Critters? (Renton, Redmond, Kirkland: houses, living, restaurants)

[shlingdawg]

What kind of critters are running around Western Washington? Mainly I'm interested in insects and such.

Mosquitos?
Cockroaches?
Spiders (poisonous/non)?
Centipedes?
Crickets?

I'm sick of the mosquitos.

[Baldy]

Yep, there are bears, too.

[allforcats]

Virtually no mosquitoes, roaches or centipedes. They can probably be found in unclean houses or restaurants, but in 22 adult years of living here I've never -- that's never -- seen a roach or a centipede, and I might have been bitten once by a mosquito, although at the time I thought that bite might have been from something else.

I know I've never seen a cricket, but I don't recall if I've heard crickets.

There are different spiders, most of them harmless like the Daddy Long-Legs, but in western Washington there are a few not so harmless but not "fatal" like the Black Widow. In late September for two weeks, one or two spiders will wander into the house at night looking for warmth. That has been my experience over the years.

The insects who have wanted to share my home have usually been Ladybugs, an occasional fly, and an occasional little moth, all in summer.

[MaikeerinWA]

I don't know if they're more common than in other places, but I seem to see an awful lot of yellow jackets. A couple of Puget Sound friends of mine have had issues with carpenter ants.

[woodinvilleguy]

There are mosquitos(lots in my experience), carpenter ants, spiders. There are creeks and streams, which is where the mosquitos come from not dirty houses like allforcats mentions. Where do you live?

If you live near the woods, you'll see deer, skunks, possum, mice....There have been reports of coyotes but I haven't seen any.

Lots of slugs, no snails though.

I think all this depends on what area in western washington you are looking at. All of my observations are related to north King county; Redmond, Woodinville, Kirkland, Issaquah.

[wannabeaTexan]

Originally Posted by woodinvilleguy

There are mosquitos(lots in my experience), carpenter ants, spiders. There are creeks and streams, which is where the mosquitos come from not dirty houses like allforcats mentions. Where do you live?

If you live near the woods, you'll see deer, skunks, possum, mice....There have been reports of coyotes but I haven't seen any.

Lots of slugs, no snails though.

I think all this depends on what area in western washington you are looking at. All of my observations are related to north King county; Redmond, Woodinville, Kirkland, Issaquah.

That sounds about right to me and I've always been in S King County. In Renton, there were coyotes by my apt last year...didn't see them, but heard them at night. That was an awful sound. I've had to stop and wait for a deer to cross the road more than a couple times on my way to work.

Also, there are crane flies in the summer....hate those.

[woodinvilleguy]

But this weekend I saw Snow Geese. They were beautiful..