Are The Bugs Really That Bad??? (San Antonio, Austin: rent, theater, landlords)

[clawson26]

Originally Posted by jaycheryl

All this talk of bugs makes Michigan look pretty good about now! Darn it! And my husband was thinking we may end up in Texas, but I'd FREAK out if I ran into a "real" snake (not just the garden snakes we have here)!

Don't rule it out just because of snakes though. We had tons of them when we lived out in the country but I lived in various subdivisions in Dallas, Corpus, and Tyler and I never saw one in a neighborhood like that.

[Jim Finn]

I live two hours south of Amarillo in Lubbock. I have been here one year now. ALmost no bugs. We have a 3 year old house and none inside at all. I have lived in Calif , Wisconsin and Maryland and this part of Texas is just as bug free as Calif. is. Very nice. LOTs of bugs in Maryland and Wisconsin though. Consider west Texas if you want to avoid bugs and snakes.

[wehotex]

Originally Posted by falnlovewtx

I've been excited about moving to TX. I had my sights set on Austin until I found a thread that talks about the scorpions, snakes, ants, mosquitoes etc. So now I'm looking at Corpus Christi. Would the bug problems be the same. Really guys, this is the worst phobia ever. Couldn't do it. Please say it wouldn't be so bad in CC. Thanks.

yes, the bugs are REALLY THAT BAD! I grew up in corpus, lived in austin, dallas, so cal and now san antonio. in the 15 years that i lived in socal, i rarely saw any roaches, crickets or cicadas. in texas, they are indeed all over the place, but i guess that you could say that i'm used to them now. as long as you are careful where you step, you'd probably miss them. be prepared for roaches that might come out, even fly at you when you are opening a cabinet at night in your kitchen. it will take a little adjustment if you are squeamish at the site of those critters.

[changeofpace]

Bugs need food, water and a place to hide. Don't give them food, water and shelter and you won't have bugs in the house ecept for that stray bug that follows you in the house thru the door and that bug you should see right away and get rid of it. In MN, the land of 10,000 lakes and bugs, we have ants, roaches, boxelder bugs, june bugs, fire flys, water bugs, spiders of all varieties and thousand leggers. All the bats flying around at night keeps the flying bugs down and the garden snakes control the ground bugs somewhat. No openings and no food, water or shelter and the bugs stay outside of the house.

[houstoner]

Originally Posted by victoriana

When this home was built, the builder laughed at me but I saw to it that boric acid was sprinkled behind all the walls and guess what? I have never seen one single roach or bug - ever.

Boric acid works WONDERS. You can get a big ol' bottle of it for three bucks at your nearest Walgreens. I use a combination of that and cayenne pepper on the windowsills and mop with Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap or a mixture of peppermint oil and water to keep away fire ants and other creepy-crawlies. Slap on some lemongrass oil or Burt's Bees if I'm going to be working outside a while. Works like a charm.

I'm not sure why people would worry about crickets and cicadas. The little buggers don't bother anyone. All they do is sing, for cryin' out loud.

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by houstoner

Boric acid works WONDERS. You can get a big ol' bottle of it for three bucks at your nearest Walgreens......
I'm not sure why people would worry about crickets and cicadas. The little buggers don't bother anyone. All they do is sing, for cryin' out loud.

No real problem unless there is one in the house grinding away at 3am...and you can't find the little stinker to kill it so you can get some sleep.....

[KewGee]

Originally Posted by Cathy4017

No real problem unless there is one in the house grinding away at 3am...and you can't find the little stinker to kill it so you can get some sleep.....

Yes, I agree. Crickets are not music to my ears and when one happens to be "lost" in the house which is a rarity, thank goodness, I can't sleep worth a flip. I have to go to another room to get away from its irritating screeching.

[artsymom]

We are relocating to Texas(Working in IrvingTX area). Not sure where to settle yet though. Just FYI-I'm originally from California.

When we moved to this area in Utah(where we live now), we were told we would see scorpions, terantulas, mosquitos-we live by a lake, black widows, major swarms of yellow jackets, beehives, wild jack rabbits, brown recluse spiders, deer, cougars, snakes-including rattlers, etc.

Well, I held my breath, and this is what we did. We put in a cedar wood fence, (keeps out deer, and big things and such) and hired a good year-round pest control crew/company to spray outside our home 4 times a year and inside about once a year. Some people would get a dog. You would be surprised as to how quickly uninvited pests will move on or die when you have year-round pest control.

