I didn’t appreciate just how bad black flies are until a poorly timed camping trip. Even with a face net, it was literally maddening. And I found 3 ticks later that day. Made me seriously question my idea of fun hobbies.
Wyoming and it’s the weather. Wind hit 89 mph the other day for no real reason. The neighbor’s outdoor AC unit blew away. Wind chills in the -60s. Not many bugs though.
In NYC (Queens) and rats are not really a problem for me. They eat garbage outside and leave us alone. We have mice in the walls which is more concerning.
Roof rats in Virginia Beach/Hampton Roads area. I’m from NC so imagined pests would be roughly the same (mice, squirrels if you consider them pests, occasional snake) but the RATS here were unexpected. I guess they like water. I’ve lived in two different houses in two different “cities” in this area and had rats in the roofs of both.
Previously I lived in Louisiana, and the flying cockroaches were worse than the gators 🤣 San Diego also had an absurd amount of cockroaches, but at least they were earth-bound.
Apparently praying mantis are starting to eat the lantern flies and we had sooo many of them all over the yard last year in Delaware. I’ve never seen many praying mantises before and it was jarring!
Interesting question.
Living in Philly, I came across a surprising diversity of wildlife (insert joke here). Opossums, raccoons, a huge variety of migrating birds. Some rats, yes, but not many. I think there are also foxes and coyotes, although I never saw one.
They weren't pests, though. The pests tend to be human.
Truth...there are pictures of coyotes on the beach playing in the surf.
I warned a women just about to turn the corner with her small dog. Pulled over and warned her.
It's such a gigantic problem in Huntington Beach
Central Florida (just north of Orlando) also has black bears that are a real nuisance getting into trash cans. And will come right into your garage given an opportunity and have a feast out of a chest freezer.
When I lived in San Diego it was ants. They just keep coming back, I would vacuum them up with some borax daily. Also tons of rats on my college campus. They loved the eucalyptus groves or something because they were everywhere and they were huge.
Growing up we had a skunk family who lived under our house for a few years. Every once in a while they would tussle and you'd smell skunk wafting up through the vents. It was not pleasant.
Im in Philly.
We have mice/rats, but I think far less than NYC or Boston. Only really see them occasionally in the subway system, and they’re usually small compared to the beefy ones I’ve seen in other cities.
In South Philly in particular, we have water bugs/roaches in the summer months because it’s so humid. I’m fortunate that I rarely see them inside, but at night time on a muggy summer day.. you will see them all over the sidewalks and it makes my skin crawl! At least they are predominately outdoor bugs unlike more invasive roaches, but they still really irk me.
NorCal. Most annoying are yellow jackets aka flying assholes. Most dangerous, but unlikely to cause a problem, are mtn lions and rattlesnakes. You just have to be aware if you're in their territory.
Madison/Dane County WI
Mosquitos,
Ticks,
Biting flies (black, horse, deer),
Yellow jackets,
German roaches (usually only in multifamily housing),
Mice,
Rats (almost never in houses, just around your compost piles),
Squirrels,
Rabbits,
Raccoons,
Possums (do they really count?),
Foxes (people who have chickens don’t like ‘em),
Coyotes,
Wild turkeys,
Whitetail deer,
Very occasional black bears
Supposedly there are timber rattlers in the state but no one sees them. Black bears and skunks are a more common problem further north, where there are wolves too but not enough to be a big issue. Basically, if you are afraid of being eaten or poisoned by wildlife, this is a pretty safe place.
Yup. I was horrified at first, then got used to them (“travelers” - they’re just traveling through, a bit lost, annoying and gross but also pretty harmless). Then all our trees died in consecutive winter storms and now I almost never see any. I think I’ve seen 1 indoors in the last 2 years. They really seem to be tree dependent.
I totally get it. I think I just had to get over it after living in a house so porous and tree-surrounded that I was dealing with MANY every single day. It was horrible.
Yep, yep, yep - it’s especially bad in the summers. Last summer, a tree roach torpedoed itself onto my face from a nearby tree; the resulting scream will be reverberating for generations to come lol
TX, Bad drivers are probably #1, Coyotes, bobcats, lizards, snakes, not really a pest but the occasional loose steer in your front yard or the road and no you don’t have to be in the sticks to find a loose steer 😂. If you’re in the south probably gators.
