Deal Breaker (Austin, Round Rock: new home, scorpion, living)

[mark311]

Originally Posted by JayBrown80

Austin has cockroaches, as does every other place on the face of the earth. Whether or not you will personally have cockroaches in your apartment has a lot more to do with YOU and your LANDLORD, than your geographic location. Don't rent a crackhouse and keep your apartment clean. Problem solved!

Well, I wish this were true, but the Austin area has tree roaches and sometimes they end up in your house or apartment. They're huge and them being in your house has nothing to do with the cleanliness of anything. Sometimes they just mistakenly end up in your house even though they prefer to be outdoors. It's normally just one or two here and there a couple times a year for me, but I do live fairly close to a greenbelt.

I could easily say that this person might never see cockroaches, scorpions, or millipedes in his home (is anyone else seeing a ton of millipedes this year for some reason?), but depending on where he chooses to live, he easily could see all of them on a regular basis. If he is truly terrified of them, then he might be best off where he is.

[JayBrown80]

Originally Posted by mark311

Well, I wish this were true, but the Austin area has tree roaches and sometimes they end up in your house or apartment. They're huge and them being in your house has nothing to do with the cleanliness of anything. Sometimes they just mistakenly end up in your house even though they prefer to be outdoors. It's normally just one or two here and there a couple times a year for me, but I do live fairly close to a greenbelt.

I could easily say that this person might never see cockroaches, scorpions, or millipedes in his home (is anyone else seeing a ton of millipedes this year for some reason?), but depending on where he chooses to live, he easily could see all of them on a regular basis. If he is truly terrified of them, then he might be best off where he is.

Animals cannot enter your home unless you allow them too. It's an issue of cleanliness. It's also an issue of egress. Do you have weather stripping? Do you leave your door/windows open constantly?

But I don't have a crippling fear of insects, so I will just stop posting on these issues.

The main reason I was posting in the first place is that I am confused by this wave of bug-fearing threads that seem to be constantly going on here on city-data. I am fascinated that there are people out there in the world that are so psychologically unbalanced that ALL they seem to think about is bugs. Bugs bugs bugs. Bugs might get me, bugs might get me. So much so that they say moving to a place that has bugs is a "deal breaker" for them in whether or not they move. It seems completely unreasonable, and frankly, a little weird.

It's one thing to post an offhand thread saying 'I hear you have big mosquitoes in Texas" or another thread saying "look at this snake I found on my porch, is that normal".

It's another thing entirely to post "If there are any bugs in austin city limits, we simply cannot move there!!!" or who could forget the wonderful thread that went "I just simply am AFRAID of bugs and for me it's just TOO MUCH TO DEAL WITH. I mean, can someone go in their backyard and COUNT HOW MANY different types of BUGS you happen to see because I am super FRAGILE around bugs".

But I guess if I find these people to be ridiculous, I should just stop reading their threads.

[Jennibc]

I don't really think a phobia makes someone psychologically unbalanced, it just means that they have a particular phobia.

[JayBrown80]

Originally Posted by Jennibc

I don't really think a phobia makes someone psychologically unbalanced, it just means that they have a particular phobia.

Oh Jenni. You are like jiminy cricket sitting on my shoulder.

I don't thing having a phobia means you are psychologically unbalanced.

I think when you have a phobia, and you allow it to control your life to the point where working around your phobia is the only consideration you take into account when you are planning a life changing move....well that is definatley pschologically unbalanced.

Unblanced, like a teeter totter that can't go up and down b/c one side has too much weight. When a phobia has so much weight that it is the only consideration in your life, then unbalanced is an appropriate term.

[austinnerd]

Originally Posted by JayBrown80

Animals cannot enter your home unless you allow them too. It's an issue of cleanliness. It's also an issue of egress. Do you have weather stripping? Do you leave your door/windows open constantly?

This has been mentioned before. For the "wood roaches" found here, assuming you're not talking actual infestations, cleanliness has nothing to do with the occasional siting. It's the second part, ingress/egress that plays the larger role. Though the roaches are large, it's amazing how small a hole, crack or seam they can get through. If you have an older home that hasn't seen a lot of updating to windows/doors or additional areas where pipes come up through cabinets, etc, then there is a reasonable chance you might see the little critters in your home. You can clean your house until there is not a single spec of dirt remaining, but a roach isn't going to start to slide under your patio door and say "hmm, this house seems too clean to me, I better not go in".

As for the increase in postings, it's the spring, critters are waking up and multiplying (ditto plant life). Great time if you're into "insect watching". Bad time if you're thinking of moving here and are bug phobic. BTW, within a week of moving here to Austin I had my first scorpion siting, it was at night in my bedroom. Little did I know at the time that it was simply the Central Texas Welcoming Party

[linicx]

Generally speaking if it is smallilsh and brown it is a roach. If it is bigger and black it is a water bug.

Water bugs live in sewers and enter through floor drains. Roaches like crumbs on the floors and counter tops, boxes and paper sacks amd dark corners. They don't like lights. And they can wiggle through the smallest opening.

