Had the same issue when living in India, had to watch out for scorpions and cobras. Now in south Florida I have 3 inch cockroaches. I would trade them for scorpions any day. Either way I can get rocked like a Hurricane. South Florida sucks balls.

I lived in Liberia for a while. We had to re-package all of our dried goods in ziploc plastic bags to keep the weevils out. And we couldn't leave any dirty dishes or food on the counter because of the mice and cockroaches. But at least we didn't have snakes! :)

I lived in Honduras for a few years, where we'd have to check to make sure our friendly tarantula wasn't hiding in the shower. And tree-cutter ants would sometimes try to colonize our kitchen. Most of the time they would just clean up the crumbs and be gone by the morning.

when I lived in Texas I got snakes and cockroaches if we weren't careful. I did have a scorpion in my shower once in Arizona, but the worst were red ants in the yard. You had to make sure where ever you stepped wasn't anywhere near those ants or they would bite you- and they are painful!

Palmetto bugs in the U.S. South. Yeah, you can tell me that they aren't a "dirty" bug like a roach, but that night when I was in the bathroom half asleep and had one fall on my leg from the space inside the toilet paper roll..... that seemed like a dirty dirty dirty bug.

Once I got used to seeing the palmetto bugs, I think it was actually the brown recluse spiders that really scared me. A bite from them and you get black necrotic flesh. Much worse that having a roach like bug fall on your leg and just scare you.

How timely. We went camping a few weeks ago and I saw my first scorpion. Didn't think they were in Missouri, FREAKED OUT.

I know this is pretty tame by comparison to some folks, but I'm a Midwesterner... when I lived in Ohio, the biting ladybugs were a pretty serious issue. If it was reasonably warm out, you had to keep an eye out for the little buggers everywhere, and when you lived in a 150 year old dorm with badly fitted screens, I mean EVERYWHERE. I got into the habit of shaking out my clothes pretty seriously before putting them on, after one unfortunate incident with my underwear drawer.

Deer come in a close second, though. Everywhere I've lived, with the exception of Chicago, I've been pretty alert during fawning and mating season, just to make sure I don't get into a car accident or attacked by an overprotective doe. I know a guy that had his jaw wired shut to let it heal after a doe came after him when he got too close to a fawn.

As strange as this sounds, my mom has been finding scorpions in her house in North Florida near Jacksonville. I figured they're the only things that can survive the suffocating mothball odor in the garage and around all entrances to get in her house.

I'm in central florida and mostly get cockroaches/palmetto bugs. I don't differentiate. I hate all of them equally.

Oh, how I do not miss those days. We just moved from Texas back to Germany.
Flies, flies are the pesty ones here. But, I'd rather them then scorpians which just creap me out.

Oh! @ohmeursault I feel your pain. I do not miss those huge bugs either. I'm an Army brat and we lived in FL too. *shiver*

We're in North Central Florida and have scorpions, roaches/palmetto bugs, fire ants, snakes, and spiders (black widows in the garage).

Yesterday I was sitting on the couch and saw a scorpion from the corner of my eye walking next to me. I got up quick...I've been stung before and it hurts! I definitely didn't want it to happen again!

Rattle snakes, water moccasins, palmetto bugs, roaches, banana and black widow spiders (both poisonous), hairy giant tarantula-looking spiders (not sure what they are called but they are horrifying--especially in the shower with you), ginormous fire ants, both regular and red ants, locusts, black snakes, bees, wasps, beetles, snapping turtles, alligators, Portugese man-o-war, jellyfish = the joys of growing up a Floridian. Personally I love the lizards b/c they eat the insects. The worst is going out to your car in the morning and seeing an alligator parked next to it--then having to call & wait for Fish & Wildlife to haul it away.

I moved to NYC to get away from it all. Needless to say, however, a giant waterbug (aka Palmetto bug b/c they look the same to me) still sends me screaming in panic and disgust. Ewwww...

Yikes. I live in Michigan, where the worst thing we have is mosquitoes. And suddenly, they don't seem so bad.

Forgot to add that the only place that I've encounter that comes close to matching FL in 'pests' was Australia. Pretty much any 'pest' there will kill you. :-)

Growing up, there was a process to entering or exiting the house after dark to minimize mosquitos coming in. Sure, mosquitos aren't as bad as scorpions, but in large numbers they're not fun.

Process to enter the house:
1. Gather entire family by door.
2. Wave newspaper/cardboard by door to blow away lurking mosquitos.
3. Open door and all run in.
4. Shut door quickly behind group.
5. Shut door on the other side of the mudroom and turn on light.
6. Entire family listens and looks for mosquitos contained in mudroom; fan newspaper/cardboard near furniture in case they're hiding behind it.
7. Exit (and probably still get a new mosquito bite by morning)

Yikes, that's what I love about the Midwest, normal-sized mosquitoes are about as bad as it gets.