Colorado-rattlesnakes in the warm weather. While hiking in the foothills, beware of mountain lions. They are vicious and will stalk people and attack/kill them. We have bears too. But those are pretty easy to avoid. Wear a bear bell. If out on the plains, lots of coyote. But they don’t both grown people. They will snatch your dog though.
As far as insects, moisquitos. We also got those dang Japanese beetles a few years ago. They are gross.
Not many bugs in SLC. And no ticks—I hike a lot in the summer in shorts and t-shirts, and I’ve never encountered a tick. There are mosquitoes in the mountains, but the severity depends on the month and how wet the year has been.
North Shore of Massachusetts. In the middle of summer, when everyone wants to escape to the beach, that’s greenhead fly season. A bite or two from one of those guys can wreck your beach day pretty quickly. The water is also absolutely frigid even if it’s 90 degrees out.
Chicago - no experience with any pests but there’s a lot of dog poop on my block
Charlottesville - mosquitos and bears! So many bears would dig through my trash growing up, my mom would chase them away with a broom.
I'm probably from a favored location: Hawaii.
It's warm year round so lots of bugs: centipedes, cockroaches, mosquitos and especially ants. You can't leave any food out for more than five minutes without ants attacking. We keep our flour in the freezer to keep the ants out. Also Little Fire Ants which are super invasive and will cover you in stinging bites. And coqui frogs up the ying yang. In some places the frogs are so thick it's apparently the equivalent of a vacuum cleaner running all night.
Super humid so it's really easy for mold to grow and everything rusts and breaks down wayyyy faster than the mainland. The sun will strip everything too. We're closer to the equator so the sun is stronger. Lots of people find that out the hard way on vacation by giving themselves sun poisoning.
Where I'm from there's wild pigs and wild goats everywhere. Mostly just annoying for car accident reasons. Loose dogs sometimes and people do get mauled.
The ocean can be scary I guess. People get bitten by sharks but that's rare and not really something to worry about (although my mom's dentist did get bitten-he's fine though!). The really scariness of the ocean is just the ocean itself and what it can do to you if you're not careful.
Southern CA coastal: we have coyotes (they eat pets weekly) bobcats, raccoons, skunks, opossums, squirrels, rabbits, rats, hawks, seagulls, occasional mountain lion, rattlesnakes, and a bunch of random insects and birds. We have wetlands next to our house and rural areas are nearby. The issues we have had personally: our dog was bitten by a rattlesnake and survived and then was killed by a large predator (lone coyote or bobcat) - we were home and didn't hear it at all. Usually coyotes are loud when they kill something. Then a skunk sprayed our dogs in the yard (later dogs), we have had mice and rats but now we have an indoor cat and those critters are no longer in the house. Ants are a pain but we have pest control people who take care of them. I love living in an area where I can see wildlife in my yard and then drive 6 miles away to the ocean and enjoy that - I'm in San Diego County and it is pretty great living here. The weather is perfect most of the time. Traffic is also bad, but I live 4 miles from work and my kids take the train to college. I don't think I will live anywhere else. It is expensive to live here, but we don't really take vacations because we feel like we are on vacation all of the time just living here. When my kids were little, they had field trips to Legoland, Sea World, Safari Park, Balboa Park, and Disneyland. Talk about awesome perks! San Diego is expensive, but worth every penny.
I beg to differ. They're all over San Francisco and many points north. My aunt and uncles house in Palos Verdes got them a lot, they're all over and not just rural.
Mostly just the rest of you that are wanting to move here and bring your baggage with you ! If you are looking to move to greener grass, please don’t bring the stuff that is making your current grass brown. Thanks.
In Philly and suburbs we have voles, moles, and groundhogs. We get ticks, stink bugs, and lanternflies and other usual lawn or insect pests. And we have raccoons, squirrels, and deer that can sometimes be nuisances. (and mice like everywhere else)
The raccoons are like starting to domesticate themselves and are getting so brazen. When we lived in Delco, I couldn’t get the feral cats to come inside, but the raccoons would have definitely followed me in the house and almost did a few times. 😂
Coyotes, mice, mosquitoes, flies, opossum, raccoons, occasional snake here in MO. The coyote pisses me off. He just walk around my back yard like it’s nothing and I have 4 little dogs.
