Rural Texas is a living NIGHTMARE - snakes and spiders! (Alamo: leasing, landscaping)

[High_Plains_Retired]

"Rural Texas" is a really BIG area to lump under one heading and description.

[Qazulight]

Originally Posted by High_Plains_Retired

"Rural Texas" is a really BIG area to lump under one heading and description.

Na..it is that 100 square miles inside the 610 loop that is big, at least if you measure them by ways of getting hurt or killed.

Cheers
Qazulight (Will take my chances with the spiders and snakes)

[joqua]

Originally Posted by lonestar2007

I just realized you never mentioned bees.

Or FIRE ANTS! And now we have CRAZY ANTS too!!

crazy-ants-driving-out-fire-ants/

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by joqua

Or FIRE ANTS! And now we have CRAZY ANTS too!!

crazy-ants-driving-out-fire-ants/

They had been working on introducing some type of wasp that is the fireants only natural predator in its original native environment--wonder what happened to that?

You don't have fireants where you are now, do you?

I remember stepping on one of their mounds in deep East Texas--my first introduction to them in the early 1970s. They were not as far west as Midland when I moved there, but by the time I left, 30 years later, I was having to treat my entire yard at least once--if not twice--a season.

So now we have something yet worse. The only benefit (if you can call it such) to having fireants is that you won't have ticks on the dogs.

[ETex2]

Welcome to Texas. Definitely don't move to the Athens area. In addition to the snakes, spiders and wasps, you'll have scorpions as well. Lots and lots of scorpions.

Yes we sold our land there. But it was a beautiful place with lots of trees, on the lake, etc..

[Two4damoney]

I Dont Like Spiders and Snakes jim stafford - YouTube

[lonestar2007]

Originally Posted by Cathy4017

They had been working on introducing some type of wasp that is the fireants only natural predator in its original native environment--wonder what happened to that?

Too much revenue coming in off of the sales of fire-ant pesticides and more jobs created for the pest-control industry?

Originally Posted by Cathy4017

The only benefit (if you can call it such) to having fireants is that you won't have ticks on the dogs.

Mucho grande fire ants in my area (N. Central Texas) and they haven't deterred the ticks here.

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by lonestar2007

Too much revenue coming in off of the sales of fire-ant pesticides and more jobs created for the pest-control industry?



Mucho grande fire ants in my area (N. Central Texas) and they haven't deterred the ticks here.

I wonder why? I never had ticks in Midland once the area was invaded by fireants. I guess all three (fireants, ticks and fleas) are greater problems in more humid areas, as opposed to dry WT..?

Amdro granules applied to the entire yard twice a season usually worked fairly well. Those things are a nightmare.

[arleigh]

The problem is all the money made in doing patch jobs rather than actually dealing with the problem once and for all.
A lot of pest control will do only patch work knowing the problem will return thus their job in constant demand .
Find a pest control from reviews of successful agencies and speak with the cliants and their reviews .
My son worked for a while with a man that did pest control and was very thurough about the job ,He cared about his reputation.
Obviously the house needs to be fumegated especially the basement or under the house and in the attic as well. You may also have issues in the walls as well.
I lived in the desert with rattlers too after a while you loose count , I trained my kids to shoot and we kept snake shot in the hand guns ,and never went out side with out them.
Personally I would recomend mapping out the whole property, and record all the insadents and precise locations and spicific critter involved .
High insect population inspires a higher insect population as well as inviting snakes .
The food chain is the problem .
Spiders live on smaller insects obviously, smaller insects live on bacteria and other smaller life forms .
I worked in production and to keep the flying insect population out they used an ultrviolet light to setrylize the bacteria in the atmosphere at each enterence . Flying insects are after harvesting those bacteria.
When you remove the bottom of the food chain you remove the food for those above it.
They will either starve to death and die or move on .
I'd be willing to bet your rodent population is relatively high as well, which is what most snakes enjoy.
I don't condone the use of poisons but there are some very successful bucket traps that can be replicated from Utube.
I also do something else ,I feed the birds and encourage the small bird population as much as possable, this also is a good natural remidy to the flying insects issue .
The larger birds like raven and crow are worthless and actually work against you eating the eggs of the smaller birds and not the insects they do.
Owls and hawks feed on rodents but if there are not enough rabbit poulation they'll move on.
They need easy prey as well as the smaller prey.
I don't shoot the rabbits on my property either, they help keep the hawks and cyotes around .
Once in a while I get daddy long legggs ,and looing closely at the web I can till what is feeding them usually very small flies from the fruit trees close by. .
It's seasonal and those spiders don't bother me, in fact doing a job for me. These spiders die once the flies are no longer genreated by the fruit trees.
Now that I have chickens there are a few flies around but the little birds are enjoying both the chickens feed left overs and the small insects.
Spending time with the chickens, even the smaller birds get really bold and get closer to me stealing the chickens feed.
The rabbits in my yard are almost not even afraid of me , no reason to be.
Before I moved here the insect population was unbelievable , but it took a few years to make it the way it is now.
Farrel cats have wiped out the mouse population in my place so I'm not complaining . I havent seen a snake here in a couple of years now .

[High_Plains_Retired]

Originally Posted by Cathy4017

They had been working on introducing some type of wasp that is the fireants only natural predator in its original native environment--wonder what happened to that?

I had not heard about that one but my guess is that, if the control wasp is an exotic, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as usual, has their heads stuck up their b_tt trying to stop the release. I really don't know anything about this issue but I'm sure it is (or was) a proposal of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. However, when it comes to the introduction of exotic insects as pest controls, the Fish and Wildlife Service is as predictable as taxes and death.