I lived in New Orleans and dealt with all kinds of large buggy predators, and I can safely say I never want to deal with it again. Even the fleas were impossible. Mosquitoes the size of your head! Being near swampland was like reenacting your worst sci-fi nightmare.

Ants!Jersey City, NJ has ants! Hundreds...thousands...millions of ants!! Well, OK, maybe not that many, but when you open your cutlery drawer and medicine cabinet only to find so many of the little critters that it's impossible to kill them all, it seems like there are that many. The interesting thing is that they can make it to the thrid floor without ever taking up residence on the first two floors.

When we moved to southern California, well, somehow the fireplaces of our house were connected to the ground and occasionally a centipede or scorpion would crawl out! Being the medical professional of the family, I would constantly remind everyone that bark scorpions were indigenous to the area. The Arizona Bark scorpion is indeed the most venomous scorpion in the Unites States, but luckily there is an antivenom available!

I'm in Texas, and in the past two weeks my cubicle (on the fourth floor of my urban office building in downtown Dallas) has been invaded by fire ants, I've killed a black widow spider in my apartment, and I've dealt with a summertime flea infestation in the same apartment.

My parents have similar pests, with one big one added in: coyotes come up out of the creek bed near their house and carry off the neighborhood cats. Their part of town has been developed for four decades, now, but the coyotes have adapted, use the creek beds to get from one part of town to another, and have figured out that kitties are easy prey :(

When I was little, we lived in the country (still in Texas) and had to watch out for rattle snakes, copperhead snakes, and scorpions, which can seriously fit through the smallest spaces known to mankind. I have no idea how they can shrink themselves up so tiny to get through pinhole-sized openings, but they can!

Early one morning, I took a garbage bag from my Tallahassee, FL, appartment to the dumpster. The dumpster was occupied by a good-sized rattlesnake hunting rodents. I was awake enough to notice the rattlesnake before reaching the dumpster. I reversed quickly, and later the rattlesnake left of its own accord.
I heard that the Florida has populations of every venomous snake species found in the continental U.S..
During rainy season, lizards, frogs, and nonvenomous snakes keep getting into my home. I catch and free them when I can.

Spiders, spiders, spiders. I'm sure this is everywhere but I live in Florida and have learned never to walk between two tallish objects (cars or trees) after 8pm without swinging something in front of me first.

Palmetto bugs after a big rain.

My postwar tract suburb somehow still has wild foxes. I see them occasionally, and witnessed one yipping. They prey on rodents, and I wouldn't see them as pests except that they can carry rabies.

We had roaches in Norther FL. Just so everyone's clear, palmetto bugs and roaches are the same thing -- palmetto just sounds nicer. :) I find the gel works best; that's what the exterminators use, and ever since I started applying it myself, I never had a problem.

I had roaches in southwestern Ontario, too, but I also lived in a "bad" neighbourhood by my university. And we had mice who chewed through a couple blankets, sweaters and a camera case of mine.

Fellow Floridian here!

As we lived off a canal, alligators were a common sight. We invested in a pool fence when my father discovered three hanging out in the deep end.

We also had a family of raccoons, bats and our neighbor's troupe of escape artist tamarins to contend with from time to time. The raccoons were entertaining to watch when they weren't stealing citrus, knocking over trash cans, or attempting to open the back door. The bats ate a lot of mosquitos, but the tamarins can be pretty imposing for an animal weighing less than 1.5lbs.

Florida, the only state where you can legal own just about any animal. Oops, forgot about Texas.

This is probably not a regional pest, but a pest nonetheless: centipedes. I moved into my house one month ago and they will crawl up out of the sink drain while I'm washing dishes! I now plug the sink when I'm not using it. I'd sure like to find a more permanent, eco-friendly remedy to get them to go away.

In Toronto we don't have anything TOO scary. Cockroaches and bed bugs if you are unlucky. Spiders and centipedes are disgusting but not harmful here. Mosquitoes are just plain annoying.

AND I'm suddenly having a fondness for the three-month deep freeze we endure in Minnie. Cuts way down on the large crustacean-like monster bugs. I do get at least one hornet's nest on or around the house each summer, however. Mosquitos, check. And has anyone mentioned TICKS yet??!?! Blurgh.