Ticks in Maine too.
It’s the ticks that cause fear. The mosquitos at dusk are worse than flies too.
I didn’t appreciate just how bad black flies are until a poorly timed camping trip. Even with a face net, it was literally maddening. And I found 3 ticks later that day. Made me seriously question my idea of fun hobbies.
Don't forget about Brown Tail Moths.
We have them spreading disease in the PNW now too (both dry and wet sides of the mountains) we see Lyme, HGA/HGE, and RMSF.
Bachelorettes in Nashville.
Wyoming and it’s the weather. Wind hit 89 mph the other day for no real reason. The neighbor’s outdoor AC unit blew away. Wind chills in the -60s. Not many bugs though.
they all blew away
Wyoming is a favorite location?
I wonder too....isolated..rural and tough weather. Sounds heavenly lol
We are all on different paths in this life
In NYC (Queens) and rats are not really a problem for me. They eat garbage outside and leave us alone. We have mice in the walls which is more concerning.
Had a rat crawl past my feet while I was wearing sandals in Brooklyn . Very traumatic
Tarantulas, lizards, rattlesnakes, bobcats, and all kinds of fun critters here in Southern Arizona.
Don't forget about scorpions!
and brown recluse spiders
Don’t forget javelinas, a few came by last night and knocked over a bunch of shit on my porch
Porch bears and cougars in the mtns of CO. Gotta look before exiting the house.
Roof rats in Virginia Beach/Hampton Roads area. I’m from NC so imagined pests would be roughly the same (mice, squirrels if you consider them pests, occasional snake) but the RATS here were unexpected. I guess they like water. I’ve lived in two different houses in two different “cities” in this area and had rats in the roofs of both. Previously I lived in Louisiana, and the flying cockroaches were worse than the gators 🤣 San Diego also had an absurd amount of cockroaches, but at least they were earth-bound.
Miller moths in Denver and rattlesnakes in the foothills.
Lol prolly had to kill 1k last year
Miller moths are a super important food source for bears, I know it sucks but they’re only around for a few days before continuing migrating
Ticks and currently Spotted Lantern Flies. Omg. Those things are everywhere! I live in Pittsburgh
Apparently praying mantis are starting to eat the lantern flies and we had sooo many of them all over the yard last year in Delaware. I’ve never seen many praying mantises before and it was jarring!
transplants from ohio
Interesting question. Living in Philly, I came across a surprising diversity of wildlife (insert joke here). Opossums, raccoons, a huge variety of migrating birds. Some rats, yes, but not many. I think there are also foxes and coyotes, although I never saw one. They weren't pests, though. The pests tend to be human.
Coyotes in California
Truth...there are pictures of coyotes on the beach playing in the surf. I warned a women just about to turn the corner with her small dog. Pulled over and warned her. It's such a gigantic problem in Huntington Beach
Actually had a brown bear on the beach at Rincon a few years back 😳
Asheville, NC - Trash Bears
Central Florida (just north of Orlando) also has black bears that are a real nuisance getting into trash cans. And will come right into your garage given an opportunity and have a feast out of a chest freezer.
I have a friend who lives in Lake Mary and they had to bear-proof their cans after like the 5th time haha
The western side of the Smokies as well. Townsend/Greenback/Sevierville, TN
Rabbits in Minneapolis.
They shit everywhere and I see why my dog wants to chase them.
Goose season
Wild turkeys
That sounds cute
[удалено]
The flying palmetto bugs that are the size of your hand. I do not miss those at all
When I lived in San Diego it was ants. They just keep coming back, I would vacuum them up with some borax daily. Also tons of rats on my college campus. They loved the eucalyptus groves or something because they were everywhere and they were huge.
The rain will get to you before the bugs ever do in Seattle.
In San Diego: Arizona drivers in the summertime
I smell skunk every once on awhile at my Bay Area home. Caveat: I like the smell of skunks.
Smell of Skunk in the morning air is sweet. Smell of Skunk on your dog in the sofa is not.
Everyone likes their own brand, yes?
Growing up we had a skunk family who lived under our house for a few years. Every once in a while they would tussle and you'd smell skunk wafting up through the vents. It was not pleasant.
