Moving to florida? Here are the creatures you may have to live with. (Miami: real estate, home owners insurance)
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I've noticed people ask about Floridas notorious creatures like the gators & massive flying roaches and find myself wondering if people outside of florida don't know about our other wild residents that can some time put a damper on living in the state so I figured I'd start a little list of critters for you to be awair of.
In some parts we have Gopher Turtles. They're a protected species but that doesn't keep people from huntting them for food particularly in central florida as hey are seen as a pest because they burrow and kill the roots of any living thing above them. NSiS: Florida Wildlife - Gopher Tortoises
Snakes snakes and more snakes. There are at least 45 species of snake in Florida and only 6 venomous are but we also have the joy of hostting a growing population of constrictors some of wich can get awfull big. Big enough to kill an adult and as I'm sure you know big enough to eat a 6 foot gator on at least one occasion. Home
ANTS! Oh yes...florida ants are so much fun! If they're not distroying your house or yard they're bitting you or perhaps even killing your dog. Fire ants are notorious for just being everywhere. accidentaly step on one of their nests and I bet you'll watch your every foot fall from then on out. Pest ants of FL Homepage
Termites. Tree killing home wreckers. Florida has species of termites that exist no where else and you better bet if you own a home in florida chances are you will have to deal with these buggers on a near annual basis as many insurance companies require termite inspections if you wish to remain covered.
(I'll look for a link later)
And then we get to the mosquetos, deer ticks, love bugs, sand fleas.... horse flies and all their friends and beleive it or not we're just getting startted.
You've got a whole lot more than sharks to worry about in the waters from amebas to red tide ... common jelly fish , man o war, rays and a few other not so friendly sea creatures...
The poisionous toads that can kill your dog if you're not watching....
godzilla sized lizzards along some of the cannals...
Just a few of the critters for you to conciter if you should choose to move to florida because like it or not you will be sharing space with a few of them.
And the odds of you dealing with 95% of these creatures on a daily basis is close to none. Just watch where you step in the grass and you will eliminate stepping on ants, snakes, lizards, scorpions (which other than living in Key West I never saw in SWFL once) and any other creature.
-Don't swim in ponds or lakes, and you won't run into snakes or alligators(you should be doing that anyways in Fla unless posted) ...
-Grew up 2 blocks from the beach and was in there every week, never saw a shark and most people who live there their whole lives never will, I personally never had problems with jelly fish or stingrays becasue I looked for signs and made sure NOT to swim in season.
-Its very simple folks and really not a big deal at all. I've been reading people considering NOT moving to Fla because of the bugs and thats kinda ludacris I mean where are you gonna live? Every state has something.
-As far as ants, the only prob you would really have in your house is black/sugar ants which are harmless, and you shouldn't have a problem if you're cleaning your house regularly and not leaving food out to attract them....
-Most homes are cinderblock/cement construction... Termites don't eat cement to my knowledge.. There may be exceptions with older homes but that is your responsibility to check before buying right? In the 24 years in Fla we never had a single termite problem once nor have anyone in my family that I am fully aware of at all... Deal with on an annual basis? Exaggeration for sure.
-The lizards are totally fine I used to catch them as a kid, even the glass lizards and NEVER saw godzilla lizards? Not even sure what they are they're all smaller than my palm and completely harmless, we used to let them hang on our ears and use them as "earrings" as kids.
-Never once saw a poisionous frog, once again used to catch frogs as kids, I would let my dog run outside for as long as he wanted and never once had a single problem with anything poisionous, that goes for every dog I owned.
-I think people are making a HUGE deal out of nothing at all. You're making it like we have to be on total damage control and be paranoid every second in Fla when the fact of the matter is 99% of the people don't worry about any of these thing at all! If sharks/jellyfish/stingrays were such a HUGE problem in Florida why do we have so many people not only visiting all the time but IN the water and still go home safe. There is an easy fix if you don't want to contend with whatever small amount of creatures MAY be onshore than stick to pools. Problem solved
- We have wolves, cyote (we just recently ahd a couple run through a neighborhood and had to be put on lockdown), bear, moose, snakes, mosquitos,horse flies, black flies, deer ticks etc up north, but look how many people live their lives and never encounter most of them..
I also forgot about the nat clouds and the skinks and salamanders and the bazillion species of roach or roach looking buggies. the sluggs, snails and other slimmie things, fruit flies, bees whasps hornets... and or roughly a million other random critters that you're bound to run in to and eventually kinda get use to over time.
