Bugs & Pesticides Keeping Me From Great Job (Jacksonville, Mayo: relocate, travel)

[Maisy Jacob]

So my husband has a great job opportunity in J-ville but I can't get my mind around the bug/spider/pesticide issue. I hate bugs and spiders (I'm allergic to mosquitos and often get staph infections from spider bites) but I also hate the idea of using lots of pesticides as we have a small child and hope to soon have another. This will be my last post on the issue--sorry if I'm driving people nuts but does anyone have any suggestions?

Someone said something about organic pesticides but don't those cause the same levels of respiratory and other problems?

I have heard in some posts that the J-ville lung cancer rates are higher than norm and I can't help but think these things are related. Again, anyone know much about that issue or have good facts to dispute?

My family needs this job but I just don't know if I can do it. Your thoughts welcome.

[agreatlife]

They'll eat you alive.

[apanda]

Haha!^^^

But back to the post, if you move here it will be almost impossible to escape mosquitos with out a good spray, and those are rarely 100% effective.

[bonnielass]

Here's a link to the national stats on all types of cancer by state.

Quick Profile - State Cancer Profiles

[travelingfood]

Actually lot of people come to Mayo to treat cancer. Could that have skewed the stat a bit?

[cricketfan]

Try spraying the exterior of the house with plain old Listerine. True, mosquitoes hate Listerine almost as much as humans do. I don't know how to get rid of agreatlife's blue spiders though.

[Katie1]

Cancer is Everywhere...but are you going to worry about dying Or are you going to live a life!!

[WitchDoctor]

If cancer were the only fear, I'd buy a case of sunscreen and head to Florida. I compared TN and WV to FL and the cancer rates in Florida are declining almost across the board except for melanomas. Tn and FL are still on the rise over at least half of the categories. (According to the data in those studies)

[deealina]

Quite frankly after living in Massachusetts and Maine I encountered far more mosquitos and spiders there than I have here. I rarely am bothered even when walking our dog late at night. Find a house with a nice screened lanai and you can enjoy the outdoors without the bugs. I also expect you may have better luck with a newer house that may be more bug-proof. If you are out at night and worry about bugs wear appropriate clothing. But really I find the problem here pretty mild.

[riveree]

You won't be able to escape the bugs completely, you'll have to work at getting used to them somehow (hypnotherapy? ).

Spiders are good, they eat the bad bugs, so don't kill spiders, just move them outside . The only ones I know of that you need to be concerned about are the black widows (see Agreatlife's graphic above ). I've only see a couple of them and I've been here for years.

Mosquitos are certainly not good, so you'll need to take precautions. They like damp dark places, so chose a home where there is good air circulation and sunlight and where you're not close to standing water (a lake, for example) and you'll have an easier time with the mosquitos.

You can check Gardens Alive for organic pest control products. You can also use boric acid (it's not harmful to humans or pets).

As for the cancer concerns, I haven't heard that Jacksonville has a problem with cancer rates. Now in the past, when the city was more industrial, there may have been some issues, but we rate very well with air quality year after year now. Travelingfood had a good point about Mayo, people will relocate to Jacksonville just to be near Mayo, so it's possible that skews the numbers .