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I have lived in many places. I've dealt with, in my lifetime, to some degree or another, fleas, ticks, spiders, ants, roaches, bedbugs, lice, june bugs, oriental ladybird beetles (invasive version of the ladybug, I'm not a fan) and various kinds of wasps and hornets and yellowjackets (which are my particular nemesis.)
It is my understanding that one of the most prolific nasties these days, is the bedbug. Spreading via hotels, transit, you name it, and they can live absolutely anywhere. Awful. I've heard horror stories. I think I read some years back, that there used to be a pesticide that had nearly eradicated them in the United States, but that pesticide was deemed unsafe and we stopped using it and now they've made a comeback.
I hate cockroaches. Fortunately we don't really seem to have problems with them so much here in Colorado Springs as far as I know. And cat/dog fleas don't seem to thrive here either. Yay, that. I had tiny black ants here in an apartment, that's been my worst problem since moving here, and food grade diatomaceous earth took care of 'em. That stuff is great, kills bugs and doesn't hurt pets.
We don't seem to have scorpions or tarantulas around here, but I do see sun spiders (or "wind scorpions") which are related to the camel spider that soldiers talk about in the Middle East. Nasty fast little buggers, and I've heard that their bites hurt a LOT, but I also read that they aren't venomous though. Just fast and fierce.
I am looking at probably moving to Phoenix, AZ in a few years. I am mostly afraid, very afraid, of the Africanized bees. The very idea freaks me out. At least a scorpion isn't likely to kill me, I'm a healthy grown adult, but "killer" bees totally can, if I can't get away fast enough. LOL I could start shining a blacklight around to try and spot scorpions, too. They glow under blacklight, you know?
Can anybody tell me if flea or roach problems are common in the Phoenix area? I never knew if they are relatively rare here in Colorado because of the dryness or the altitude...
ROACHES!!! Cockroaches dig that dry heat. Cockroaches in Phoenix are everywhere, in just about every household, unless you have an exterminator on retainer.
I think the chemical you're talking about is DDT, and it can't make a comeback. DDT got into everything, and it killed the birds who ate the berries DDT landed on, it killed the pets who had contact with the birds or the rodents or the insects...... just nasty stuff. It caused birth defects too, which is why it could never be used again.
BTW, make sure your diatomaceous earth does not contain silica. Breathing that in can be fatal to pets and humans.
I would rather live in a house full of bugs than a house full of poison.
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