Hawaiian Insects: Are they really that bad? (Honolulu: condo, hotel)
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Except for roaches, ants and spiders the critters you'll find in apartments are different from those you'll come across living in a house. And even then, it depends on the condition and location of the apartment.
I was born and raised in a house in Wahiawa Heights and we had EVERYTHING. Big centipedes, giant poisonous toads, big flying cockroaches, spiders, biting ants and lots of cute and harmless geckos and lizards.
The worse thing I came across while living in an apartment in the Ala Moana area was the occasional roach. Even if you're clean, you can still have roaches if your neighbors are not.
Don't forget about scorpions, Hawaii has them too. A few years ago I killed one crawling on my mother-inlaws' parlor floor in Salt Lake. Don't worry though, this was in a house and not an apartment.
....But I have to ask about the insects that some people have mentioned in prior postings. Is it true that there are so many cockroaches, geckos, and centipedes throughout the city, and the state for that matter, that every apartment and home has to deal with this problem? ....I've heard that no matter how well you - and your neighbors - clean and maintain your apartment, condo, or home, you're going to have to deal with these insects, and lots of them. Is this true or an exaggeration?
tferriday, I may be wrong, but I think I sense a hint of distress in your question. I do not intend disrespect by restating the obvious, but this is the tropics. Our insects are mild compared to Alaska and Florida, but they do live here. Cockroaches, centipedes, scorpions and others will try to share your home if it is at the correct elevation in the right location. Geckos are your first defense against some insects inside, but gecko poop may make you crazy.
Are you sure tropical living is what you really want?
There's a lot of truth to your comment, Kohala Coast Tennis. I hate to admit it, but I do have a problem with cockroaches and centipedes. I realize they're everywhere, but some places are more tolerable than others. But you're right, it's good to do some soul-searching and a lot of research before moving to a new location.
Location: not sure, but there's a hell of a lot of water around here!
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You kind of have to look at the bug problem in Hawaii from a different perspective. Hawaii, minus, roaches, both small and xtra large, centipedes, blue ones, black ones, red ones, the occaisional blonde one, (more of a nuisance than a threat), short ones, long ones. Ants, the tiny ones that do about 500 mph around your kitchen, who knows what they're after, and the newly introduced, (thank you mainland!!!), fire ants, don't EVER stand on top of a fire ant hill, of course, if you do, by the time you realize it it will be too late,,,, scorpions, no big deal really, get to be maybe 1 1/2 long, however, I did see a regulation size one, maybe 4-5 inches long, out in Pakakaulo years back, wouldn't want to have been wacked by that one. Geckos, good luck as far as I'm concerned, anyone who would harm a gecko, regardless of gecko poop, is just plain asking for it. However, you do kind of have to wonder, if a gecko is on your bedroom ceiling at night, and you're asleep on your back with your mouth open, would the gecko,,,,, I mean, intentionally, you know,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,well, just another thing to worry about. Now, we also have bats, that's right, Hawaiian Bats, look it up, and Hawaiian owls, got one that swings by my place like clockwork every evening. We also now have Axis deer, primarily out in Wailea, where a number of cars have been involved in accidents with the overgrown rodents. Of course, rodent wise, we do have the obligatory mice, (was having dinner in Wailea years back, the table next to mine, a mouse was crawling up a womans leg, when she realized what it was, the table, plates, wine, dinner, everything went FLYING!!!!! Amazing what strength a tiny mouse can bring about in a lady!) We also have rats, but who doesn't. On the plus side, great weather, beautiful beaches, groceries are a little pricey, but what the heck, look at a map. What we don't have, bug wise and pest wise, that is STILL on the mainland, tarantulas, RATTLE SNAKES!!!!!! in fact, no snakes at all, black widows, crocodiles, alligators, bears, mountain lions, (friend of mine has a twenty something pound Bengal cat, close but no cigar), really BIG cockroaches with an attitude, guess you have to travel to NYC for that, and who knows how many other things. I would have to say, that all in all, Hawaii has far LESS bugs and rodents than does the mainland, it's just here, they're more obvious, this is, after all, Paradise, how can paradise have bugs??????? So, perhaps it's a slightly "buggy" paradise, who's really keeping track? Almost forgot to mention, we also don't have coyotes or wolves, would hate to overlook those guys, (sorry guys,) but we do have Wallabies in the Ko'olaus, honest to God, and it's not contagious!!!!!
