Spiders and Creepy Crawlies in Wisconsin. Recommendation on where to live in WISC? (Milwaukee: scorpions, college)

[BeckyBrand]

While no place in Wisconsin is completely bug and spider free, I agree with the last poster that the only really annoying bug here is the mosquito. Those can be easily controlled and one key is not living right next to a retention pond in a subdivision.

Given that - based on some of your other comments you might want to consider Waukesha County, a suburb of Milwaukee. We are 20-30 minutes away from downtown but with plenty of small town feel! Much of Waukesha County is known as "Lake Country" and it is considered a more conservative county.

Good luck with the move - let us all know if you have more questions!

[crazyme4878]

I second looking around the Milwaukee area. And there are no dangerous bugs. The mosquitos, gnats and black flies are really annoying, that's all. However, there are sometimes larger bugs--I don't want you to think Wisconsin is bug-free.

[Milwaukee City]

Downtown, Third Ward, East Side is pretty much bug free. I can leave my screens up all day and night but that's downtown not Up Nort.

[slamont61]

Waukesha County is very much under rated. Much to offer and so close to Milwaukee. City or country living is available and Lake Country has many small towns of varying personalities. The City of Waukesha has really come a long way over the past decade and is more desireable than it has been in years. One could do a lot worse. Well worth checking out.

[fumanchu41]

Thanks to all that have responded. I think we will be looking into the Milwaukee and Waukesha area suburbs. Any recommendations for a high end area or gated community we should look into? What is the area around the third ward like?

I also read a post where someone mention that the humidity is very high there. It would seem to me that the humidity level would be alot lower when compared to the Northeast. Am I wrong?

[REIRehabber]

Originally Posted by claudelle

If you want something that reminds you of home, Milwaukee and the suburbs might be for you. Up until well into the 20th century, there were more German language speakers and newspapers than there were English speakers and newspapers. It was called the "Deutsches Athen" and German culture was very important to the development of the city.

Many immigrants arrived here fleeing the Revolution of 1848. They set up the breweries, tanneries and basic industries that made Milwaukee develop and thrive.

Regarding bugs, all of Wisconsin has relatively high humidity, so to me, mosquitoes are the most offensive bugs we have in the state!

Are wolf spiders or any fairly large spiders common in the Milwaukee area? What is the spider situation in Wisconsin? Especially Madison-Milwaukee area. No pictures please.

[ImaloneJill]

I stayed in a cabin in Minoqua this summer. It had a marsh right in front of it and a creek that accessed Lake Tomahawk. There were stairs leading down to the creek and a dock where we kept the canoe and small fishing boat. Huge spiders would be on the stairs, dock and in the canoe when we would go for a moonlight canoe ride. Mosquitoes were pretty abundant, but not worse than I anticipated. It is, after all, in a wooded area on the water. Of course there were going to be bugs. Didn't come home with West nile or Lyme's.
There is crazy stuff everywhere. The brown recluse spider is the worst pest in our area around Chicago. I have known at least 2 people who needed hospitalization for it. It is a spider that "hides" in crawlspaces, garages, etc. and whose bite can make you very ill.

[fumanchu41]

Originally Posted by ImaloneJill

I stayed in a cabin in Minoqua this summer. It had a marsh right in front of it and a creek that accessed Lake Tomahawk. There were stairs leading down to the creek and a dock where we kept the canoe and small fishing boat. Huge spiders would be on the stairs, dock and in the canoe when we would go for a moonlight canoe ride. Mosquitoes were pretty abundant, but not worse than I anticipated. It is, after all, in a wooded area on the water. Of course there were going to be bugs. Didn't come home with West nile or Lyme's.
There is crazy stuff everywhere. The brown recluse spider is the worst pest in our area around Chicago. I have known at least 2 people who needed hospitalization for it. It is a spider that "hides" in crawlspaces, garages, etc. and whose bite can make you very ill.

I realize that if you are going to live near the woods, or secluded and near waterways you would indeed be subjected to huge spiders. My concern with spiders is more with what is typical in your average developed subdivision. Are we going to see these things the size of what they are in the South and Northeast? I assume it's because we are in such a humid climate. I need clarification on this please. We usually spray every month around the exterior of our home but they end up buiding big cobwebs on the grass. Yuck! Is there anything you can do for that? Is spraying the grass an option, or something like that without harming our pets?

I've never seen such huge spiders, when compared to what we have in Germany. Please help. Thank you.

[Kinz]

Originally Posted by fumanchu41

Thanks to all that have responded. I think we will be looking into the Milwaukee and Waukesha area suburbs. Any recommendations for a high end area or gated community we should look into? What is the area around the third ward like?

I also read a post where someone mention that the humidity is very high there. It would seem to me that the humidity level would be alot lower when compared to the Northeast. Am I wrong?

I don't know if it's too late to respond, but for a higher-end suburb of Milwaukee, you might want to look at Brookfield. It's fairly affluent and there's very little crime and good schools. The mosquitoes can be bad at times but they've started spraying at least part of Brookfield to cut down the population. (It's especially bad near the Fox River, which is basically mosquito breeding ground central.) Also, Brookfield is pretty conservative.

It's about 20-30 minutes from Milwaukee by freeway if traffic is good, and everything within Brookfield can be reached by car fairly quickly.

It's considered a very good place to raise children and to live.

Oh, and about the humidity- it can get pretty humid during summer, but I've been in places where it's far more humid. I can stand to live here, whereas I absolutely couldn't live in someplace like Florida.

[Headin4AZ]

I've lived in Waukesha County my entire life and 20 years of that was on a farm. I have never seen any dangerous spiders or snakes. I know they're probably out there, but if I haven't seen one in 49 years, they can't be too bad. I also do alot of gardening and haven't seen much except some brown spiders - don't know what they were, but if you're digging around in the dirt or reaching into a place where bugs may live - wear gloves.

I'm in the Town of Genesee which is between Waukesha and Delafield which both have plenty of restaurants and shopping. Its a beautiful area. We have yards at least an acre in size and the people (on our street anyway) are really friendly and would give you the shirt off their backs - but don't make pests of themselves either. When we moved here (from only 4 miles away in the City of Waukesha) I couldn't believe how different the people were. We had people stop by to introduce themselves, bring cookies, muffins, left candy in our mailbox with notes, etc. We felt very welcomed from day one.

Sadly, we are leaving the state, but wish we could take our neighbors with us. If you're looking for a house - I can help!