My poor boyfriend was so freaked out by the wildlife around my sisters house that he wont go back to Florida with me when I go to visit anymore. And he just encountered a few of the critters her yard had to offer. Poor guy stepped in to an ant pile running from me as I teased him with a palmetto bug I'd huntted down to show him what we call a roach the same day we found a snake up in the attic space. and the next day he wondered in to a spider web and had something the size of his hand crawling on him LOL
And the odds of you dealing with 95% of these creatures on a daily basis is close to none. Just watch where you step in the grass and you will eliminate stepping on ants, snakes, lizards, scorpions (which other than living in Key West I never saw in SWFL once) and any other creature.
-Don't swim in ponds or lakes, and you won't run into snakes or alligators(you should be doing that anyways in Fla unless posted) ...
-Grew up 2 blocks from the beach and was in there every week, never saw a shark and most people who live there their whole lives never will, I personally never had problems with jelly fish or stingrays becasue I looked for signs and made sure NOT to swim in season.
-Its very simple folks and really not a big deal at all. I've been reading people considering NOT moving to Fla because of the bugs and thats kinda ludacris I mean where are you gonna live? Every state has something.
-As far as ants, the only prob you would really have in your house is black/sugar ants which are harmless, and you shouldn't have a problem if you're cleaning your house regularly and not leaving food out to attract them....
-Most homes are cinderblock/cement construction... Termites don't eat cement to my knowledge.. There may be exceptions with older homes but that is your responsibility to check before buying right? In the 24 years in Fla we never had a single termite problem once nor have anyone in my family that I am fully aware of at all... Deal with on an annual basis? Exaggeration for sure.
-The lizards are totally fine I used to catch them as a kid, even the glass lizards and NEVER saw godzilla lizards? Not even sure what they are they're all smaller than my palm and completely harmless, we used to let them hang on our ears and use them as "earrings" as kids.
-Never once saw a poisionous frog, once again used to catch frogs as kids, I would let my dog run outside for as long as he wanted and never once had a single problem with anything poisionous, that goes for every dog I owned.
-I think people are making a HUGE deal out of nothing at all. You're making it like we have to be on total damage control and be paranoid every second in Fla when the fact of the matter is 99% of the people don't worry about any of these thing at all! If sharks/jellyfish/stingrays were such a HUGE problem in Florida why do we have so many people not only visiting all the time but IN the water and still go home safe. There is an easy fix if you don't want to contend with whatever small amount of creatures MAY be onshore than stick to pools. Problem solved
- We have wolves, cyote (we just recently ahd a couple run through a neighborhood and had to be put on lockdown), bear, moose, snakes, mosquitos,horse flies, black flies, deer ticks etc up north, but look how many people live their lives and never encounter most of them..
It's a mater of knowing that you will have to learn to live with them. Alot of people move to places with out taking time to realize oh these things are there then get in trouble by doing dumb things like wade fishing in the wrong spot or poaking at a tree for god knows what reason or simply rolling around in the grass in the wrong spot.
Alot of people come down and simply don't know to look for signs or realize that wild animals can live in their neighborhoods.
I grew up kinda all over the place in South Florida lived there for the first 30+ years of my life and still have family all over the state and to us the critters are just there but guests freak out over their presence simply because they are not use to them.
You never had a problem with bufu toads? Man in south Miami we lost 2 dogs cuz my lazy cusan just let them out at night and didn't watch them.
Termites don't eat concreete but they do eat up the trees in peoples yards and the rooof and wooden swingsets and stuff. And I know my sister has to have a tree specialist inspect her trees every 2 years for her home owners insurance.
In oppa locka we got use to the gators that sunned in our back yard cuz hey we lived on a cannal that was their turff and we knew it.
My brother found a monitor lizzard like this NAS - Species FactSheet in his yard just a few months ago and other igguanas have been around for a while as well so yhea areas do have big lizzards for people to get use to.
Fire ants in the yard are still common unless you're one of those people constantly putting down poisions wich are ever so good for the ground water and run off... and some times you just can't see the mounds. You may not have them in your house but you do need to learn to be carefull when walking on the grass. Oddly enough alot of people just don't know that.
When you're use to these things being there you hardly notice them but for people just setteling in who all the sudden realize there's a big lizzard sunning in the back yard or run in to an ant pile walking across the yard these things can come as quite a shock.
And yes there are still a few panthers and bears in some remote areas and you're actually lucky if you spot one of them provided you respond properly when you do.
