What kind of bugs will I find around Atlanta? (Valdosta: mattresses, house)

[goodbyenyc]

Coming from up North I have never experienced bugs like this before.....

In NY you DO NOT have roaches unless you live in apt buildings or are dirty.

If i ever came across a roach in my house in the suburbs, I would have moved.
If anyone saw one my house I would be mortified. Never lived with anything more than ants or a tiny spider.

When I moved in down here in the first week, we had scorpions, HUGE Roaches or Palmetto bugs, Now is the season for humongous spiders, and tons of rent ants...... I won't let my kids roll around on the lawn.. Much different. Starting to adjust now, I have an exterminator that comes every 3 months and very rarely do I see anything in the house now.
But you could just be standing outside and a Giant Roach will run right past you. I still freak out, and everyone here just laughs at me.

[New2GA]

We recently moved here from Raleigh, NC and NEVER have I seen so many bugs... We have a new home and have had the worst problem with fire ants and spiders and some of the other creepy crawleys that others have mentioned here.. I'd have your new home sprayed before you move in. I wish we did...

[shania]

Last time I stayed in Atlanta, I had close encounters with a cockroach twice in my hotel room bathroom. One day it was large and rust colored; the next day was large and black. I asked the front desk for some spray (because I had to try to kill them w/hairspray). I didn't complain about it because I assumed that it was normal problem for the area (even though it freaked me out). What do you locals think? Should I have expected better from a $200 per night hotel or is that the norm/something the hotel can't control? Just curious.

[normie]

Are chiggers a problem in Atlanta? How about slightly north, like around Gainesville?

[happymom4]

Originally Posted by normie

Are chiggers a problem in Atlanta? How about slightly north, like around Gainesville?

If you get into wooded areas you can get chiggers. My boys got awful chigger bites a month or so ago while out exploring...you wouldn't think such a teeny tiny thing could be so destructive!

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by shania

Last time I stayed in Atlanta, I had close encounters with a cockroach twice in my hotel room bathroom. One day it was large and rust colored; the next day was large and black.

Sounds like a regular roach and a palmetto bug.

I asked the front desk for some spray (because I had to try to kill them w/hairspray). I didn't complain about it because I assumed that it was normal problem for the area (even though it freaked me out). What do you locals think? Should I have expected better from a $200 per night hotel or is that the norm/something the hotel can't control? Just curious.

Cockroaches simply are. They spontaneously appear out of the air down here, and there's nothing you can do except send the kitties aftet them. Or that's what we do. Kitties *like* playing with palmetto bugs.

I didn't know cats liked eating spiders, either, until we moved down here. Even our little kitten eats them. Weird. GOod thing they aren't that common indoors.

[normie]

Cats also enjoy chopping the tails off of lizards. When we lived in Miami, our cat would leave us little presents of lizard tails all over the house. (No, this does not result in a population of stumpy lizards... the lizards just regenerate them.)

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by normie

Cats also enjoy chopping the tails off of lizards. When we lived in Miami, our cat would leave us little presents of lizard tails all over the house. (No, this does not result in a population of stumpy lizards... the lizards just regenerate them.)

That's one of the positives we've seen since moving down here from Minnesota -- my wife thinks the little green lizards (anoles?) that live in our holly hedge are cute. :-)

And we saw a blue-tailed skink the other day. He was cute, too. :-) We had very few lizards in the Twin Cities -- I think I saw a five-lined skink once when I was growing up, but nothing other than that. Just garter snakes.

[dls]

Can anyone tell me if you will find bugs (especially big ones) in the newer high-rise condo buildings (in, say, downtown, midtown, or Perimeter)? Thanks again.

[RainyRainyDay]

I don't care for the idea of spraying insecticides all over. We try to keep things clean and not freak out over the odd Palmetto bug that sneaks into the house. They are disgusting things though. Luckily I mostly only find them upside down and dead, after the cat has had her way with them.

We probably have a few blue-tailed skinks living around the front of the house, as we find one sunning itself on the front steps from time to time. They are very charming.