[mlwl8521]

I live near Washington DC so I see all 4 seasons. If I move down to Florida, is the combination of heat and humidity going to make the place ripe for:

1. mosquitos
2. spiders (i dont mean tiny ones that are like quarter of an inch big, i'm talking ones that are the size of your thumb or bigger)
3. scorpions

If so, how do you Floridians deal with it?

[nphomeowner]

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Not so much

The bugs were a huge concern of mine before moving here but with proper pest control it's not a big deal. And after a while if you see them it's not such an issue. The Mosquitos sometimes are the worst but we had Mosquitos up north too.

[Bloopers]

I've seen a lot of mosquitos, roaches, LIZARDS (they are EVERYWHERE, and they creep me out), and tiny spiders, thankfully no huge ones. Haven't seen many scorpions, if any at all.

[jambo101]

Heres a good resource at identifying the bugs of Florida with excellent write ups on their idiosyncrasies
Florida Bugs

[Rabflmom]

Originally Posted by mlwl8521

I live near Washington DC so I see all 4 seasons. If I move down to Florida, is the combination of heat and humidity going to make the place ripe for:

1. mosquitos
2. spiders (i dont mean tiny ones that are like quarter of an inch big, i'm talking ones that are the size of your thumb or bigger)
3. scorpions

If so, how do you Floridians deal with it?

Co-exist. Spray or swat when you need to. If you happen to find one indoors catch and release outside when you can.

We also have 6 types of poisonous snakes, lizzards, gators, sharks, stingrays, lots of big flying palmetto bugs, and ameba in the lakes that can kill you. You learn to just accept them azs part of life down here.

[Eresh]

Originally Posted by mlwl8521

I live near Washington DC so I see all 4 seasons. If I move down to Florida, is the combination of heat and humidity going to make the place ripe for:

1. mosquitos
2. spiders (i dont mean tiny ones that are like quarter of an inch big, i'm talking ones that are the size of your thumb or bigger)
3. scorpions

If so, how do you Floridians deal with it?

1. Yes, there are plenty of mosquitoes. Just try not to encourage them by having any stagnant water in the yard (old flower pots, buckets, etc.). And DO encourage (or at least don't remove) other critters that eat them (dragon flies, frogs, bats, for examples)
2. Yes, there are spiders. Spiders aren't bad to have around outside, since they eat bugs (see #1). If you find one inside the house, just put it outside.
3. I have heard scorpions are in FL, but I had never in my life seen one until I moved to GA. (Actually, I've had encounters with a LOT more bugs, including mosquitoes, in GA than I ever did in FL.)

There are many ways people deal with it. Some people just move away. Others use pesticides (not a good idea for many reasons, but I digress). Most people find that just accepting that bugs exist and understanding their ecology (who eats who, what makes them flourish, etc) and recognizing the few are actually dangerous and avoiding them is the easiest way to deal with it.

[FlyMIA]

YES
YES but the big ones usually stay outside. Also the big ones are usually the least dangerous.
NO there are some but in all my time around the state I have seen maybe one or two. Including time camping in parks in all parts of the state.

[Sweetbottoms]

Tons of Mosquitoes, this year we had some newish large breed invading Florida..add that to the really rainy season we've had...


Spiders- yeppers got those too, the big ones. Rarely have I gotten the big ones in my house, but you'd probably want em cause its the smaller ones that are dangerous. Found a nest of black widows in my car door once. Figured it was the tree my car was parked under. If you're lucky sometimes you get the wolf spiders, they jump when you try to go after em. They're a great laxative. Sometimes you even have the banana spiders on ur house.. knew a guy once who kept em ALL over his windows, hundreds and hundreds, said it was kind of like a security system. Felt bad for the poor fool who tried to climb in his house, seriously



You forgot one though, Love bug season... Here's my screen a few years back, and my window.. I think thats spring-early summer we see those. Make sure to wash em off your car, which will be covered. You keep em on there long enough and the paint will come off. These are from the 06 season.. The season of excessive love..





Scorpions are more in the keys, when we lived there if we left our shoes outside we would shake them out in the morning to make sure they weren't hiding. Haven't seen a problem with them in other parts

Don't worry though, we have the beach and sunshine..

[jghorton]

Been here 40+ years and still lovin' Florida. Of course there are spiders, snakes, lovebugs, lizards and even gators here (the latter are particularly prevalent around Gainsville). However, the 'hype' is far worse than the 'bite' -- (BTW, the lizards help keep the other bugs in check, while snakes keep the lizards and frogs in check). Beyond that, the hurricanes are vastly overrated by 'hair-on-fire media blathering' -- and the humidity (except following rainstorms), is typically more of a personal preference issue.

[newbieheretoflorida]

We live on a small lake, mosquitoes aren't bad until late June through September, we had them in NJ though so they don't bug us. We're in Central Florida, and haven't seen a scorpion yet, thought we might because we live near a preserve, lots of woods and water. We hike a lot, just haven't come across any yet. Love bug season wasn't that bad this spring, which is odd, because last year it seemed a lot longer. They don't bite, they are annoying, but we just spray our car down at the end of the day. The only times we really hate them is when we have to get gas in the middle of the day, evenings are easier lol. We had more spiders in NJ, our dogs were bit by a brown recluse, that was horrible. We also had lyme's disease from ticks, so, everything we deal with here is compared to those memories, so, honestly? We haven't had to deal with anything that badly here, so, we've been grateful.

We love the lizards, our kids catch them, and the bigger ones mean they are well fed, and they don't have as many predators after them. Our neighbor has a saying that if the lizards are up high, a snake is nigh, we've found that to be true twice, only because we were paying attention. Both times it was black snakes, and they are a great thing to have, they get moles and mice .