I actually miss all the wild life down there wich is why I do evil things like roam the neighborhood looking for bugs to chace my boyfriend around with. It's quite funny watching a midle aged man run and scream like a girl at the sight of a bug!
I've noticed people ask about Floridas notorious creatures like the gators & massive flying roaches and find myself wondering if people outside of florida don't know about our other wild residents that can some time put a damper on living in the state so I figured I'd start a little list of critters for you to be awair of.
In some parts we have Gopher Turtles. They're a protected species but that doesn't keep people from huntting them for food particularly in central florida as hey are seen as a pest because they burrow and kill the roots of any living thing above them. NSiS: Florida Wildlife - Gopher Tortoises
Snakes snakes and more snakes. There are at least 45 species of snake in Florida and only 6 venomous are but we also have the joy of hostting a growing population of constrictors some of wich can get awfull big. Big enough to kill an adult and as I'm sure you know big enough to eat a 6 foot gator on at least one occasion. Home
ANTS! Oh yes...florida ants are so much fun! If they're not distroying your house or yard they're bitting you or perhaps even killing your dog. Fire ants are notorious for just being everywhere. accidentaly step on one of their nests and I bet you'll watch your every foot fall from then on out. Pest ants of FL Homepage
Termites. Tree killing home wreckers. Florida has species of termites that exist no where else and you better bet if you own a home in florida chances are you will have to deal with these buggers on a near annual basis as many insurance companies require termite inspections if you wish to remain covered.
(I'll look for a link later)
And then we get to the mosquetos, deer ticks, love bugs, sand fleas.... horse flies and all their friends and beleive it or not we're just getting startted.
You've got a whole lot more than sharks to worry about in the waters from amebas to red tide ... common jelly fish , man o war, rays and a few other not so friendly sea creatures...
The poisionous toads that can kill your dog if you're not watching....
godzilla sized lizzards along some of the cannals...
Just a few of the critters for you to conciter if you should choose to move to florida because like it or not you will be sharing space with a few of them.
I live in Weston and I have never seen a roach in my house, nor have I seen a spider. I have had tiny, annoying little ghost ants that are harmless and don't seem attracted to food, and I haven't seem them in a year after exterminating them myself using a few strategically placed borax traps. Perhaps the taxes and and real estate prices are too high for the insects around here? I do have lizards outside, but they are kind of cute. And South Florida is made out of concrete and asphalt (for better or for worse), so the termite issue around here is minimal, although I know it's bad in other parts of the state. I have never seen a snake around here (seen them in other parts of FL I have lived in however), although we do have plenty of gators around. I wish we had more snakes actually, because the number one nuisance in this area is field mice.
Also, despite the fact that some weird looking spiders in Florida do indeed thrive, most venomous or poisonous spiders are actually not prominent or common.
That being said, I'm going to have to say that I am definitely a rare case. And I don't live too far from where that jogger got killed by an alligator walking along the canal...
But, that is also a rare case, but like anywhere else, good pest control will keep bugs out of your home. I always note at how my family members who keep their homes spotless up north have so many bugs up there when I go up. Flies, ants, roaches, all different kinds and they keep their homes sparkling clean. Pest control usually solves their problems but I don't even have to call pest control, go figure. I actually get bit by more mosquitoes up there than here too, even though I live in a paved swamp.
Last edited by compelled to reply; 03-10-2008 at 11:00 AM..
Oh my god, this posting is nuts.... Where on this planet are there not "buggies, snakes and yucky things" living amongst us, give me a break.... Well in new England we have cotton mouths, rattle snakes, water moccasins, black widows, coyotes, bears, mountain lions, badgers, wild dogs, and 100 other "scary" things living up there. I used to play in the woods and walk in the river with no shoes, when I went fishing as a kid, and guess what? I'M STILL HERE!!! Here in Florida all I ever see are the 4 inch lizards... oooh scary. Black racers(snakes) that take off at 100mph to get away from you, daddy longlegs...ooooh another scary buggie... Come on, no matter where you are there are things living with us like this. this is just goofy... I'm done...
Tarastomsgirl... I agree with you on everything. Almost on your way back here to FL??? bring the bug spray!!! LOL!!!!
Okay, I don't get this. I see no bugs in my house and the only bugs outside are dead bugs. We get our foundation sprayed quarterly and it works. Occasionally a harmless snake appears around the shrubs though I saw more snakes in Massachusetts. What I do see are cute lizards, pelicans, sand cranes and egrets.
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