Fire ants? Flying COCKROACHES?? (Charleston, North: house, crawl space, camping)

[sameboat]

All right, in thinking about moving South from MA I am reading about fire ants and flying cockroaches. What about (don't laugh at me) alligators/crocodiles? When I visited Charleston I remember seeing them in swamps. Are these creatures in the wild in Northern SC/Southern NC? And what to do about fireants? of course now I'm thinking about poisonous snakes, big spiders. eeEEk! Talk to me. Up here we get garter snakes which are not poisonous and I see maybe one every two years. The spiders are small and usually in the garden, a daddy-long-leg in the house here and there in the summer. No fire ants, certainly no cockroaches (where I live in the suburbs) and I've never heard of one flying. This is wigging me out. What about wild cats (like mountain lions, I mean). We've got bears in NH and Maine but not near me in MA.

[odyhn73]

Do a google search for "palmeto bugs".

[Apple Annie]

Sameboat: yes, in any areas of humidity, warmth and lots of vegetation, you are going to have all of the things you mention. As for the alligators, I believe they are more in the swampy areas and further towards the coasts. If you think you are escaping heat and humidity, and you don't like bugs, especially spiders, think again. They breed bigger, faster and uglier here because the ground never freezes. Fire ants are prevalent all over the south as far as I know. You have to keep your yard and especially your garage and home sprayed. Very few basements here also, there are crawl spaces that you need to have sprayed as well.

In the mountain areas, there are bears, possums, coyotes, and all the others too, except the gators.

[sameboat]

Did the google search. Stopped searching for property. LOL

[odyhn73]

Sameboat, don't let the pests in SC be the determining factor of whether you move here or not, I mean, there are ways of controlling these pests with dilligence and research your yard will be for the most part pest free. Fire ants seem the most reoccuring pest but can also be controlled with mound and area treatments. As for spiders and palmetto bugs, I have pet tarantullas so the spiders arent an issue to me and I will welcome any palmetto bug to my house, free food for "Bertha" my 8" diameter Tanzian Skeletal Tarantula. LOL

[sameboat]

8 inches??!! That could eat a bird! I'm terrified of any spider (and we don't have any more than 1 inch. It's the fat hairy ones that freak me out. Are tarantulas native to SC?

[Élan vital]

Originally Posted by odyhn73

Sameboat, don't let the pests in SC be the determining factor of whether you me or not, I mean, there are ways of controlling these pests with dilligence and research your yard will be for the most part pest free. Fire ants seem the most reoccuring pest but can also be controlled with mound and area treatments. As for spiders and palmetto bugs, I have pet tarantullas so the spiders arent an issue to me and I will welcome any palmetto bug to my house, free food for "Bertha" my 8" diameter Tanzian Skeletal Tarantula. LOL

let me know where and I'll send any palmetto bug I find in my house to you

[odyhn73]

I am not sure if there are any native tarantula's to SC but definately nowhere near the ones I have as pets. If I were to guess of any native to SC I would put a guess on the Arizona blonde which is nowhere near the size as I had mentioned referring to "Bertha", who is still an adolescent. Most tarantulas stay away from humans so you really have no worries.

[Apple Annie]

Sameboat: Do a Google search for wolf spider. It's okay. I have arachnaphobia also. But I still go camping with my trusty can of Spectracide.

[ellie]

Yippee, yet another post about snakes and bugs... yes yes yes. My favorite kind of post.

They are all here in abundance - or not, depending on your perspective.

I dislike fire ants the most because they will actually hurt you. You can accidentally step in a mound and they'll cover your shoe and run up your pants leg. Their bites make tiny itchy blisters.

Alligators and snakes live in wet and brushy areas for the most part and are relatively scarce. There are probably no alligators in the northern part of the state unless you are right near the coast.

Cockroaches show up in the cleanest homes, but you can kill them with your flip flop. Just pray they don't climb to the ceiling and fly down on you.

Wolf spiders eat cockroaches. So you have the 4 inch spider vs. the 2.5 inch cockroach. This is only an occasional event and if you saturate your home with poison you will only see the cockroaches belly up on your kitchen floor or staggering across the floor waiting to die.

And I'm not exaggerating!

There are only 84 known panthers in the SE, most of them living in South Florida, though several are reported in other locations every year. You left out coyotes...They eat house cats and little dogs.

Did anyone tell you about black widow spiders? They have them up north too, don't they? They like to live near water spigots. My house mate the entomologist, showed me.

Moral of this story is, if you ask about bugs and snakes, I will seek you out and answer it for you. Thank you for the opportunity.