What's bugging you?

[Mailman]

First off , I'll tell you , we keep a tidy property. Yards always neat, no big piles of crap. My garage is clean and un cluttered. So why is it I feel like I'm living in some 1960's Twilight Zone episode?

I have lived in my house for 28 years and up until two years ago we had never seen a scorpion on our property, then overnight it was like someone opened up the gates of hell and we were inundated with them.
They were in the house, in the garage, everywhere. These are bark scorpions, the only variety in the US that are poisonous. I had to pay a company called Seal Out Scorpions a crazy amount of money to send a team of guys to our house and spend two days here sealing and caulking every tiny crack and opening on our house, inside and out, they screened anything that needs to remain open and we re worked all of our landscaping to make our yard less attractive to them. I also routinely spray Texas Red Cedar oil ,which is insanely expensive, because it is a natural repellent to them.
This weekend I killed 5 of them FIVE!!! On the house, in the garage. Jeeze Louise!

Not only that, I've got Black Widows that have taken up residence in my backyard grill and patio flower pots,
And oh yeah, I just discovered we have termites, TERMITES!!!
What the heck is going on here? Where is Rod Sterling?

 

[nj1639]

I remember reading a short story by O'Henry, I think it was, where a shoe salesman moved to an island where nobody had shoes. A veritable gold mine he thought. He opened a shoe shop and nobody came in. He then imported the equivalent of bales of sand burrs and distributed them around the island.

 

[gggGary]

Yuk scorpions glad we are north of that crowd.
nothing as dramatic; found a bunch of fine debris on my ultrasonic cleaner in the basement this week, thought oh-oh mr mouse is nesting in the insulation. got a trap loaded with peanut butter pulled the insulation back to place it and got covered with 100's of ants and eggs, they were seriously going to town. Had some this spring which is kinda normal but sprayed cabinet bottoms, along the foundation and saw no more. apparently they were just regrouping for the second wave.
While rock climbing at the local craig many years ago I slung an elbow over a ledge and think a brown recluse got me elbow swelled up a like a baseball and got red hot took 6 weeks to subside and that joint hurt for a year.

 

[retiredgentleman]

I'm glad I live in Calgary, Alberta. Bugs need warmth and/or moisture. Those two things are scarce here. Our cold winter makes bugs live other places.
I used to live in Ontario in eastern Canada. Lots of moisture in Ontario, and as a result, every bug known to nature creeps,crawls or flys in that province, and lots of them. When I grew up on the St. Lawrence river as a kid, motorists had to put a special screen in front of their radiators to catch the millions of shad flys. Otherwise their radiators would become plugged and over heat.

I never see mosquitoes, spiders, or flys. They do exist around Calgary, but just not many of them. Its a dry climate here.
Now if you head out in the country, where there is cattle or horses, you will see lots of insects.

 

[xjwmx]

I think your place might be too clean. Sounds like you need some snakes and mice around to help you out. Did you get rid of your snakes and mice before this happened?

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

Yup, moisture. Scorpions eat LOTS of bugs, which is good, but that means that you have lots of bugs somewhere, not good. Scorpions love moisture. Maybe you've retained a lot of subsurface moisture from the monsoons, or worse, you've got an underground plumbing leak somewhere.

I had some Rhode Island Reds that just *loved* scorpions. Gobbled them into extinction out here.

I have bird and hummingbird feeders. Occasionally I'll let them run empty and the birds wipe out the big bugs, hummers go after gnats and mosquitoes.

Biggest annoyance out here was the fire ants, up until a couple years ago. Seems that they've been driven out by the identical looking "Crazy Rasberry" ants. No more burning stings, replaced with wacky swarming things...

Edit: Scorpions really glow under Ultraviolet light. Good way to find 'em...

 

[Mailman]

Yup, moisture. Scorpions eat LOTS of bugs, which is good, but that means that you have lots of bugs somewhere, not good. Scorpions love moisture. Maybe you've retained a lot of subsurface moisture from the monsoons, or worse, you've got an underground plumbing leak somewhere.

I had some Rhode Island Reds that just *loved* scorpions. Gobbled them into extinction out here.

I have bird and hummingbird feeders. Occasionally I'll let them run empty and the birds wipe out the big bugs, hummers go after gnats and mosquitoes.

Biggest annoyance out here was the fire ants, up until a couple years ago. Seems that they've been driven out by the identical looking "Crazy Rasberry" ants. No more burning stings, replaced with wacky swarming things...

