Poisonous insects/animals? (Burlington, South Burlington: art, land, living)

[Lisa Arrow]

Howdy, everyone...I'm new here. You guys are scarin' me!!! Ticks, black flies, lyme disease, mosquitos and West Nile? YIKES!!!! Is it really that bad or are you trying to keep folks from moving there? LOL!!! Seriously, we are thinking about moving to the area from CA, but maybe I'll have to rethink...

[vt.peanut]

Lisa,

There's Lyme Disease in California too, with less access to the doctors who are capable of dealing with it. All the other bugs here are harmless, and are only around in June and July.

Coming from California, I'd say the biggest thing you need to think about is the long Vermont winter.

P

[Suzet2262]

We are considering a move to Manchester or Bennington this coming year. When I told my husband about this thread reguarding insects, he told me to ask all about spiders, ants, termites, and just how bad the misquitos(?) really are. Haha, he hates bugs!! I have to take care of the spiders that creep into our home.

[VTeratheart]

Bugs here are more annoying than anything. Really. I don't know of any poisonous insects, any that will make you really sick, that are of major concern to any Vermonters. They really are only bad (skeeters and black flies) in early summer.

[vermont08]

Originally Posted by Lisa Arrow

Howdy, everyone...I'm new here. You guys are scarin' me!!! Ticks, black flies, lyme disease, mosquitos and West Nile? YIKES!!!! Is it really that bad or are you trying to keep folks from moving there? LOL!!! Seriously, we are thinking about moving to the area from CA, but maybe I'll have to rethink...

It is really nothing. There are black flies but only for a few weeks and well there are mosquitos in just about every state. We are going on our first trip to Burlington, VT this weekend. I will post back if they are bothersome in that area.

[Suzet2262]

We are having a problem with Black Widows right now. They are all over the place. Spiders really creep me out!! That is one insect I can do with out. Are spiders a big problem in Vermont? Are ants a problem at all? I swear, most of the homes where I live were built on ant hills. I go through more cans of Raid.. It is worse in summer here, all the bugs want to come indoors because of the heat.

[vt.peanut]

There are daddy-longlegs and ants here and there, but I wouldn't consider them a problem.

[VTeratheart]

I really don't know (haven't honestly researched) of any poisonous spiders here. Yeah, you can get spider bites, but sometimes you can get them at night and not even know the little bugger was there. They leave a little row of tiny red, itchy bumps, like small mosquito bites. I'm definitely not trying to scare you away~just making you informed, since you asked. As far as dangerous, no they're not prevalent. Sometimes you wake up in the morning to a masterpiece, created by a spider under the cover of darkness....it really is a beautiful sight. There was one the other morning on my kids' play structure. My 4 year old came up to me and said, "Mommy, you HAVE to come see this! There's a spider web and IT HAS WORDS IN IT!!!" Referring to Charlotte's Web...! Too cute!

[harry chickpea]

Originally Posted by nhyrnut

For ticks there is a spray that kills them on contact. It is not DEET. it is PICARIDIN and it is Much better than DEET when it comes to ticks. Cutter has it and I am sure a few others do as well. If you research it you will find DEET does not work well on ticks even at high doses. And this PICARIDIN is less harmful than DEET is as well But do your research Via google or any other search engine and check it out for yourself. I found it to be Great. They can't keep it on the shelves in my area due to how effective it is.

After reading this post, I went to the store and bought some spray with PICARIDIN in it, and have been using it.

Just to give a little balance to the glowing review, I just crushed a tick that was casually walking on my PICARIDIN coated forearm. The DEET spray is about equally effective.

I asked a state trooper what he used against bugs and he said "dryer sheets". He moistens them and rubs them on his skin and clothes. I doubt it would be any LESS effective than the bug repellants I've been buying.

We're looking into getting chickens to minimize the problem. A neighbor reported that his free range chickens decimated the tick population on his 3 acre property.

[Suzet2262]

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

After reading this post, I went to the store and bought some spray with PICARIDIN in it, and have been using it.

Just to give a little balance to the glowing review, I just crushed a tick that was casually walking on my PICARIDIN coated forearm. The DEET spray is about equally effective.

I asked a state trooper what he used against bugs and he said "dryer sheets". He moistens them and rubs them on his skin and clothes. I doubt it would be any LESS effective than the bug repellants I've been buying.

We're looking into getting chickens to minimize the problem. A neighbor reported that his free range chickens decimated the tick population on his 3 acre property.

Are ticks everywhere in Vermont? Is there a real problem with them? Can you get them from just going out in the grass in your backyard?? Those little buggers creep me out big time