Venomous creatures?

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by earls

considering where your kids are going to school you might be able to find some place with a little land going toward Kingston or Port Gamble. I think if it was me I would contact one of the bigger named Realtors and see if he/she has any listings they can link to you for review.

I'd head that way too.

You can search homes very easily on the RLMS website, RMLS™ - Residential Search
or Loopnet.com, or some of the FSBO sites

but... I rarely find bargains if something is listed or on the market via advertised. It is often worth a 30% reduction to do some serious digging and networking once you arrive and decide on a specific area.

And do watch for those Brown Recluse spiders, they give a nasty bite, one of our son's has had 3 bites this year, and his hand turned all black and swollen. Not a pretty sight, but then it is rare to bump into them (unless you keep you bedroom too messy...)

[cygnis77]

Hi ,
Just wanted to add my 2 cents. I'm a native Western Washingtonian. From what I learned, Black Widows cannot live in the climate in Western Washington, as it is too wet, rainy and temperate for them. So that is one spider you shouldn't have to worry about. Also, black widows are very shy, stay in very remote places, and are non-aggressive.

Black widows do live in Eastern Washington (East of the Cascade Mountains), where the weather is quite different - very dry with extremely hot summers and very cold & snowy winters.

The only exception is if a Black Widow spider (or other venomous spider) arrived on a boat, car or in a package from another part of the country/world. Then, it might pose a slight hazard, but most likely not for long as the spider probably would not live very long due to our climate.

And there are *no* poisonous snakes native to Western Washington. Rattlesnakes live only in Eastern Washington. I've never even seen a garter snake. Once, a friend's cat caught one & took it into the house to play with it. But, they are not venomous, are harmless, and (as far as I know) don't wander into houses on their own.

The few exceptions are people who keep exotic & dangerous pets. I don't understand why they do it. But I've seen a house in Seattle that had 5 Boa Constrictors, each kept in a secure cage. And I've known a few people who've kept tarantulas as pets in secured cages (a tarantula bite is not venomous, but if they flick off their back hairs toward a person, those are venomous, and could cause a reaction, but I don't think anyone's died from a tarantula encounter).

I've seen some scary creatures in pet stores, including scorpions, but I think pet stores only sell the least venomous or non-venomous kind. Of course, with the Internet, anyone can order any kind of venomous creature - and that scares me. But I think it'd be rare, and unless kept in a tightly controlled environment under special lights perhaps, the creature not native to here most likely would survive the weather.

Here's a link to an excellent article on Wash. State Spiders by Washington State University (located in Eastern Wash.). They are careful to differentiate between West. & East. Wash. in the easy-to-read article entitled EB1548-Spiders: EB1548: Spiders
It's very well researched & well presented. It may be a bit scary for small children because it shows pictures of all the spiders it talks about.

Best of luck to you, and I hope you enjoy living here. It's a lot warmer here than in Alaska, I bet! We have short days in the winter and long days in the summer, but not the 24-hr days of sun/dark that I've heard Alaska has. The only disadvantage I find living here is that it's does rain a lot, but surprisingly, many other cities in the country have more rainfall than we do.

But we do have the most number of overcast days in the nation, which can lead to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). It can be helped by using full-spectrum light bulbs in lamps and/or sitting by a "light box" 30min/day during the most overcast months, usually Sept. to April.

And you may find you'll want central air conditioning (or at least window A/Cs) here (some people might disagree with me). But since 2000, our summers have been getting much, much hotter. The last 2 summers here hit 100 degrees F., but not for very long. While some summers can be mild (2007 was mild), I found 2004 & 2006 to be absolutely unbearable without air conditioning. It'd get into the upper 90's many weeks/weekends in a row. Again, just my personal opinion.

That's what I've learned anyway. Hope it helps. Best of luck in your move, and I hope you really enjoy living here! Please feel free to contact me if you ever need referrals for anything. I'm very good at finding resources, like the very best doctors, hospitals, and other assorted things that might come up.

Sincerely,
cygnis77
Bellevue, WA (suburb of Seattle / King County)
Email: cygnis@aol.com