Last week it was a 5" Giant Desert Hairy Scorpion. Ten minutes ago it was a 5 foot long rattlesnake, removed and relocated by my new heroes at the fire department. I don’t think I was cut out for the desert – I’m still hyperventilating.
So what gross indigenous creatures do you have around your house?
…and no, I don’t mean family members, you bunch of wise guys.
I don’t know if I should call it gross, but there was a big tarantula in the shower one morning (I regret that I killed it without even thinking). There was a 4’ ratsnake (not venomous) in the kitchen on another occasion - I just propped the door open and chased it out. Outside, I’d say the main thing to avoid are the copperheads. They’re not really gross, but they can be kind of aggressive sometimes. Nobody’s gonna move them out and I don’t kill them unless they threaten me. Oh, I get colonies of cicada killer wasps…they aren’t supposed to be a threat, but when they chase me, I gotta run from 'em!
Um … possums?
Crickets?
Well, I wouldn’t call any of them exactly gross, but:
Crabs walking on the road and hanging out outside you door at night/early morning.
LOTS of geckoes, like…everywhere.
Thing may be pusing it, but the lagoon is almost in my back yard, and we go snorkeling and diving in it regularly, so I’d add sharks. Lots of sharks. And stonefish.
When we were in New Orleans, while working in the backyard one day Mama Tiger found a leech on her leg. Her screaming and running in circles was highly entertaining!
The homeless.
Yes, 3acres, tarantulas are gross. They’re throw your head back and scream like Drew Barrymore in ET gross. Don’t care for millipedes, either.
I suppose I’ll have to return my Nature Girl membership card and decoder ring, now. 
We recently had a run on giant moths the size of small birds (many of them in the house, thanks to the cats). Briefly endured a large number of preying mantises. So many giant insects in one summer is giving me that old '50’s sci-fi theater vibe.
On the upside, at work I have a nice marmot that lives under my office.
Fortunately I am a recovered arachnophobe because we have large spiders by the hundreds - literally. I know. I go out with a torch and talk to them every night. I have over 300 burrows marked out in the back yard (a large bush block). Plus all the web builders and crevice livers. I would LOVE to have tarantulas. In fact, I will be coming to the US in a few weeks with a goal of photographing them for my next book.
Having worked hard to get over the arachophobia, overdoing the cure so it is now an obsession with spiders, I have found the obsession has moved on to insects, including wasps. The backyard gross critters have now become my obsession. I spend hours out there every day and have invested great slabs of money in good macro camera equipment just to photograph them. The more you know about the backyard critters the less gross they become.
A small bat flapping around. It was bigger then a really big moth, smaller then a sparrow. The cats watched it with fascination. I put a window wide open, and, sensing the opening with its echolocation, it gladly flew out.
Bats are cute.
Maastricht, I’m sure that the cats would have loved to have the bat for dinner. Or just live-in entertainment.
My daughter has been cleaning out her closets. Yes, that’s plural. Is it a coincidence that we’ve had white moths in the house lately? I don’t think so. OUR cats think that these moths have been set loose in the house purely for them. I don’t mind the cats stalking the moths. I DO mind when the cats try to pounce on a moth, and miss. When a cat does manage to catch a moth, s/he does not share with the other cats, by the way.
In the 4 months we’ve been in our new home I’ve seen:
A Eastern King snake (which after researching, I didn’t mind because they are apparently one of the few natural predators of copperheads, which are common here.)
A 2.5-foot rat snake making his way across the driveway. I did my best Steve Irwin impression with that one (got up very close, “Isn’t she a beauty!”)
Lots of lizards, including some with gorgeous irridescent blue tails
Lots of big, loud frogs
Lots of Southern Cross spiders, which are pretty impressive up close and do a great job of keeping the area free of pest bugs
Some kind of bug (cicada?) as big as my thumb and just as dumb
That’s mostly it so far.
The house centipede .
They are all-but-invisible on carpet, and they run like the wind too.
Sailboat
Just hang in there, the more dangerous ones will get tired of being disturbed and move on. Don’t reach into places without looking. Watch your step.
We used to have quite a bit of such wildlife around town. However, the activity drove them out and now all we see is an occasional coyote strolling down the street. And not even that when prey and water are available out on the desert.
OMG, I HATE those things! The way their legs kinda ripple as they run…/shudder/.
Lately I’ve seen quite a few of those big orb weaving spiders around here. They’re not dangerous, unless you count the heart attack they give you when you almost walk into one who’s made her web on your front porch, right by the front door. :eek:
We get all kinds of stuff, mostly of the furry, four-legged variety.
I’ve seen possums, skunks, groundhogs and the random bat just in my neighborhood. There’s an unstated rule that you don’t put food out to feed the neighborhood cat because that’ll attract yucky vermin.
Some years back, my ex caught a scorpion that was scuttling across the dining-room floor. I filled a jar with industrial rubbing alcohol, he dropped the scorpion in there and I had a souvenir of my time in East Texas.
I’m getting creeped out just thinking about that.
Robin
Thanks, I think I’m over it now. :dubious:
When we lived in Washington state we had all kinds of furry stuff at the back door: raccoons, possum, skunks, field mice, bats and even a small black bear. Anything with fur is welcome. Mostly.
I’m just glad our dog barked her fool head off from the safe side of the sliding glass door and didn’t find the rattlesnake when she was outside. She’d’ve tried to make friends. I just know it.
So, how come instead of a nifty coatimundi or a javalina, or a coyote, we get a poisonous snake, a millipede and a huge disgusting desert lobster?
We’re suffering through our twice a year infestation of love bugs right now, and for the first time, we have centipedes. We’ve been here seven years and this is the first years we’ve had centipedes.
I live about an hour away from ivylass. There are roaches, geckos, snakes, all sorts of caterpillars and worms…lots of critters. One problem now is that the raccoons are stealing the corn-cobs I put out for the squirrels.