There is a cheap cure. Steel Wool. Buy it at any hardware store. Look under all sinks. Almost all have large opening around the plumbing.
fill it up! Don't store paper sacks. newspaeers or boxes in your house for over 90 days. Keep counter tops wiped down and the rfloors swept. Ants like sugar and they are harder to get rid of. Once every 90 days set iff foggers or have pest control spray. Do this 4 times a year every year, and you will have very little problem with bugs inside.

Scorpions and Brown Recluse can make you awfully sick. My mother and brother lived in Las Cruces. This is what they did and it worked pretty good. Shake everything out before you use it. Don't lay clothing on chairs or floor - not even sox. Everything includes boots, sox, shoes, pants, blouse, underwear, shirt, shorts, sheets, towels, wash cloth and dish cloth. Keep your windows and doors shut and do not allow water to stand anyywhere near your house for any reason. More open space and less trees = less bugs to "bug" you.

Brown recluse spiders hitch a ride on your clothes. The bite doesn't hurt any worse than a mosquito and itches about the same. The difference it by the first day the area is sore to the touch and even "sore to the bone: The bite site will turn black. HIE THEE TO THE DOC OR THE ER ASAP. This little critter can cause you to lose flesh if left untreated. Been there; done that; five times on five different parts of my body.

Scorpions and snakes like warm rocks, warm sidewalks, warm decks, warm patios, warm steps, etc.. Any where the sun shines is a likely place to find a snake or a scorpion. When I lived in Oklahoma in the woods on Grand Lake I could always count on seeing the black snake, box turtle, scorpions, mosquitoes. flies, and chiggers in the summer. I made the mistake of stepping on a nest of chiggers hidding in the dirt in full sunshine. The only part of my body that the little "no see 'um's" did not attack was my eyes and throat. I had Hives over 99% of my body for almost nine months. For the first 4 months I slept around the clock I now carry an Epi-Pen and I spray inside the house and out 4 times a year.

I've seen scorpions but I never had one in my house. The only cure I know is the foot. I never lived in Texas. If you have wasps they will nest in the corners of your porch and possibly in the gutters. Get a big can of wasp spray. After 10 pm they will be sleeping. Saturate the nest and leave it alone. When it dries out you can knock it down with a broom.

Don't put chemicals down where pets and children play. Put your pet dishes up when you spray. I put mine in the dryer. You'll be out of the house for 4-5 hours. When you return, open some windows, turn on the air and wipe your counters down with soap and water.

These are the things I learned over 60 years. Enjoy your summer! Fall is on the way.










brown

[RooCeleste]

We lived in a garden home at Parmer/McNeil for 3 years (backed up to a creek/greenbelt) and never saw a single scorpion or roach. Last year, we built a new house 9 miles farther out, in Cedar Park, and now regularly see scorpions both in and outside the house. We are heavily chemically treated for bugs, but considering the new construction somewhat out in the country on rocky land, scorpions are a fact of life. Hopefully they'll disappear in a couple of years, like I hear. At least it isn't roaches though!

[JayBrown80]

Originally Posted by RooCeleste

We lived in a garden home at Parmer/McNeil for 3 years (backed up to a creek/greenbelt) and never saw a single scorpion or roach. Last year, we built a new house 9 miles farther out, in Cedar Park, and now regularly see scorpions both in and outside the house. We are heavily chemically treated for bugs, but considering the new construction somewhat out in the country on rocky land, scorpions are a fact of life. Hopefully they'll disappear in a couple of years, like I hear. At least it isn't roaches though!

Yeah, unfortunately all new constructions deal with tarantulas/scorpions. They dont know that the empty piece of land isn't their home anymore. They eventually move on though.

[rocco92]

Thank you to those few that offered their experience. It seemed to get blown out of proportion (by others, not me) according to some responses. My wife never mentioned me (i am the husband) being phobic. She also never stated that it is the only thing we researched about Austin. We know the weather, crime rate, real estate, etc. So we are not basing our move on bugs alone. My wife never even hinted as such. It was again assumed by someone else. I don't want to live in the snow--does that make me unbalanced? Of course it doesnt. I also dont want to live in a house with scorpions and cockroaches. Again, this is simply a preference not a mental defect. The question was taken out of context. I can live with bugs. Texas has more species of cockroaches than any other state so the question my wife posed is not strange, on the contrary it is very relative. It was a simple question.

[JayBrown80]

Okay, I guess the onus is on us. I don't know where we could have gotten those terrible ideas.

Originally Posted by rocco92

. My wife never mentioned me (i am the husband) being phobic. She also never stated that it is the only thing we researched about Austin. My wife never even hinted as such. .

Originally Posted by rocco92

My Husband and I are having a very difficult time making a decision to move to Austin. His main reason for being reluctant to move is that he's afraid of having the roaches and scorpions in the apartments (out in the wood is acceptable but not in the home). This is going to be our deal breaker. How realistic is it that we will actually see roaches and scorpions in the apartments?