[Andrea3051]

I moved here a few months ago and was not naive about the change of environment coming from the Coast to Central Florida but during my Lifestyle 1 month stay, I never encountered the issues I had once I moved here permanently. I saw the perfectly manicured lawns with the constant signs of pest control posted everywhere and thought, how could anything survive with so much prevention?

I know Dean's and Massey are the Vendor of choice here, so I am curious about why other than, rain, summer, etc. am I living with bugs inside every place I stay and so happlily living on the outside...are the lawn pesticides not at full strength? Are the treatments not done well? Or has mother nature developed a resistance?

I understand there will be bugs here, snakes, alligators, lizards, walking catfish, but I did not count on living with them in the kitchen. I am not living on a farm in the woods, I am surrounded by homes doing treatment and baffled how anything could survive all of that especially en masse!

I find it very curious and hoping a few of you have figured it out why

[davem4616]

We came here from the coast also, so I can relate to that....

Dean and Massey advertise a lot...not sure that they are necessarily the #1 Choice, only two people on our street of 15 houses use them

We use Zoysia Green (352.323.8454) for going on 5 years...we may get a few bugs in the garage, but not in the house

Also the pine needles that the developer puts down around the bushes in the front beds is a great place for bugs to hide and breed.

[ThirdOfFive]

Originally Posted by Andrea3051

I moved here a few months ago and was not naive about the change of environment coming from the Coast to Central Florida but during my Lifestyle 1 month stay, I never encountered the issues I had once I moved here permanently. I saw the perfectly manicured lawns with the constant signs of pest control posted everywhere and thought, how could anything survive with so much prevention?

I know Dean's and Massey are the Vendor of choice here, so I am curious about why other than, rain, summer, etc. am I living with bugs inside every place I stay and so happlily living on the outside...are the lawn pesticides not at full strength? Are the treatments not done well? Or has mother nature developed a resistance?

I understand there will be bugs here, snakes, alligators, lizards, walking catfish, but I did not count on living with them in the kitchen. I am not living on a farm in the woods, I am surrounded by homes doing treatment and baffled how anything could survive all of that especially en masse!

I find it very curious and hoping a few of you have figured it out why

Sounds scary.

We use Florida Pest Control (flapest.com) for critter control; an annual contract including a termite insurance deal, and control pests inside and out.They are not cheap but they ARE thorough. We had a few critters in the house when we first moved here (some cockroaches, snails-on-steroids in the lanai) but since they started working with us we've seen exactly three cockroaches, all dead and all in the garage. No snails.

Did have a lizard in the shower a few days back, though. Must have gotten in through the drainpipe.

[Mortal1]

Very, very few issues with bugs, insects etc. We use massey and if we have and issue we make a phone call and it's usually the next day they deal successfully with it.

[GrumpyOldMan]

Florida has bugs. Just the way it is - from a native Floridian.

Poisoning all the bugs is a BAD idea. Keeping them out of your house is a good idea. We don't see bugs in our house.

[Two Bills]

Kill all the bugs, and say goodbye to a lot of other wildlife, especially the good guys.
The secret of bug control is keep your living space free, but leave enough outside for nature to take care of.
As I got older, I realised all the pest control I used in our garden, was doing more harm than good.
Now I plant to attract predator bugs, and only step in when they and the birds need help in glut times.
There are a lot of safer and selective options and deterrants available these days, apart from the usual scorched earth policy, where everthing is wiped out.
Sure, some of the bad guys get through and do some damage, but the rewards of a garden full of birds, bees, butterflies etc. makes up for any small losses.
JMTC.

[KsJayhawkers]

Originally Posted by davem4616

We came here from the coast also, so I can relate to that....

Dean and Massey advertise a lot...not sure that they are necessarily the #1 Choice, only two people on our street of 15 houses use them

We use Zoysia Green (352.323.8454) for going on 5 years...we may get a few bugs in the garage, but not in the house

Also the pine needles that the developer puts down around the bushes in the front beds is a great place for bugs to hide and breed.

I agree with Dave. The pine needles and mulch become heavily infested quickly with bugs and rodents. Vigilance plays a big part...as soon as one is seen, its time to re-apply a pest application.

[Two Bills]

Butterfflies in garden on our Lavender, and one of our Buddleia bushes.

