, and if they attack you and you sustain multiple stings, it can be painful to dangerous. If you are not allergic to the stings, a fireant sting can be comparable to a wasp sting. I've been stung by fireants and wasps on many occassions, and it feels somewhat similar. However, if you step into a fireant mound you can expect to get many stings on your feet and legs. Your foot and ankle will likely swell up. If you are allergic, you probably need to get to a hospital. You will know if you are alergic if you get big blisters from just one or two stings - my sister was alergic to fireants, and she'd get big puffy blisters from stings and her foot would swell up from just one or two stigns.

I've seen two real bad fire ant attacks. One was as a kid, we were hiking in the woods and another kid stepped right into a HUGE fireant mound. The kid was instantly covered with fireants and was screaming. We had to drag him down to the lake and dunk him in to wash them off. He had huge welts all over him - stayed home for several days until the swelling went down. The other bad attack I saw was when I passed a guy face down in the dirt. He wrecked his motorcycle - not wearing a helmet. He looked dead. His buddy turned him over and his face was missing a lot of skin and it had fireants crawling all over it. I called an ambulance and never knew what happened to him - that combination was quite grotesque.

The other good news is that fire ants can be controled with a variety of products you can get and Lowes or Home Depot. The chemicals smell bad but work great. If you just stay on top of your treatment of mounds everytime one pops up, you will have little to no problems with fireants....unless your neighbor has big mounds in his yard that he won't treat. Then you have a real problem.

Fire Ants have been in northern Georgia for at least forty years. You now find them in most of North Carolina, parts of Tennessee, all of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, half of Arkansas, most of Texas, and a small area of Virginia near the coast. There is also another population of fire ants that are now living in southern California.

[luvsthebeach]

Atlantagreg and Janet...I too am from WV originally. About 20 miles ne of Charleston in a little town off I-79. Small world!

More to the point, I have heard of bear sightings way up here in the extreme NW corner. I believe it was a momma and 2 cubs spotted in Ringgold. Also, a man at church just told me on Wed. night to watch out for bears on Pigeon Mtn. (Walker County). Said they recently spotted one. Told him I would love to see one from the comfort of my home or car. We love to hike so I guess we need to do some research to find out what to do if we meet one face-to-face.

[guysbrat]

I live in Cairo GA. I saw a rather large bear on the side of the road on my way home from wal mart last night. It was black with a brown nose. I am 100% positive that it WAS indeed a bear. I slowed down to about 10mph and saw it up close.

[LovinDecatur]

Major sightings in Atlanta, particularly at the Eagle and Woofs Sports Bar.

[ajax general]

Besides the bears and coyotes, don't forget the mountain lions and copperheads, and hey! there's even a lowland gorilla preserve up near Blue Ridge. One of them silverbacks might escape and go all King Kong on you...you never know...
but the biggest animal threat of all, i think, are the white-trash-owned, unsocialized, and ill-mannered pitbulls running around in the hills.

[Gil3]

Janette..Let me be honest with you. I'm more concerned with bad people than a bear, gator or other wildlife

[FloridaBelle]

Hi, Jan! Love your sense of humor... and so what if you're a-skeered of critters? Really, though, you might better move back to the urban North if you're worrying about sharing space with animals. The South, with its kinder climate, has a whole lot of critters. God forbid that we crowd them out anymore than we already have.

Actually, here's what's happened everywhere that hordes of people have come to reside: As natural habitat has been turned into housing developments, the animals whose homes have been destroyed have had to either die out or learn how to live with humans nearby. So, it's the humans who have usurped, not the animals.

You'd at least see fewer species, and in smaller quantities, up North. And, no gaters.