I don't like spiders and snakes! (St. George, Ivins: homeowners association, how much, new house)

[JC8714]

I am moving to the St. George area within 6 months. I am downright petrified of snakes, spiders, scorpions! (Knowing this, I likely would have chosen a different state but circumstances are what they are.) I do love the scenery in Utah but wonder if anyone can provide ideas to keep these things out of my house (I also have pets and am concerned about them being bitten and won't be comfortable with lots of poisons being used). Is it common to see these in the home or yard? I've heard some horror stories and would like some input from those of you who have lived there a while. My sincere thanks for a response.

[scotttenorman]

I live in the heart of Ivins, which is a few miles outside of St. George. It is very rural where I live.......there is an empty lot behind me, and there are fields of crops in front of me. I have NOT had any problems with bugs/critters inside the house. I have not seen a scorpion outside yet. I walk/bike a lot, and just started doing so late at night. Lot's and lot's of wildlife out here at night. Kangaroo mice, bats, owls, gopher snakes, and rabbits are what I have seen so far. All outside, and all on the trails. Pretty harmless animals, even if they were to get in the house.

I sprayed the inside and outside perimeter of my house with bug spray from Home Depot. I think your bigger concern is going to be keeping the cockroaches out, as there are a lot of them here. The one insect that I am not liking here is the fire ant. I got bit on the big toe a few days ago, and it was really annoying for about ten minutes. I was wearing sandals outside, and pulling some weeds around the yard. I can't imagine having a bunch of them bite at the same time.

The first week I was at my Dad's new house in Georgia a scorpion was walking across the floor in the living room! In San Jose, CA, where I grew up, we used to look for scorpions under rocks at the park a mile away from where our house was. I even almost picked up a scorpion by accident when I was picking up some bricks when I had my house in the Sierra Nevada Mtns. of CA!!! My point being the scorpions seem to be everywhere I have ever lived, and they really have never been much for concern. We used to have tons of black widow spiders in San Jose, I haven't seen one here yet.

I would think that snakes wouldn't be too big of a problem if you lived in a more developed neighborhood in St. George. As for the other critters, bug spray.

Good luck.

[karenSG]

I strongly recommend you have a pest control service do the inside and outside of your new home a few days before you move in. This will allow some abatement time for your pets. Have a housecleaning service before the pest service if possible. If the yard and regular pest control have been neglected, just a perimeter spray on the outside is not adequate. You need to pay a few dollars more and ask for the whole yard to be done, including the rock areas. I don't do it myself so I can stay away from the poison as much as possible--no outside shoes inside, for example. I don't have pets now, but my daughter's dog visits--not on spray day! At her house here, she gives extra dog vitamins and keeps him off the grass for the day of spraying. Don't forget to specify the inside of the garage too. There is a non-toxic natural pest control service in town, but considering how hard it is to kill the giant cockroaches I want an easy sure thing.

I don't like poisons either, do not want pets near them, but am not afraid of any of the "wildlife". However, I do not want bugs living or visiting in my house! If you have a monthly outside service after the initial inside one, you probably won't need another inside one until just before a major season change (summer to cold, or cold to spring). The service doesn't plan to come in Dec. or Jan. as a rule, unless you want them to. An annual contract is the cheapest way, but you have to decide whether you want the more coverage price (beyond 5 feet of the perimeter) when you agree to the price. Mine is $38/mos., full coverage, plus a tip. Perimeter only would be $31. I have a lot of rocks to spray.

The cockroaches were the deciding factor for moderating my health-conscious antipathy toward pesticides. Otherwise, I would have had to move again. I didn't know about this problem when I came here. Paying the price for control and buying more nutritional supplements lets me stay here! The spray also killed the three white scorpions I've found dead in the garage, which fortunately are a pretty harmless kind. Only a few large cockroaches have found their way in the house before dying, thank goodness, and were dead when I found them!! None for two years now, but I'm still looking! If you find too many half-dead ones on the concrete outside, tell your bug guy so he can change the formula. Little bitty false cinch bugs are a pain inside. They jump like fleas, but are not fleas. A few somehow get in the kitchen sink and bathtubs. They seem to get in through sliding window cracks. I can't stand to kill anything (except by indirect spray!!), so that challenge remains!! Happily, they cycle with the humidity and temperature. Lysol sprayed at the sliding junction is a deterrent. Lots of bugs won't go near Lysol (another "poison"!). The yard spray only keeps them 100% gone for 4 days--go figure!