Edit: Scorpions really glow under Ultraviolet light. Good way to find 'em...

I actually know people who have bought chickens just to eat scorpions, they love 'em.
I have also done night hunting with ultraviolet flashlights. I can't say that's much fun, the ultraviolet flashlight doesn't throw out a lot of visible light, so you're out there stumbling around in the dark and when you spot them, they are frequently hauling ass across the ground, they are startlingly fast.

 

[azman857]

Been here in Tucson almost 30 yrs. Never seen a "wild", as in not in a Zoo" scorpion. (As I knock on wood)

 

[old boy]

First off , I'll tell you , we keep a tidy property. Yards always neat, no big piles of crap. My garage is clean and un cluttered. So why is it I feel like I'm living in some 1960's Twilight Zone episode?
View attachment 103047
I have lived in my house for 28 years and up until two years ago we had never seen a scorpion on our property, then overnight it was like someone opened up the gates of hell and we were inundated with them.
They were in the house, in the garage, everywhere. These are bark scorpions, the only variety in the US that are poisonous. I had to pay a company called Seal Out Scorpions a crazy amount of money to send a team of guys to our house and spend two days here sealing and caulking every tiny crack and opening on our house, inside and out, they screened anything that needs to remain open and we re worked all of our landscaping to make our yard less attractive to them. I also routinely spray Texas Red Cedar oil ,which is insanely expensive, because it is a natural repellent to them.
This weekend I killed 5 of them FIVE!!! On the house, in the garage. Jeeze Louise!
View attachment 103048 View attachment 103049
Not only that, I've got Black Widows that have taken up residence in my backyard grill and patio flower pots,
And oh yeah, I just discovered we have termites, TERMITES!!!
What the heck is going on here? Where is Rod Sterling?

Been in my house for 29yrs. Came home a couple months ago and found over a hundred termite swarmers on the kitchen floor. After an expensive treatment, found some carpenter ant swarmers in the breezeway. Scorpions? Black Widows? I don't know how you sleep at night.Maybe you don't.

 

[MaxPete]

Yikes - the worst things we've got here in SW Ontario are the stupid buggers we have elected to run the province and the country. They do a fair bit of harm, but at least they don''t bite (except in the wallet, I guess).

 

[Bob Kelly III]

when we moved in here I crawled under the house only to find black widows many of them.... the next month I bought a big can of raid spider killer and went back under the house..... I got'em good I hate spiders worse than I hate rattle snakes ! but they do what they do and do it well ! we seam to have a bunch of Mice this year.... holes in the yard everywhere and I've even seen one coming out of my shop.....
they eat insects so I don't get too upset by mice, but I did let the cats go outside Mahhahahha ! they've been sitting by those holes hunting
quite a bit !.....
I dunno how you boys in Texas can do it, we went through west texas one time and there were tarantulas all over the highway
some as big as a dinner plate ..... I told the wife if we have a flat I'm going to drive on it ! LOL there weren't just a few a 20 mile stretch had hundreds of thousands on that road..... i think they were getting warm on the pavement ! LOL one every 3 feet in a grid pattern ! the whole way !
.......
Bob......

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

Don't see tarantulas much anymore, Bob. I had one as a pet for awhile. Many of my friends stopped visiting.

Curse, or blessing, your call...

 

[FLEA]

mud wasps... I HATE THEM ..they build their nests anywhere , wiper snipper wont start/ run properly , pull off the exhaust cover and sure enough a nest covering the exhaust.. building anywhere and every where, all my unused bikes have rags stuffed up every open edific to keep them out , they are sneaky and build up high on the walls inside the house and when you notice and get rid of the nests you have a hard to get rid of stain on the paint... ahhh... only good thing about them is they don't seem to sting

 

[jetmechmarty]

Hey! I got copperheads! Right now, I got gas too!

I hope you get a good handle on the poison bugs very soon. Meanwhile, I won't handle the copperheads.

 

[Mailman]

Hey! I got copperheads! Right now, I got gas too!

I hope you get a good handle on the poison bugs very soon. Meanwhile, I won't handle the copperheads.