Aloha and okolemaluna
WHAT THE HECK IS THAT CRAWLING UP MY LEG???????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Last edited by Jungjohann; 05-04-2009 at 02:33 AM..
We do too have snakes! I've caught a few of them. It is extremely difficult to tell them apart from worms, but if you find a blueish colored worm that crawls funny - side to side instead of longer/shorter like most worms move - then it is a snake! Ha! It is still difficult to tell which end is the head other than it's the one moving forward.
On the other hand, I've never seen a scorpion either here on Moku Nui or Oahu. I find those more alarming than snakes.
We have a lot of bugs and creepy crawlies, although with the exception of the mosquitoes, centipedes and scorpions most of them don't bite. They also seem to come in waves. At one time the whole yard was just about covered in white butterflies. Now, I hardly see any of them. There used to be a lot of praying mantis around, but I haven't seen any for awhile. There are tons of black beetles in the yard outside the fence where the chickens can't catch them. I find quite a few centipedes in the front yard where the chickens aren't but generally I only find them when I'm moving rocks around. A friend told me that hanabata days his neighbors told him that when you find a centipede it means someone is jealous of you.
At the moment we seem to be having an incursion of cane spiders. Dark brown, big, kinda furry and they move quickly. There is one living behind an onion in the vegetable bin. They seem to stay in a specific spot mostly.
Since we've gotten chickens, there seem to be a lot less centipedes. I dunno if that would help everyone, but less centipedes and more eggs works for me!
We also have Kamehameha butterflies, if you plant mamaki in your yard, some of them will probably show up.
We always had geckos in our house, but it wasn't a big deal... they aren't annoying or that bad! Kinda adorable actually haha.. There were relatively little cockroaches in the actual house, but a lot outdoors at times.
You kind of have to look at the bug problem in Hawaii from a different perspective. .... What we don't have, bug wise and pest wise, that is STILL on the mainland, tarantulas, RATTLE SNAKES!!!!!! in fact, no snakes at all, black widows, crocodiles, alligators, bears, mountain lions, (friend of mine has a twenty something pound Bengal cat, close but no cigar), really BIG cockroaches with an attitude, guess you have to travel to NYC for that, and who knows how many other things....
So funny and true...Tferriday, you live in SF Bay Area and you haven't had to deal with lots of bugs? Come on over to my house....my very very clean only 6-yr old house .....but when bugs want to move to a plot of land there's only so much you can do: giant 2-3" cockroaches along with their millions of babies, giant black widows galore into everything in the garages with their sticky sticky webs that just don't come down without heavy machinery, ants, neighbors with tens of mice running in from the fields.....no rattlers I've found yet but I know those bit, ....once walked into my kitchen with my newborn baby at 2 a.m. and the floor was crawling with hundreds of baby cockroaches, everywhere! didn't want to spray with a newborn so I proceeded to kill every one by hand, with plenty of grunts and muffled screams, while holding the baby (wasn't setting her down around that!!), while hubby continued to sleep away .....yes we put out traps the next morning.....moved into a rental once years ago about 20 minutes from San Francisco, with a trail of ants going to the frig, and opened the freezer to see a 2-foot mountain of dead ants, had to shovel that outta there, yuck.....so you just learn to deal!! Went to Florida once and I'll never forget getting woken up in the middle of the night by what sounded like a prop plane, and it was a huge bug with huge neon green glow-in-the-dark eyes dive bombing me!! That was an ewww moment.....Bugs mostly don't bug me anymore, but I remember as a young adult being freaked out by a single ant. You will adjust Tferriday, no worries.
Centipedes though, not sure how I'd deal with those! I like the no-covers-on-the-floor routine!
I did just recently visit the Islands, staying in a ground floor condo with back sliders that opened up to the beach, and woke up at maybe 2 a.m. to the sounds of crunching......did make my heart pound a minute, then I realized it was either a gecko (hoped so) or a mouse inside the empty potato chip bag in the trash can, couldn't imagine a bug making that much noise....Note to self: no empty food wrappers in the bedroom trash can! I will say I hesitated a couple minutes getting up at 5 a.m. in the dark to watch the moon set over the water, didn't want to step on something.
Roaches are everywhere as they will live in manhole covers and storm drains. Seal your home well, including ensuring your bathroom vents are screened, pipe entries are foam sealed, and the problem is minimized.
The biggest threat are from drywood termites. They will devour your home up in no time. Nothing you can do except tent your home regularly.
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