GeoGirl

With the recent rain we've had here at home (IND), we've had an increase in insect activity. As a sorta-bug-phobe, my initial thought is, "We have to move!" But then I was watching a show about Mount Everest on Discovery or NGC or similar and...there's an arctic spider! Criminey!

Now I'm well aware that I'll never truly escape the insect population, but this has gotten me thinking, and I'm just curious...where's the the "least" buggy place you've been in all of your travels?

(and fyi, my exterminator already suggested "the moon" but a) he hasn't been there, and b) there's nothing fun to do there, so...seriously.)


GG

greenery-travel

Antarctica.

It is 12k+ miles south of the habitat of the arctic spider, and I cannot imagine that there is any food source for significant insect populations. (plus it is too cold for cold-blooded animals in general).

DJ Bitterbarn

Well I can certainly say that one of the many things we'll miss about Ireland when we leave is the relative lack of anything that finds us delicious. There are flies but I have yet to see anything seriously resembling a mosquito, which means you can leave the windows open almost all the time without worry of bugs.

There are other worries, of course, but bugs are not one of them.

deubster

Anything tropical (Caribbean, Hawaii, Thailand, etc) will have plenty of creepy crawly critters. Even 5-star hotels will have the occasional roach or beetle. OTOH, I lived in Alaska for 3 years as a child, and mosquitoes were a serious problem in the summer (no pollen or other airborne allergens, however, and no snakes). Having worked a lot in the Phoenix area, I can tell you that seeking desert heat is no solution, either. I guess what I'm saying is that there may be no place you can go to escape insects.

It's worth noting that you can spend a lot of time around the Riverwalk in San Antonio without being bitten by mosquitoes. This is partially due to periodic spraying, but mostly due to a large bat population. The bats clear the air, but don't do much to rid the ground of roaches and other undesirables.

DesertNomad

Almost no bugs growing up around Lake Tahoe, same in most of the higher elevations of the western desert US.

Also almost no bugs in northern Sudan well away from the Nile, nor near Zahedan in SE Iran. Of course Tahoe is probably a nicer place to live.

GeoGirl

This is all very interesting. I'm bothered by mosquitos with regard to disease whatnot, but not as much by the bugs themselves. I'm much more freaked out by large spiders and the prehistoric-looking millipedes - the ones with the long legs like the one that scuttled across my bathroom floor the other night.

My husband lived in Tenerife for many years and said that it's quite nice and low on bugs. Any confirmations on that?

GG

pinworm

Deserts. When I first moved to PHX, I was amazed at the lack of flying insects..but there are some ground creepy-crawlies..still, a lack of mosquito bites and fewer wasps and bees than other places is nice. BUT...when the economy went in the tank, people stopped taking care of their pools. Forclosed homes that are empty often still have water in the pools, and for the first time in the 5 years that I have been here, we are starting to see mosquitos as a result. The middle east also has a lack of flying bugs...Saudi Arabia and Egypt in particular.

Another option would be a wintery place. I grew up in Toronto..plenty of bugs in summer, particularly nasty mosquitos..but 7 months of the year when it is freezing, there are no bugs whatsoever.

VivoPerLei

Denver was the least buggy major city I lived in. As others have said, I believe it is due to the dry climate.

GeoGirl

I have to agree. I lived in Winter Park briefly and had very little trouble with bugs there. I was there in late summer, too, so you'd think I would've seen them. Just a few spiders here and there, and mostly of a "normal" size, rather than the large wolf spider size. There was, however, an abundance of lovely hummingbirds.

pittpanther

Ummm, tell us about the scorpions...

brendog

Very few mosquitoes in Denver, but there are a crapload of black widows in pretty much every basement and garage. While the widows are fairly rare above 7,000' or so, I have seen spiders, albeit harmless, living on top of 14ers. There is also fairly sizable tick population outside of the city.

Where I live in the mid-Hudson Valley of NY, we have zero mosquitoes due to the almost constant breeze off of the river and very few, if any, "scary" bugs to speak of, save for ticks. On the down side, there are lots of New Yorkers, and I would rather deal with scorpions any day.

MJLogan

When I moved to Los Angeles from northeastern Pennsylvania many years ago, I was shocked and delighted by the relative lack of gnats, mosquitos, flies, etc. We have them, of course, but not in the biblical plague quantities I experienced growing up.

GeoGirl

Okay, my list of paces to move to is growing, and not a moment too soon. Keep 'em coming! I just cut the lawn and...blech. Giant creepy spiders, unidentified flying bugs, prehistoric creatures with far more legs than is normal - I'm sure they were mutants.

You know, I don't actually mind the springtime bugs. Everything is somehow smaller then. Maybe it's because they're all babies. But by this time of year, they're all giant and there are so many of them. Blech!

I think that's why Mr. Geogirl keeps suggesting we move to Tenerife - he says it's like springtime here, but all year long, and they did a massive, island-wide effort to eradicate roaches several years ago, so the annoying, creepy variety of bugs is pretty minimal. There's probably something to the fact that apparently, it doesn't rain much there, either.

It might be the ideal place for a bug-phobe like me.

pinworm

Scorpions are more common in less developed areas like north Scottsdale and Surpise. There are some in Tempe, but most of the concrete PHX doesn't have too many.

In the winter, they dig underground and hibernate so you don't have any walking around.

They come out in summer, at night..usually in areas with rocks..and they are shy. They will almost always avoid you and if they DO sting you, it's not fatal unless you are a kid, elderly, or particularly allergic..they CAN kill small pets though.

They are smaller than the african ones seen in movies. Most of them are the size of bees except for the longer arms.

free101girl

We live in Colorado at 7800 feet and have virtually no bugs at all. Very occasionally I'll see a small house spider (I'm an arachnophobe and all spiders seem huge to me, so believe me when I say they're really small), a single tiny ant or a housefly. That's it. We've never seen, heard or been bitten by a mosquito here. Our dog never had a tick or a flea here, either, though I understand they are out there.

We do get rats and mice in our garage, so we still have to pay an exterminator.