Living in Colorado for so long, I got pretty spoiled not having any bugs. Most of the insects you see in Colorado are wasps, moths, flies, and small spiders. There were bugs we just didn’t see a lot of them and didn’t have to hire an exterminator.
Now I have to shake my shoes or gloves before putting them on to make sure scorpions aren’t hiding there, watch where I walk for fear of standing in a fire ant mound, and be on the lookout for brown recluses and black widows. We’ve only seen five scorpions since being here and no black widows or brown recluses so we have yet to hire an exterminator and have instead been relying on diatomaceous earth as a greener alternative.
So far, I’ve been pretty fortunate in the bug department and have yet to be stung/bitten by anything (knock on wood). My husband has not been so lucky – he’s stepped into fire ant mounds at least three times and has had pretty severe blisters as a result. And one of my dogs (the white one) has been stung by a scorpion on the nose and broken out in hives and severe facial swelling from standing in a fire ant mound. He’s such a friendly boy and wants to make friends with all the creepy crawlies – poor guy!
Dana
Friday 6th of May 2011
I want you to know I suffered a touch of PTSD the other day from that taranchula on the bag picture! :) I was shoveling sand out from a bag and imagined one of your Texas bugs in there and jerked my hand out quickly! I would die if I ever saw one of those in the wild! Really.
Yellow Tennessee
Tuesday 3rd of May 2011
I'd move if I ever saw a spider that big. Yuck!
Lori A.
Saturday 30th of April 2011
We have the same problem here..I'm in the DFW area of Texas. We had tons of spiders and bugs before they built the elementary school behind our house (which, sadly, also rid our yard of the cute little bunnies we used to see). I have only seen a scorpion once, though. When it was just a huge field behind our house, rain would flood our backyard. One of those times there was a HUGE black scorpion out there. I had never seen such a big one. Of course, I didn't get a picture of it (duh). But it had to have been at least 4-6" long. We still get some spiders in and around the house. Wasp seem to love our house, too. Right now we're getting those nasty june bugs everywhere. Yuck. Very crunchy.
Theresa Gould
Saturday 30th of April 2011
Ew! I'm not a bug lover......:)
ohkeeka
Saturday 30th of April 2011
It's so funny that you posted this because I was going to post something about how I'm obsessing about the snakes and spiders in NC. I found out they have fire ants, black widows and brown recluses there too and also copperhead snakes and I spent all last weekend freaking the freak out. It's like my worst nightmare. I'm glad to hear that you've avoided any run-ins with these things. It gives me hope! I'm worried that my cats are going to end up like your dog though--they love bugs.