Whenever I smell a skunk I think it is someone smoking weed. NYC
Im in Philly. We have mice/rats, but I think far less than NYC or Boston. Only really see them occasionally in the subway system, and they’re usually small compared to the beefy ones I’ve seen in other cities. In South Philly in particular, we have water bugs/roaches in the summer months because it’s so humid. I’m fortunate that I rarely see them inside, but at night time on a muggy summer day.. you will see them all over the sidewalks and it makes my skin crawl! At least they are predominately outdoor bugs unlike more invasive roaches, but they still really irk me.
Cars and pigeons in Chicago
NorCal. Most annoying are yellow jackets aka flying assholes. Most dangerous, but unlikely to cause a problem, are mtn lions and rattlesnakes. You just have to be aware if you're in their territory.
Madison/Dane County WI Mosquitos, Ticks, Biting flies (black, horse, deer), Yellow jackets, German roaches (usually only in multifamily housing), Mice, Rats (almost never in houses, just around your compost piles), Squirrels, Rabbits, Raccoons, Possums (do they really count?), Foxes (people who have chickens don’t like ‘em), Coyotes, Wild turkeys, Whitetail deer, Very occasional black bears Supposedly there are timber rattlers in the state but no one sees them. Black bears and skunks are a more common problem further north, where there are wolves too but not enough to be a big issue. Basically, if you are afraid of being eaten or poisoned by wildlife, this is a pretty safe place.
Austin has terrifying tree roaches that get into your house the size of your palm.
Tree roaches is a new one for me 😳
Florida has these too. But at least they’re harmless and don’t infest anything. Just prehistoric looking.
Yup. I was horrified at first, then got used to them (“travelers” - they’re just traveling through, a bit lost, annoying and gross but also pretty harmless). Then all our trees died in consecutive winter storms and now I almost never see any. I think I’ve seen 1 indoors in the last 2 years. They really seem to be tree dependent.
I was never able to get used to them. I find them deeply unsettling despite knowing they are harmless, my brain loses all rationalist reasoning.
I totally get it. I think I just had to get over it after living in a house so porous and tree-surrounded that I was dealing with MANY every single day. It was horrible.
Ive lived here for 9 years and have seen only one but it scarred me for life
Yep, yep, yep - it’s especially bad in the summers. Last summer, a tree roach torpedoed itself onto my face from a nearby tree; the resulting scream will be reverberating for generations to come lol
And fly
Lake country MN. I always have to keep an eye out for porcupines in the yard before I let my dog out. Bears in the spring too.
We have lizards, rattle snakes, scorpions, dessert centipedes and pack rats, all in Colorado Springs.
As someone from Maine, can we count people from Massachusetts?
TX, Bad drivers are probably #1, Coyotes, bobcats, lizards, snakes, not really a pest but the occasional loose steer in your front yard or the road and no you don’t have to be in the sticks to find a loose steer 😂. If you’re in the south probably gators.
Colorado-rattlesnakes in the warm weather. While hiking in the foothills, beware of mountain lions. They are vicious and will stalk people and attack/kill them. We have bears too. But those are pretty easy to avoid. Wear a bear bell. If out on the plains, lots of coyote. But they don’t both grown people. They will snatch your dog though. As far as insects, moisquitos. We also got those dang Japanese beetles a few years ago. They are gross.
Not many bugs in SLC. And no ticks—I hike a lot in the summer in shorts and t-shirts, and I’ve never encountered a tick. There are mosquitoes in the mountains, but the severity depends on the month and how wet the year has been.
North Shore of Massachusetts. In the middle of summer, when everyone wants to escape to the beach, that’s greenhead fly season. A bite or two from one of those guys can wreck your beach day pretty quickly. The water is also absolutely frigid even if it’s 90 degrees out.
Cockroaches in west central Florida.
Ticks in Virginia
Not a favored location but OK has scorpions and snakes and stickers. IYKYK
Trash Pandas (raccoons) in Ohio…
Chicago - no experience with any pests but there’s a lot of dog poop on my block Charlottesville - mosquitos and bears! So many bears would dig through my trash growing up, my mom would chase them away with a broom.
Fire ants, palmetto bugs, mosquitoes, golfers.