[vintageogauge]

I have never used commercial insect services. I Sevin insect granules for the lawn and use home defense spray around the foundation every 3 months. We have never had bugs in our house with the exception of nearly invisible ghost ants on two occasions. They were eliminated with ant bait bought at Ace hardware. We have been here for over 4 years.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

I just have a couple of ant traps in the kitchen - behind the front door and next to the leg of the built-in table extension that sticks out of the wall. I also have some plastic roach motels for "large" roaches under the kitchen sink, under the oven, and one behind the microwave on the counter. Haven't seen any roaches or ants in the house this past year.

We use LeeCo for pest control on the lawn, but he's not allowed to spray in my garden because I grow herbs in big planters that I use for cooking in there. My garden is 100% organic - I don't use any pesticides, and I only add a palmful of organic plant food (ground worm castings, chicken poop, and bone meal) when I do the initial planting of a new addition to the garden. I don't even water it after that. Nature does what it does, and if nature wants it to grow, it grows. If it dies, I replace it with something else.

[DAVES]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

I just have a couple of ant traps in the kitchen - behind the front door and next to the leg of the built-in table extension that sticks out of the wall. I also have some plastic roach motels for "large" roaches under the kitchen sink, under the oven, and one behind the microwave on the counter. Haven't seen any roaches or ants in the house this past year.

We use LeeCo for pest control on the lawn, but he's not allowed to spray in my garden because I grow herbs in big planters that I use for cooking in there. My garden is 100% organic - I don't use any pesticides, and I only add a palmful of organic plant food (ground worm castings, chicken poop, and bone meal) when I do the initial planting of a new addition to the garden. I don't even water it after that. Nature does what it does, and if nature wants it to grow, it grows. If it dies, I replace it with something else.

A few corrections. Cockroaches, in Florida they are called water bugs. In terms of large
cockroaches, the ones in New York, well the one in Florida, they are midgets.

In terms of organic, you home site was treated with insecticides before your home was built. Our soil is alkaline as is bone meal. There are or were phosphate mines around here. Your plants do not read and cannot tell the difference between organic and chemical fertilizers. I used to, at our previous, not Florida home, go fishing regularly.
I would come back with buckets of seaweed. I did catch plenty of fish. The seaweed along with tiny shrimp etc, after washing off the salt I would put in my garden. Plants would produce amazing quantities. Organic? Our house was treated with chlordane, years earlier and it is forever.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by DAVES

A few corrections. Cockroaches, in Florida they are called water bugs. In terms of large
cockroaches, the ones in New York, well the one in Florida, they are midgets.

In terms of organic, you home site was treated with insecticides before your home was built. Our soil is alkaline as is bone meal. There are or were phosphate mines around here. Your plants do not read and cannot tell the difference between organic and chemical fertilizers. I used to, at our previous, not Florida home, go fishing regularly.
I would come back with buckets of seaweed. I did catch plenty of fish. The seaweed along with tiny shrimp etc, after washing off the salt I would put in my garden. Plants would produce amazing quantities. Organic? Our house was treated with chlordane, years earlier and it is forever.

As I said, my herb garden is in planters. It's not directly in the ground. And it's organic because *I* don't want pesticides in the herbs I use for cooking. I don't use an organic potting soil but the soil I use has not been treated with anything, and contains no fertilizer.

As for cockroaches, no they're cockroaches. They're not water bugs. There's a pretty big difference between the two but the most obvious from a distance is the antennae. Water bugs have straight antennae, cockroaches have curved ones. The shapes are different too; water bugs are almost teardrop shaped, and cockroaches tend to be elongated. Waterbugs have something that looks like a snout on the end of their heads, cockroaches don't.

Also, I use the "large" cockroach traps because the cockroaches in this area won't fit in the smaller ones. I want them to "go in, but not go out." They can't go in if they're too big to fit. These suckers are around as big as the top half of my thumb, up to the knuckle.

[Luggage]

They will always be bugs they are billions of them. In your house just make sure the extra bathrooms you poor some bleach down the drain pipes once in a while and you use them so that the p traps do not dry out.

A little geckos love coming in through the bottom of the doors of the screens it's like mosquitoes every once in a while there's always one of those little suckers around here. If you don't over water the fly population stays down.
Be kind to the birds and the butterflies and you'll have less of everything else

[Debra Freeman]

I bought commercial
U Kill EM which I bought. Spray under sink and around baseboards. Now no bugs in our home. You can purchase this in Ocala.

[Debra Freeman]

U-Kill'Em Pest Supplies on Silver Springs Blvd in Ocala.