Remember, the bugs, etc. are more afraid of you than you are of them. I got over my own fear, with my husband's encouragement, by learning to hold them in my hand and changing my perceptions. (works for snakes too)

I hear Arizona is much worse, from residents who moved here from there. Hawaii, Mexico and Florida have more and larger varieties. Not good. Have been here for over five years, from the general Sacramento area, including foothills. A red ant (as mentioned above) bit me too, here, when I walked across the street and stood still in the wash ("seasonal creek") wildlife area while returning a turtle. It somehow went up my jeans leg, unnoticed until I was back in my kitchen! It wasn't even a fire ant--just the large red kind. The part I really can't believe is that I took my pants off, shook them, saw it drop unhurt on the tile floor, captured it in an upside down clear glass with a postcard slid under it, put my pants back on, walked back across to the wash and put it back near where it found me. Good grief. Lesson: don't stand still around red ants. The big black ones are OK. They think ahead about what they're doing! But I still tip my pest guy to spray part of my neighbor's tree area so his big black ants stay out of my adjacent RV area. Bad enough that the tree debris is on the RV driveway. At least his ants moved to the other side of his house! Homeowners association--not neighbors fault--have lovely neighbors!!

Sorry to go on and on. I sympathize with your concerns about your move.

[JC8714]

Thank you both for your very thorough responses, though I'm not exactly reassured! I typically do have a "live and let live" policy but hearing about venomous snakes and scorpions, black widows and bats...makes me feel a little crazy for moving! I will definitely keep your suggestions in mind. I hadn't even thought of cockroaches! I have to wonder how I'll get any sleep! I may need to invest in a bubble chamber! Thank you again...I've promised to try not to leave the state upon my first sighting of any such creatures...time will tell!

[scirocco22]

I agree. The chances of having "venomous snakes and scorpions, black widows and bats" inside your house will be an extremely rare occurrence. All locations in the desert southwest will have similar "wildlife" and pests but as you know, there are some very populated areas in the desert and most people would not put up with scorpions and snakes inside their houses on a regular basis. If you are in an established neighborhood, you shouldn't have any problem at all.

The only critters I've run into were a black widow in my garage near a utility sink ...and yes, cockroaches are a problem in the desert also. You really do want to spray regularly because of that.

Darn, you might no be old enough, but some of the boomers reading this might remember the Jim Stafford song "Spiders and Snakes" and because of the title of your thread, I've been humming and mouthing the lyrics (as much as I could remember ...but especially the chorus "I don't like spiders and snakes and that ain't what it takes to love me...") to that song all afternoon! *sheesh*


YouTube - Jim Stafford Spiders and Snakes

[jfitt]

We never had a bug guy back East. However, here we get our house sprayed, inside and out, monthly. Help, you TIP the bug guy??? How much? What if it is the owner? We have been here almost a year. I feel awful

[karenSG]

jfitt, I think most people don't tip. I ask for extra considerations about whatever bothers me as nicely as I can, and they are so accommodating that I feel like it. It is very helpful if the same person comes regularly, because that person remembers what you already want, which means you only have to mention new concerns or observations. I tip $10. I love my company. Pest control is definitely a mandatory cost here, and one I hadn't planned on.

Today I used a spray can behind my kitchen sink faucets and at the window openings there, for the false cinch bugs of which two are too many! Last night while reading in bed I had to get up to catch 3 little gnat-looking flies that came in the front screen door with a UPS box. They get to be a seasonal problem because they can walk right through the screen mesh, making for a stuffy house or one with mini-flies. Don't know what they're called.

You say you have the inside done every month--I don't, but I will this time thanks to your input and the little friends that I'm sorry I just can't share my cool house with next month.

scirocco22, I've had a black widow or two also, but males. They like to keep to themselves and aren't a hassle if you (or don't!) keep things cleaned out and spray. Thanks for the song link! I do remember it!
That was good listening!

[JC8714]

scirocco22: I actually had that song in MY mind, too, when I wrote that post! I'm not too young to remember it. I had no idea when I used to sing along to it as a youngster that I'd some day really be pondering co-habitating with spiders and snakes! Thank you for your reply as well as the clip.

[KidsinVegas]

So far I have never met a spider I couldn't kill. Only seen snakes out in the wild. Spiders and Insects rule the world. I read somewhere there are 1.5 billion of them for every one of us.