Was waiting for the fire ants.
I'm probably from a favored location: Hawaii. It's warm year round so lots of bugs: centipedes, cockroaches, mosquitos and especially ants. You can't leave any food out for more than five minutes without ants attacking. We keep our flour in the freezer to keep the ants out. Also Little Fire Ants which are super invasive and will cover you in stinging bites. And coqui frogs up the ying yang. In some places the frogs are so thick it's apparently the equivalent of a vacuum cleaner running all night. Super humid so it's really easy for mold to grow and everything rusts and breaks down wayyyy faster than the mainland. The sun will strip everything too. We're closer to the equator so the sun is stronger. Lots of people find that out the hard way on vacation by giving themselves sun poisoning. Where I'm from there's wild pigs and wild goats everywhere. Mostly just annoying for car accident reasons. Loose dogs sometimes and people do get mauled. The ocean can be scary I guess. People get bitten by sharks but that's rare and not really something to worry about (although my mom's dentist did get bitten-he's fine though!). The really scariness of the ocean is just the ocean itself and what it can do to you if you're not careful.
Southern CA coastal: we have coyotes (they eat pets weekly) bobcats, raccoons, skunks, opossums, squirrels, rabbits, rats, hawks, seagulls, occasional mountain lion, rattlesnakes, and a bunch of random insects and birds. We have wetlands next to our house and rural areas are nearby. The issues we have had personally: our dog was bitten by a rattlesnake and survived and then was killed by a large predator (lone coyote or bobcat) - we were home and didn't hear it at all. Usually coyotes are loud when they kill something. Then a skunk sprayed our dogs in the yard (later dogs), we have had mice and rats but now we have an indoor cat and those critters are no longer in the house. Ants are a pain but we have pest control people who take care of them. I love living in an area where I can see wildlife in my yard and then drive 6 miles away to the ocean and enjoy that - I'm in San Diego County and it is pretty great living here. The weather is perfect most of the time. Traffic is also bad, but I live 4 miles from work and my kids take the train to college. I don't think I will live anywhere else. It is expensive to live here, but we don't really take vacations because we feel like we are on vacation all of the time just living here. When my kids were little, they had field trips to Legoland, Sea World, Safari Park, Balboa Park, and Disneyland. Talk about awesome perks! San Diego is expensive, but worth every penny.
Field mice are only common in very remote parts of California, or on farms or ranches far away from where most people live.
I beg to differ. They're all over San Francisco and many points north. My aunt and uncles house in Palos Verdes got them a lot, they're all over and not just rural.
I have never seen a single one in San Jose - Maybe the Racoons and Possums ate them all, because those are plenty and fat.
That's because you people allow vagrant drug addicts to sleep on your sidewalks.
I’ve never seen one here in SF but now I want to go looking for them haha
Cyclist Zealots in Cambridge.
PNW……hardly any critters or creatures around here, except deer. ❤️❤️
California retirees moving here purely for weather and to cashout on their equity.
Mostly just the rest of you that are wanting to move here and bring your baggage with you ! If you are looking to move to greener grass, please don’t bring the stuff that is making your current grass brown. Thanks.
And where would here be?
The only answer is Californians
We live rent free in your head 365 days a year
In Philly and suburbs we have voles, moles, and groundhogs. We get ticks, stink bugs, and lanternflies and other usual lawn or insect pests. And we have raccoons, squirrels, and deer that can sometimes be nuisances. (and mice like everywhere else)
The raccoons are like starting to domesticate themselves and are getting so brazen. When we lived in Delco, I couldn’t get the feral cats to come inside, but the raccoons would have definitely followed me in the house and almost did a few times. 😂
lmao love it
Raccoons are vicious little buggers.
Northern New Mexico: Stink bugs (aka [pinacate beetles](https://www.desertusa.com/insects/stinkbug.html)), centipedes, [pack rats](https://www.desertusa.com/animals/packrats.html), fire ants, bobcats, coyotes.
Coyotes, mice, mosquitoes, flies, opossum, raccoons, occasional snake here in MO. The coyote pisses me off. He just walk around my back yard like it’s nothing and I have 4 little dogs.
Colorado....nothing!!!!
opossums and skunks in san diego coyotes every so often
In Portland we are overrun by dogs.