I just moved to a semi rural area with trees. Those live oaks that have what appears to be moss hanging. Yes, there are forests in Florida. Also pasture land and farms. The home I bought is older, but not ancient. AC is off the hook good.
I been coming to Florida for years on vacation and was looking to stay in VA, but it was not an option, so when my employer showed an opening on the gulf coast, I took it. 30 days to close on the house and transfer. I start tomorrow and already met a few co-workers. Happy folks.
Just a personal protip: Make sure you keep your gutters clean(or get guards), very clean with those live oaks. They'll shed leaves like crazy and the bastardly fire ants will make nests in your eves the second there's any buildup.
Thank you for the tip. I do see ants here and some kind of cricket. None in the house that I can see, but the gutters do need to be serviced. I just bought the house last week and moved in. There is maintenance to do such as that.
Crickets aren't too much of a problem. The fire ants though? You'd be surprised at how fast they can show up out of nowhere.
Good ol' AMDRO will do a bang up job on them really quick, if you're worried about the poison though get some plain old baited Diatomaceous Earth. You'll want to make sure that it's pre-baited with protein/fat/etc, to draw them in. Just sprinkle around the nests or along any trail path.
Bonus with the Diatomaceous Earth is it'll also take care of any roaches you might not see, it's one of the few natural poisons that keeps on giving. Kinda like using boric acid for ants. In both cases, they'll share the food or engage in cannibalism which will create a kill cycle. Boric acid is nifty because it will crystalize from the inside out, while Diatomaceous Earth cuts the insides up and also cuts the outsides up causing them to dehydrate.
edit: Also, don't forget to use a barrier spray. It's good for about 6mo.
It's not too bad if you're healthy enough to clean them out yourself 2x a year. I used to just use a blower to blow them off the roof. Except one area that was poorly designed that stayed damp and I needed to do it by hand. Now, I just pay a pressure washer guy to do it and either my driveway, house or pool deck, depending on the rotation.
Palm roaches larger than your hand, hurricanes, and cockroaches. Some people really have problems with the cockroaches. I own property in Pasco Co., myself and don't mind it. Just need to do the basic home maintenance to keep the pests to a minimum.
Weather wise it's a lot better then where I live in Southwestern Ontario, we get 4ft-20ft lake effect snow in the winter and massive t-storms, and tornados in the summer.
Been here in FL for 12 years. Have had zero of these problems ☝️ Just sayin . We are surrounded by oaks and moss no problems with gutters or fire ants. No roach problems - if you do get some chickens they eat ALL the bugs and you get eggs 🥚
...and we haven't had storm or hurricane damage. On gulf coast halfway up the state and live in the water. We have flown our Trump flag for over a year, It's still up.
Not all places let you have chickens on your property. The palm roaches though, and roaches in general you don't see them until there's a massive infestation. Otherwise you're only going to bump into the rare straggler. But if you've been there for 12 years, you'll probably remember the cold snap back in 2010 or so, those ones will drive insets inc. lizards indoors.
Especially if you're in the middle of the state where those cold snaps rarely get down to. I can only remember a few times where down by Plant City where they had to spray the crops with water to protect them from the freeze.
Depending on the storms off the lakes here in Southern Ontario, you can see some pretty impressive rainfall. Few years back we had 3.5" in a single hour, you can probably guess how bad it was in low-lying areas.
I love my home state of Florida! Not sure why everyone doesn't live here! The sunshines truth and the air smells like freedom! MAGA country, baby! 🇺🇸
I just moved to a semi rural area with trees. Those live oaks that have what appears to be moss hanging. Yes, there are forests in Florida. Also pasture land and farms. The home I bought is older, but not ancient. AC is off the hook good.
I been coming to Florida for years on vacation and was looking to stay in VA, but it was not an option, so when my employer showed an opening on the gulf coast, I took it. 30 days to close on the house and transfer. I start tomorrow and already met a few co-workers. Happy folks.
Just a personal protip: Make sure you keep your gutters clean(or get guards), very clean with those live oaks. They'll shed leaves like crazy and the bastardly fire ants will make nests in your eves the second there's any buildup.
Thank you for the tip. I do see ants here and some kind of cricket. None in the house that I can see, but the gutters do need to be serviced. I just bought the house last week and moved in. There is maintenance to do such as that.
Crickets aren't too much of a problem. The fire ants though? You'd be surprised at how fast they can show up out of nowhere.
Good ol' AMDRO will do a bang up job on them really quick, if you're worried about the poison though get some plain old baited Diatomaceous Earth. You'll want to make sure that it's pre-baited with protein/fat/etc, to draw them in. Just sprinkle around the nests or along any trail path.
Bonus with the Diatomaceous Earth is it'll also take care of any roaches you might not see, it's one of the few natural poisons that keeps on giving. Kinda like using boric acid for ants. In both cases, they'll share the food or engage in cannibalism which will create a kill cycle. Boric acid is nifty because it will crystalize from the inside out, while Diatomaceous Earth cuts the insides up and also cuts the outsides up causing them to dehydrate.
edit: Also, don't forget to use a barrier spray. It's good for about 6mo.
It's not too bad if you're healthy enough to clean them out yourself 2x a year. I used to just use a blower to blow them off the roof. Except one area that was poorly designed that stayed damp and I needed to do it by hand. Now, I just pay a pressure washer guy to do it and either my driveway, house or pool deck, depending on the rotation.
Palm roaches larger than your hand, hurricanes, and cockroaches. Some people really have problems with the cockroaches. I own property in Pasco Co., myself and don't mind it. Just need to do the basic home maintenance to keep the pests to a minimum.
Weather wise it's a lot better then where I live in Southwestern Ontario, we get 4ft-20ft lake effect snow in the winter and massive t-storms, and tornados in the summer.
Been here in FL for 12 years. Have had zero of these problems ☝️ Just sayin . We are surrounded by oaks and moss no problems with gutters or fire ants. No roach problems - if you do get some chickens they eat ALL the bugs and you get eggs 🥚 ...and we haven't had storm or hurricane damage. On gulf coast halfway up the state and live in the water. We have flown our Trump flag for over a year, It's still up.
Not all places let you have chickens on your property. The palm roaches though, and roaches in general you don't see them until there's a massive infestation. Otherwise you're only going to bump into the rare straggler. But if you've been there for 12 years, you'll probably remember the cold snap back in 2010 or so, those ones will drive insets inc. lizards indoors.
Especially if you're in the middle of the state where those cold snaps rarely get down to. I can only remember a few times where down by Plant City where they had to spray the crops with water to protect them from the freeze.
Yeah, but be prepared for 4”-20” of hurricane effect rain in the summer....😁
Depending on the storms off the lakes here in Southern Ontario, you can see some pretty impressive rainfall. Few years back we had 3.5" in a single hour, you can probably guess how bad it was in low-lying areas.