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Something that perked me, as I was cleaning house yesterday. It might not be experienced all over NC; we didn't see them in Concord, but have had them every winter since we moved farther north into the stix, and so have the neighbors. LADYBUGS! Bagillions of LADYBUGS! invade our house every winter
We seal around the windows and don't have any cracks that we know of, but still these little pests invade. The cats play with them, the dogs pick them up and spit them out, walking through the house on bare feet can be kind of like walking thru Rice Krispies I vacuum them every week, and each spring cleaning means raising the windows and blowing them out of the window tracks. I know they are a beneficial insect, but there's no way I can keep them alive until spring. I suppose some survive and find their way out with warm weather, but I still find myself cleaning out hundreds of little corpses each spring
So, if you are bug phobic, aside from the amazingly large garden spiders that set up webs around our yard in the fall, you might find yourself having to deal with those little Rice Krispies with wings
Shoot .. ALSO, come July, watch out for the Japanese Beetles. Man oh man, they hatch from grubs and can be pestilant to plants, especially roses and Kwanzan cherry trees (I have several of those in my yard). I've largely eliminated them by setting out bug traps all over the yard (I don't like using poisons on the ground), but the first time they came through and cleaned out all our foliage (it can happen quick) I was horrified.
Great! I buy them each spring and have my husband sprinkle them in the yard. One year he was traveling and I bought some and as soon as one crawled on me I left the bag open on the rose bush and if you couldn't crawl out on your own that was your problem. When my hubby traveled to Chicago his hotel room had tons of lady bugs in it, he would lay their and watch them migrate across the ceiling. We have those Japanese Beeltes also. My husband grabbed one and tied a string around it's leg and flew it around, it was so funny. Of course I was in the house watching or should I say screaming and laughing. Those are BIG crunchy bugs too. Hubby also likes to hatch the Mantid pods, those are pretty cool. I can actually look at those and not cringe so much. I feel like they won't jump on me like a hopper. Hubby also warned me about the walking sticks, another eeeww. Yes, I have already decided on a bug zapper, ok a couple of bug zappers! Thanks for the warning.
You think ladybugs are bad, wait until you land in the home of some of our fire ants. Those things hurt and I mean hurt when they bite you. And then we have this kinda greenish fly that they call a horse fly. And this critter can bite as well. That is in addition to the brown recluse spiders, other type spiders, bees, wasps, just regular run of the mill picnic ants, and I have seen bugs that I have no idea what the heck they are. Generally speaking, it they don't bite and don't try to eat my food, I pretty much leave them alone. But then again, I haven't been invaded by the "red rice krispies" either. I have been bitten by a brown recluse once. And I didn't even know he had bitten me until the bite began to errode and I had this hole in my thigh and I had this horrible pain all over. The doctor said it was a brown recluse bite. I will have to take his word for that because this thing didn't hang around long enough for me to figure out what he was.
You think ladybugs are bad, wait until you land in the home of some of our fire ants.
HEARD about those Aren't those the kind where you scarcely know they are on you until some invisible signal goes out and they bite all at once?
We also have ... I'm not sure of the name, I call the "borer bees". They look like the big yellow and black bumble bees [sound like 'em too. the first time one buzzed around my head, I started pinwheeling my arms like I was trying to become airborne, hollering "get it away!". I was stung by a real bumbler once. HURT ] but are harmless to people. They just bore holes in wood. My gazebo looks like it has been machine gunned
When we were vistiting we were in the mountains somewhere and I actually got to see a "real" hornets nest. Man was it huge. We have a lot of black widows here. I have heard of the brown recluse, that is a nasty bite alright. With my husband growing up in Atlanta, they used to play in the woods and he has told me all about the fire ants and he also was stung twice by swarms of I think yellow jackets (can't remeber). He had a few hundred stings! Ouch! Last time we visited, my brother in law had this horrible looking spider just sitting above the doorway from the house to the garage. It was huge, big and round and had an orangish body. I was just waiting for it to fall on me when I walked under it. It was their for days in one place. We also have horse flys but your don't see them that often.
I don't care how dormant a hornet's nest make look, never and I mean never poke it with a stick or disturb it in any way. Hornets are five times bigger than the average honey bee and they swarm to kill. And they can literally kill you. Now skunks will eat them. Don't ask. I read it somewhere. The question is how they manage to eat them.
Trust me, I only photographed the hornets nests with a 200 mm lens so it only looks like I was close. Yes I just confirmed with the husband it was yellow jackets that swarmed him. Apparently both times the nests were in the ground and he accidently stepped on them. Also just confirmed with hubby it is the fire ants that signal to attack.
Hornets do die out though at the end of the warmer seasons. But I am glad that you didn't get that close to the thing just in case. It only takes one to inflict a horrible sting. I saw a film where hornets swarmed over to a bee's hive and literally took out all the bees and looted the hive if you will. I think it said that 30 hornets could over take an hive of 30,000 bees in less than 3 hours.
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I vacuum them every week, and each spring cleaning means raising the windows and blowing them out of the window tracks. I know they are a beneficial insect, but there's no way I can keep them alive until spring. I suppose some survive and find their way out with warm weather, but I still find myself cleaning out hundreds of little corpses each spring 
