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No mosquitos here. Seen a few spiders and we have a few resident lizards (outdodors of course). Only snakes I've seen have been at the zoo.
I will have to disagreed with Mortimer, its not irrational to be afraid of them. But that is a topic that I hope stays well buried.
I saw a small scorpion on my patio about 10 years ago. Have have Black Widows in the yard several times which I learned to look for them. One baby nonpoisonous snake on my driveway. Saw one other nonpoisonous snake in a yard about five years ago. No fleas or ticks and I have dogs. We have had some mosquitos over the years, but not every year. We go through a fly period which varies from year to year. Not really many, but you get about three in the house and they become annoying. We are about 1/2 mile to the Rio Grande. Never saw a mouse here. About 4 centipedes. I had a lot of stuff creeping out of a wooden deck one foot above the ground, The deck is now gone. Lizards are your friend. I cut back on shrubs next to the house. I spray the foundation for bugs, especially near doors, twice a year. That's my experience here for 10+ years.
[CENTER]This is what I found in the driveway (Sep 2006). Looks like baby snake trying to find it's mother?
I've been here for a year but haven't seen a single scorpio yet, and I feel cheated and want my money back!
Seriously, this is a pleasantly un-buggy place. I live downtown and mosquitoes and flies are very rare. I see honey-bees, but no yellow jackets or other aggressive flying things like that. I've had one medium sized spider in my apartment (and maybe a couple smaller ones). I have hardly seen any roaches in my apartment (in fact, I'm not sure I've seen any, but I know a saw one or two in my building). My landlord sprays the place pretty regularly though. I'm sure they aren't unknown in Albuquerque. That would be too good to be true.
I've seen some small harmless-looking lizards.
I've heard that if you live in older established, more urban parts of the city, you will be less likely to see the scarier creatures (esp. scorpions, snakes, and spiders that can hurt you).
I forgot to mention crickets - I kill 1-2 in the house a day... which I guess according to folk-lore is bad luck. But again, I live in the Bosque so maybe we are just buggier... I think your wife will be fine here. I've been in buggier places for sure!
Mort - I don't like the mantis' but i know they are 'helpful' and won't hurt me. I'm trying, I really am... I had a bad experience with bugs when I was kid and have been 'paranoid' about them ever since. Genetics? 2 sisters and a niece are TERRIFIED of bugs...
Summer, we get tons of little black crickets. Also many many little bitty spiders, much smaller than a dime. Rarely I will kill a spider the size of a half-dollar (the whole spider including legs is that size), because, when one is that large and in my house, I go for a shoe, not a dixie cup to re-home it. Sorry arachnophiles. Editing to add: I let the little ones alone, except when the kids freak out and want me to kill it, in which case, a fast thumb usually does the trick.
I kill at least 2 centipedes in the house a year (with a shoe, usually need to hit it 2-3 times to stop the wiggling). Usually one is at least 3 inches long. I killed a one-inch baby centipede a couple of weeks ago. First sign of spring. Centipedes instead of crocuses.
Don't live east of Cedar Crest/Tijeras if you don't like bugs.
But, I do think this beats the fire ants and "palmetto bugs", mosquitoes and plain old roaches we had in the swamps of GA. We had to have professional pest control every 4 wks to hold them at bay. Every summer, we had to spray our backyard with permethrin so we could go outside with deep woods OFF on and not get bitten. If we just used the OFF without treating the yard, the mosquitoes were pretty aggressive.
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