Things are totally under control now. If we see a small hive starting outside or a small pile of ants, we call the pest control crew and they come out right away at no extra charge.

History: The first year, when there were not many homes, thus not many finished yards with green grass, pest control, etc. we did see things. One rattlesnake in a neighbors yard. It coiled up on their back patio next to their young daughter and dog. The dog barked, the da saw it and took his child inside and got a yard tool and beheaded it. They learned to keep a dog outside at all times. The snakes stopped coming around. We learned that the other poisenous snakes were actually killing the rattlers for us.

Next, we had a small poisenous snake sneak into our livingroom while the front door was open. My hubby was putting in sod and had left the door open. It was about 3 inches awat from my 5 month old daughter. I removed her and my hubby took a shovel and swept it out the door. We learned to keep the doors closed. The snakes no longer come down the hill-there is no food for them here, and there are no longer tall grasses. It helps to have landscaping finished.

One terantula, dead on the middle of the road. It was as big as my hand-but dead none the less. Our neighbor had one in her rock wall, thus, when we put out rock wall in, we made sure to put in cement in-between each rock to not attract ant pests. Still, our neighbors just started spraying the rock wall with the pest stuff. There used to be a migration of turantulas that came over the hill each year, but after the first year, they moved on to another path. Probably because of all the new homes.

The scorpions, we did see one or two, again, only the first year when the landscape looked liked the desert, rather than sod.

Black Widows-we mainly only saw these quarter sized spiders in deep dark crevices like basement window wells before we started spraying. If I have to clean out an older dark area, I wear long thick gloves, and move things carefully.

Never saw a cougar. I heard there was one on a lady's back porch. Like bears, they come down the mountain when it's been an extremely hot day. They don't usually come down too far-most people never see them. However, they can come down for food on very hot days. Deer, only if i hike at dawn or dusk-when they are looking for food. Jack rabbits -I can see them anytime in the hills where I hike-but they run away from people.
We spray for hives, spiders and other pests.

This is the price for living in nature. We have learned to be preventive people. I bet you'll be okay.

Thanks

[KitaGirl80]

I'm just horrified to hear about these bugs. I'm from Chicago and I can deal with flies, bees, dragonflies, ants, mosquitos, and spiders (we even get cicadas every few years). I absolutely can NOT deal with flying roaches and scorpions in the house. It is bad enough I'd be freaked out, but my son would be a lot worse. He is hysterical when seeing small flies. As you can imagine, we don't spend too much time outdoors at all. I was soooo set on moving to Texas. So my question is, are these critters in certain areas, like near the woods, near the water, suburban and rural areas, etc? Are they plentiful in big city/metro areas? I am particularly interested in Dallas, Fort Worth, and Arlington. Any information regarding these cities would be greatly appreciated.

[KewGee]

Originally Posted by KitaGirl80

I'm just horrified to hear about these bugs. I'm from Chicago and I can deal with flies, bees, dragonflies, ants, mosquitos, and spiders (we even get cicadas every few years). I absolutely can NOT deal with flying roaches and scorpions in the house. It is bad enough I'd be freaked out, but my son would be a lot worse. He is hysterical when seeing small flies. As you can imagine, we don't spend too much time outdoors at all. I was soooo set on moving to Texas. So my question is, are these critters in certain areas, like near the woods, near the water, suburban and rural areas, etc? Are they plentiful in big city/metro areas? I am particularly interested in Dallas, Fort Worth, and Arlington. Any information regarding these cities would be greatly appreciated.

The DFW area is full of bugs of all kinds. The mosquitoes here carry the West Nile Virus too and several cases have been reported this year in the area. I don't worry about that, but I hate all the bugs as well.

I don't have roaches in my home because if I did, I know I couldn't live here. I've seen homes with roaches everywhere and it's disgusting. Of course, the people who have them are obviously not clean or they wouldn't have so many. They multiply like crazy.

I have had scorpions in my home. One early morning I was lying in bed and looked up at the ceiling. One was on it right above my bed. I freaked!! Then we have the annoying crickets and June bugs. June bugs are not harmful, but they're so weird. They don't exactly fly; they more or less do dive bombs in the air and where they land, no one knows. I go nuts if one lands on me. Every time I open the door one "flies" in, but my dog is great at catching them and the harmless crickets too. I just shout, "Katy, get it!!"