Oh yeah, that's right, the south has poisonous snakes a plenty. I have had run ins with rattlesnakes here, almost stepped on a few when I was delivering mail.
As far as the scorpions go, they will still be around when I have turned to dust! All we can do is try to keep them out of the house and use repellent to try and push them away.
Even in a worse case scenario, a sting, unless you are allergic to them , it's kind of like a bee sting. You get some swelling around the sting site and it hurts for a while but rarely causes any real problems. They're just so darned creepy, and they have the nasty habit of crawling inside your shoes or getting in bed with you.

 

[MaxPete]

Yuk.

 

[Bob Kelly III]

Our Muddobbers Sting ...Very well INDEED ! and they will put a nest anywhere that's inconvenient for man !
our Paper wasps are the same way. and some flying wasp of a different manor really loves open engine parts oil lines, carburetors
manifolds and small hoses are always plugged up by them ! these guys will crawl into a 1/4" fuel line 2 feet down and build a nest for a single egg , paralyze a bug and incase it with the egg.... so the new young emerge with a full stomach ! but they always leave a blockage !
that takes a stiff wire with a sharp point to bust through ! almost like concrete !
......they truly are a PITA !!!!
......
Bob..........

 

[Bob Kelly III]

Copperheads and rattle Snakes can be handled with a shovel... the same tool you Bury them with, you don't throw the carcass in the bushes where bees can get the venom because if they sting you , you have a snake bite instead !
at the Ranch we killed 10 rattle snakes a year for about 5 years then the number dropped to 3 or 4 then to 1 per year.....
now that nobody lives there I expect the numbers to climb again. Lost a good dog to rattle snakes and the only good snake is a dead one !
........My Dad said watch those snakes as they can be aggressive, Probably because one day we were on our way home and saw one on our dirt road ( 2 mile long drive way....) we stopped to kill it and that darn snake chased my Dad all the way around the car 2 times before I finally hit him with a big Rock..... as was the custom and still is, I cut off the head and buried it so the bugs wouldn't get to the venom. while my Dad rested ! you should have seen his eyes ! he said I've never seen a snake do that before ! but that guy had his sights set on My Dad and wasn't going to let him go ! he was a big'en 3~4 ft long and 13 rattles and big around as my Wrist ! and FAST too !
...... I don't believe all critters are dumb animals most are as smart or smarter than humans they just don't have the hands of vocal cords to prove it , or the desire, but some critters Shouldn't be here and that includes poisonous Snakes !
......
Bob......

 

[YamadudeXS650C]

First off , I'll tell you , we keep a tidy property. Yards always neat, no big piles of crap. My garage is clean and un cluttered. So why is it I feel like I'm living in some 1960's Twilight Zone episode?
View attachment 103047
I have lived in my house for 28 years and up until two years ago we had never seen a scorpion on our property, then overnight it was like someone opened up the gates of hell and we were inundated with them.
They were in the house, in the garage, everywhere. These are bark scorpions, the only variety in the US that are poisonous. I had to pay a company called Seal Out Scorpions a crazy amount of money to send a team of guys to our house and spend two days here sealing and caulking every tiny crack and opening on our house, inside and out, they screened anything that needs to remain open and we re worked all of our landscaping to make our yard less attractive to them. I also routinely spray Texas Red Cedar oil ,which is insanely expensive, because it is a natural repellent to them.
This weekend I killed 5 of them FIVE!!! On the house, in the garage. Jeeze Louise!
View attachment 103048 View attachment 103049
Not only that, I've got Black Widows that have taken up residence in my backyard grill and patio flower pots,
And oh yeah, I just discovered we have termites, TERMITES!!!
What the heck is going on here? Where is Rod Sterling?

Scorpions ! What a creepy nightmare. I hope to find a solution.

We have four kinds of bees which swarm around the house and shed. The worst are the carpenter bees that bore perfect 7/16 holes in your exposed wood.

and then they nest:

so I had to paint every inch of exposed wood (my house is 100% wood), which doesnt always work, so I built these traps which work fairly well. They are attracted to the hole and fall in:

I enjoy watching them collect in the bottle and fight with each other to the death

 

[Mailman]

Scorpions ! What a creepy nightmare. I hope to find a solution.

We have four kinds of bees which swarm around the house and shed. The worst are the carpenter bees that bore perfect 7/16 holes in your exposed wood.
View attachment 103128

and then they nest:
View attachment 103129

so I had to paint every inch of exposed wood (my house is 100% wood), which doesnt always work, so I built these traps which work fairly well. They are attracted to the hole and fall in:

I enjoy watching them collect in the bottle and fight with each other to the death

Wow! They're like giant termites!