# Why no bugs in Seattle? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 23, 2004, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-bugs-in-seattle/251900 "2004-06-23T23:30:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-bugs-in-seattle/251900/21 "2004-06-25T03:06:43Z")
> [@lawoot](#): > > I agree with the earlier statement about the unGodly amount of spiders around here. Also, this spring we had a tent caterpillar invasion - they were EVERYWHERE! They got into the house, dropped on me from off the eaves, it was AWFUL! So I’m expecting many many moths soon. Spiders, moths, ladybugs and _fleas_! You must not have any pets, **lissener**. I’ve lived all over the U.S. and I’ve never seen fleas thrive anywhere the way they do here in Seattle. Have I mentioned how much I hate fleas? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-bugs-in-seattle/251900/22 "2004-06-25T03:36:47Z")
I started a very similar thread to the OP several years ago, commenting on the lack of mosquitoes on Vancouver Island just north of Seattle. I was contradicted as well by other island posters. Since I moved to the island 1n 1979 I’ve never experienced the late night torturous buzz. I sleep with wide open windows.(I don’t even know what a cockroach looks like) I think the prevalence of bats around here may be responsible. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-bugs-in-seattle/251900/23 "2004-06-25T04:37:47Z")
> [@BurnMeUp](#): > > MN is of cours ethe mosquito capital of the world. A friend of mine lives in LaCrosse and frequently ventures into MN. Everytime she comes back, her car looks like she just drove through the frog scene in Magnolia. :eek: (We need an ewww smilie) ---
**Author:** ![lynxie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e99b99/32.png) [@lynxie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lynxie)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-bugs-in-seattle/251900/24 "2004-06-25T10:23:42Z")
In Victoria. B.C. there are no screens in most residential buildings. :eek: That is either illegal or immoral in Ontario. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-bugs-in-seattle/251900/25 "2004-06-25T14:55:11Z")
I’m in Seattle, and my house alone could be responsible for the scarcity of bugs in the area. We have so many spiders it is unreal, we’re talking on an epic-'70s-disaster-movie-guest-starring-Charo-and-Bruce-Jenner scale of spider infestation. Just this morning I stumbled across the shed skin of one of them in the middle of my living room floor, I honestly mistook it for a Brillo Pad at first, but on closer inspection…I fear I’m going to bump into the owner of that skin some night. And I kid you not, I walked down into my basement once and saw looming shadows cast against the wall from one of the spiders as it scurried to its fortress of solitude beneath the rafters, all that was needed to complete the effect was some creepy Vincent Price laughter. But they leave us alone, our dogs are still alive and haven’t been trapped, and our house and yard are bug free. They’re happy, we’re happy. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-bugs-in-seattle/251900/26 "2004-06-25T15:17:04Z")
Y’all have that many spiders? And they’re big? Really? Cross Seattle of the places I could live. The list keeps dwindling…I might have to stay here. Ya, Minneapolis has skeeters (they’re the state bird), but the cold keeps the spider population at bay. And they’re usually smaller - there are some big ones, but I’ve only seen them in the woods or camping; they’re not in my home. :eek: Snicks ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-bugs-in-seattle/251900/27 "2004-06-25T18:18:25Z")
the-++++++++++ the real reason that there arent many bugs in Seattle is that they all committed suicide! Seattle’s the most depressing place in the USA I worked there for 3 months --and never saw a single day of sunshine(Oct-Dec). Nice people, mild winters, good coffee–but unbearable weather.Permanent clouds, nonstop rain, constantly wet, and just damn unpleasant. Ya gotta have a bit of sunshine in your life, but Seattle is just sad. Even the bugs can’t take it. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-bugs-in-seattle/251900/28 "2004-06-25T19:36:16Z")
We just finished a week of clear blue skies and 80+ degree days, thanks for asking. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-bugs-in-seattle/251900/29 "2004-06-25T19:46:28Z")
We do have plenty of sunshine…just not during the off season, thank you. Plus, grey is beautiful. Plus, there aren’t that many spiders. Really, there aren’t. That may explain the mosquitos (I think I don’t notice them anymore, because I’m not a kid running around in shorts in twilight - 10pm twilight, pure heaven when you’re in gradeschool), but what about the cockroaches? I had never seen one until I went to college (neither had any of the other people from WA or northern OR). Not that I’m complaining, I’ll be happy to never see one again. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-bugs-in-seattle/251900/30 "2004-06-25T19:50:50Z")
Seattle? I’ve heard that Colorado Springs has almost no flying insects. The Buffalo metropolitan area has no fireflies, even though they’re common in Rochester, Erie, and Cleveland. ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_Next\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@Girl\_Next\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_Next_Door)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-bugs-in-seattle/251900/31 "2004-06-25T20:23:50Z")
