Pests Not Pets!

[Iflln2fntsy]

In the house we used to live in, we had cave crickets (also called spider crickets)...and they were huge. I am pretty sure they spent most of their time in the basement (we rented the house and weren't given access to the basement), but sometimes they would come through the heat registers and be on the first floor. At first glance they look like big spiders since they have a roundish body (unlike the more elongated body of most feeder crickets I have seen)and really long legs. Though their bodies are kind of round, the body is still about 2 inches long. I am pretty sure they are harmless, but in my opinion, crickets should not be that big!

 

[Susan]

Phorid Flies!

I hate these things! The only break I get from these flies is when it's cold, but as soon as you get a mild day, they're back. You can't get rid of them, they can breed in your drains. They will torment you whenever you have a meal or drink and love to land on your plate/in your glass, ruining whatever it is you have.

 

[toxiclight]

We get a load of mosquitoes (in fact, I had to stop collecting rainwater from our gutters to water our garden because they laid eggs there and we couldn't even go onto our porch because of the massive amount of mosquitoes...a friend later suggested we keep a goldfish or two in our collection barrel to eat the eggs. I'll just wait until we can get our downspout redone and have a lidded collection barrel)

Ants are the other one. Last year was terrible :/ Big carpenter ants, and they were everywhere. We ended up using pesticide sticks, which thankfully worked. This year, we bought DE to dust around our baseboards and hope that works.

I've just started noticing centipedes in our basement again. Those are the only bugs that will send me running.

 

[Pal-O-Mine]

Black flies in Vermont! I went up there to visit my parents last year and there were these tiny little things that looked like gnats. No problem! I can handle gnats.

These weren't gnats! I had huge welts on the back of my neck for DAYS! I had to go out and buy bug cream for insect bites. I've never needed that stuff! My niece's boyfriend got bit right on the forehead and it looked like someone had clubbed him!

Devon

 

[Floof]

Phorid Flies!

I hate these things! The only break I get from these flies is when it's cold, but as soon as you get a mild day, they're back. You can't get rid of them, they can breed in your drains. They will torment you whenever you have a meal or drink and love to land on your plate/in your glass, ruining whatever it is you have.

Ugh, I hate phorid flies! I swear they're everywhere in this house! They breed in the tortoises' substrate (darn things--nice warm, moist dirt and they're constantly burying poo and food before I can spot clean). UGH! Luckily a substrate change and a healthy dose of diatomaceous earth mixed in to the dirt seems to have helped loads...

Except I guess it was too late, because now they're in the kitchen drain, too, because my roommate keeps leaving bits of rotting food sitting in the sink and/or washing nasty old food bits down the drain. Just the other day I went to wash a dish, and the moment the water hit the drain pipe, a SWARM of phorid flies came rushing out of the other side of the sink. NASTY! The ironic part is she's constantly complaining about the tortoises because of the flies, and now she's the main reason we still have them. I've been meaning to break the news to her that she's a total slob and needs to learn some basic sanitation common sense, but I know it's no use (and I hate the idea of starting a pointless argument). She won't even put any effort into learning how to wash dishes.