Spiders and Fire Ants and Palmettos (Cary, New Bern: home, to live in, dangerous)

[njprintman]

Another lovely subject.
Moving this summer and need ALL THE INFO you guys have about spiders and fire ants and palmetto buggies.
Oh yeah, and snakes.

[lovethecarolinas]

Originally Posted by njprintman

Another lovely subject.
Moving this summer and need ALL THE INFO you guys have about spiders and fire ants and palmetto buggies.
Oh yeah, and snakes.

You might do a "search" on any (or all) of these lovely creatures...as I do believe it has come up a time or two in the past posts.

[Sleestak]

Well, North Carolina certainly has its share of creepy crawlies. You just have to excercise some common sense:

fire ants: not a problem, just don't step on a mound. If the mounds bother you, just get some fire ant poison from the hardware store.

spiders: Don't stick your hand anywhere you can't see into. Black widows and brown recluses love sheltered, shady spots. Remember to shake out your shoes before you put them on. There's also a gigantic black and yellow type of spider that likes to spin large webs outside, but I don't think its bite is all that dangerous. You might give yourself a heart attack from fright if you walk through its web at night, however.

snakes: Yep... there are snakes O'plenty in N.C. As far as I know, the only poisonous ones are rattlesnakes, cottonmouths, copperheads, and coral snakes. Again, just use common sense when hiking in the woods or working in the garden. Look where you are walking and don't stick your hands into places you can't see.

palmetto bugs: pretty much harmless, but definitely a 10 on the creepy scale. They seem to be attracted to decaying plant matter, paper, etc. I might be wrong, but I believe they are mostly in the downeast part of N.C.
Probably not a problem unless you live in an older home near the coast.

In a nutshell, just use a bit of caution and common sense. You probably should worry more about ticks and lime disease than the above mentioned creepy crawlers.

[Richard Martin]

So far (in 11 months) I haven't seen any Palmetto bugs and I do know what they look like having lived in Florida for 2.5 years. I am in eastern NC. The spiders are bigger here than Maryland but except for a few unique and rare sightings they seem to be the same ones you see in MD. Wolf, Brown Recluse and Black Widow all inhabit both states. Snakes don't bother me and I haven't seen any here anyway.

Fireants I can't stand and I have done a good bit of Internet reseach on them. There are a few chemical manufacturers out there that claim to have season long protection chemicals for Fireants. I haven't tried any of them and you generally have to have them applied by a certified pesticide company. Could be expensive.

The USDA is working on this problem and has had some success in the deep south with a fly called the Phorid fly.

The Phorid fly comes from South America and is the natural predator of the Fireant. It is very small, about the size of a gnat. What happens is the Phorid will hang around outside of a Fireant mound and wait until one of the forraging worker ants comes out of the mound. When the ant comes out the Phorid fly lands on the ant and lays it's egg right into the ant. Then when the egg hatches it eats it way right throught the ants head causing it to drop off. The Phorid fly is also know as the Decapitating fly because of this.

There was an attempt made by the USDA to establish the Phorid fly around New Bern, NC but apparently the species that they used didn't survive the winter. There are a couple of different species of Phorid fly and after further field tests they will try again.

Until we get some relief from the Phorid fly I suggest that you use Bayer Fire Ant Killer. It is a powder that can be found at Lowes Home Improvement stores. I tried a whole bunch of different insecticides designed just for Fireants like Amdro and others with varying degrees of success. The Bayer Fireant Killer is the only one that is completely devastating to Fireants. I just take a stick and irritate the mound a little to get the ants to come out and then sprinkle a little (very little) powder on them. Usually within 2 or 3 hours there are no ants left moving and by the next day I can safely and without worry work right where the mound was.

[Sleestak]

Richard,

I guess the distribution of palmetto bugs is hit and miss. I used to live in Maysville, about 25 miles south of New Bern. We had plenty of those inch long palmetto bugs. They mostly would hang out in the firewood shed, though. Occasionally, one would hitch a ride on a log headed for the fireplace. That usually meant a quick fiery death for it or a slower demise as a new and interesting cat toy. I don't recall seeing any in Cary when I lived in that area.