It’s the spiders. We’ve got tons of 'em. They gobble up all the bugs. And bats. We’ve got lots of bats, too. Ever step on a banana slug barefoot? Gaaah! ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-bugs-in-seattle/251900/32 "2004-06-25T23:04:08Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > [This thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=263034) reminded me to wonder: How come Seattle doesn’t have any bugs? don’t get me wrong; I’m not complaining. But I occasionally remember to be amazed at how nearly bug free Seattle is. Of course, there aren’t \*zero \* bugs–in five years I’ve seen one cockroach, and if I leave my windows open in the evening I get a cranefly or two, and an itinerant moth maybe, batting against the ceiling fixture. But it’s not just me: more windows out here are screenless than screened. > > Never seen a mosquito, never seen a June bug. Course, we got slugs as big as Jabba the Hut and spiders that bring down a running back, so OK we’re not entirely bug free. But no mosquitos? no cockroaches? remarkably few of anything else? what gives? > > My mosquito theory: everything out here is at a 45% angle. There are no flat areas for water to accumulate and provide breeding pools. First let me say I loved Seattle. But; Just a few blocks from the Pikes Place Market area is a cool 🆒 laundromat/pizza place where I _personally_ squished a [german cockroach](http://www.cockroach-pictures.com/german_cockroach_pictures.htm). There’s no possibility od mistake here, I grew up in Bakersfield and I _know_ roaches. I was there in the early spring of '02, and someonewas filming something while I was there. The place had a definite “punk” edge to it. Sorry. If I had known I was doing-in a state treasure I’d have made more a fuss about it. I didn’t know it was endangered. 😉 I’ll be back. Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-bugs-in-seattle/251900/33 "2004-06-26T03:25:26Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > We just finished a week of clear blue skies and 80+ degree days, thanks for asking. 🆒 Most unusual at this time of year (there’s an adage about “summer” starting on July 5th in these parts). My sinuses were in severe danger of drying up. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-bugs-in-seattle/251900/34 "2004-06-26T03:43:38Z")
From my german cockroach link, above; “They are unable to survive in locations without humans or human activity.” Hmmm. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-bugs-in-seattle/251900/35 "2004-06-26T07:43:02Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > the real reason that there arent many bugs in Seattle is that they all committed suicide! Seattle’s the most depressing place in the USA > > I worked there for 3 months --and never saw a single day of sunshine(Oct-Dec). Nice people, mild winters, good coffee–but unbearable weather.Permanent clouds, nonstop rain, constantly wet, and just damn unpleasant. > Ya gotta have a bit of sunshine in your life, but Seattle is just sad. Even the bugs can’t take it. Please. Its possible a bug or two has drowned here now and then, but the cloudy, rainy reputation is a myth to keep tourists and other undesirables away. Lots of places are cloudy in the winter. [Here](http://www.worldclimate.com/cgi-bin/data.pl?ref=N47W122+2200+457488C) are average rainfall stats for Seattle. Yes, I was born and raised here. We never had screens on our windows, but we did have house flies in the summer. Surprisingly, though, we had a screen door! Maybe we were just keeping out the flies too big to get in the windows. I was a kid. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-bugs-in-seattle/251900/36 "2004-06-26T07:44:53Z")
> [@OttoDaFe](#): > > Most unusual at this time of year (there’s an adage about “summer” starting on July 5th in these parts). My sinuses were in severe danger of drying up. Yeah. What \*he said! so there. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-bugs-in-seattle/251900/37 "2004-06-26T08:08:16Z")
> [@BurnMeUp](#): > > MN is of course the mosquito capital of the world. Clearly you’ve never been to the Philippines. In many areas people have to sleep under mosquito nets. ---
**Author:** ![Shrinking\_Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2004, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-bugs-in-seattle/251900/38 "2004-06-27T01:52:18Z")
> [@grienspace](#): > > I started a very similar thread to the OP several years ago, commenting on the lack of mosquitoes on Vancouver Island just north of Seattle. I was contradicted as well by other island posters. Since I moved to the island 1n 1979 I’ve never experienced the late night torturous buzz. I sleep with wide open windows.(I don’t even know what a cockroach looks like) > > I think the prevalence of bats around here may be responsible. Or maybe they’ve been nobbled by the [deadly fungus](http://www.bccdc.org/news.php?item=4). :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Stringman58Sea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Stringman58Sea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringman58Sea)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-bugs-in-seattle/251900/39 "2010-09-25T23:15:10Z")
You must live in an area where most of your neighbors get exterminated frequently. Seattle has no shortage of bugs. As seen on the local news even bed bugs are becoming prevalent again. Also someone said there are no poisonous spiders in Seattle… WRONG… Just check with most of the Larger emergency rooms and you will find black widow bites even the rare for the PNW ,brown recluse bites do occur. With international and national travel a constant these days insect hitchhikers of all kinds are making new homes all over including Seattle. Mosquitoes require places with standing water to breed so if you don’t have those you probably don’t have standing water in any abundance nearby. Visit any of the local lakes around sunset during warm weather, you’ll see what I mean. This thread was a fun read though 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-bugs-in-seattle/251900/40 "2010-09-26T00:59:29Z")
> [@lawoot](#): > > I agree with the earlier statement about the unGodly amount of spiders around here. Also, this spring we had a tent caterpillar invasion - they were EVERYWHERE! They got into the house, dropped on me from off the eaves, it was AWFUL! So I’m expecting many many moths soon. As evidence of the number of spiders we have here, I offer the fact that many of the spiders prey on… spiders. As for numbers of bugs overall: it’s comparable to the central coast of CA where I grew up. My wife says it’s nothing compared to Texas (but then, what is?) or Florida, though. The bottom line for me is that I still can’t go outside in the evening during the nicer months (say, May to October) because any mosquitoes within a mile will immediately bite me. My house is in a neighborhood with a pond and slow-moving stream. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-bugs-in-seattle/251900.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-bugs-in-seattle/251900.md?page=3)