Well , last night my daughter and I had to fight off a half dollar sized beetle that was on the welcome mat with a broom. (too big too smoosh !) We have seen a giant beetle wandering around the living room in the middle of the night in the summer, occasionally. Mosquito's , and dear tics that carry lime disease are abundant here and coyote's that eat house cats are also here along with skunks , opossum , and raccoons , and every variety of wasp's and bee's !

Still not as bad as living in the south !.....I suppose there is one good thing about northeast winters ......

We've been having issues with brown recluse spiders in my area for a number of years. A woman died from a bite just a couple of weeks ago. Brown recluse spiders are indeed recluses so getting bit (bitten?) takes some effort, but you have to be careful if you're venturing under furniture or into little-frequented corners. Bug bombs don't work because they can hold their breath. The only way you can get rid of them is to eliminate their food sources. They're nasty little buggers.

@ Jessica K - I caught a scorpion at Shoal Creek in SW Missouri back in 1980 while on a biology class field trip in high school. It was pretty cool.

The scorpions here have stings that feel like wasp stings, and are unlikely to kill a person. The mosquitoes here can carry a number of serious diseases. The local common pests that scare rather than annoy me are the rats and the raccoons--rabies. My fear of bats is groundless since there probably there aren't vampire bats here.

I greatly dislike fleas and ticks, too, because they're both disgusting and disease carriers.

When visiting my in-laws in Florida years ago, I was quite startled when the "toy" lizard I say on the floor suddenly scurried up the wall!

In New England, biting black flies are one menace I could do without. Other than that, most of our pests are in the yard -- chipmunks are adorable, but they tunnel and eat my hostas. Ground hogs ditto, only bigger. Not too many issues, here, though.

this post is giving me the heebie-jeebies! I'm in the south - most hated: palmetto bugs, cockroaches, mosquitos, copperhead snakes (live in the grasses), brown recluse spiders and termites! With so much rain fall...termites are out of control in my area.

Roaches in Florida have the best PR. Palmetto bugs?!? Really, they are same thing.

I'm a former Florida resident, and Palmetto bugs are THE WORST. And mosquitoes. And black racer snakes. And the freaky huge spiders. I agree with most: South Florida does suck balls.

I lived in New York State for years, and the huge, nasty black flies in August are pretty terrible.

Now I live in Central California. Haven't had any issues with bugs in 7 years.
Although we do have these things called Stag beetles that are as big as Palmetto bugs with a HUGE claw in the front.
Those give me the willies!! (Though they have the decency to just live outside among the redwoods.)

junebugs anyone? sure, not as bad as cockroaches or scorpions, but still gross. Especially when they infest the whole town and then stick to you and hiss.

in AZ we have the normal scorpions, cicadas, crickets, tarantulas, roaches, fire ants, etc. which are all creepy to me. but as of this year, the absolute worse thing has been africanized bees. we have had 2 infestations in our HOUSE! yes, they built a freaking honeycomb in our roof. $4k in damage, UGH. stupid bees.

As a kid living in Central California - I thought that the invasions of ants and dozens of Black Widow spiders in the garage and woodpile were the worst things...

...but now that I live in San Francisco - it's the panhandlers blocking the sidewalks and defecating in the streets.

In Mexico I awoke from a nap to find a scorpion in my couch. Another time in Mexico my good friend got stung, by an amber colored little monster (our house came outfitted with a UV flashlight, they fluoresce under black light). We treated her with benadryl and cerveza and she cried herself to sleep. Though she had numbness in her leg for months afterward, she did survive (in Mexico the bigger the scorpion the milder the sting, hers might have killed a child or elder, but was just a moderately toxic sting). In our shower there was a giant scorpion eating bug, about 8 inches across!!! Terrifying to see, but harmless to humans. http://www.flickr.com/photos/hennalounge/3066333167/

Bites/stings from fire ants, hornets, centipedes, and jellyfish, etc., are very painful. Bites from tiny cinnamon ants in local gardens cause increasingly fiery pain. A brown recluse spider bite needs professional care. The others may, too, if the patient's a child/there are multiple bites/stings. Consider patting household ammonia on such bites/stings as first aid--but *not* on mucous membranes. Apply ammonia as soon as possible, repeating until pain stops. Ammonia, or a paste of MSG and water, partially dissolves injected chemicals, minimizing tissue damage.

I'm from Sydney, Australia.

Snakes, Spiders, Moths, Ants, mosquitoes.

You check every bit of long grass for snakes. All clothes and footwear for spiders. We occasionally get plagues of moths sometimes during the year which means we have to be careful of them getting in to the house, and much the same with flies and mosquitoes.

I don't know of many Australian houses without mosquito nets on all the windows.

Termites may be the homeowner's most expensive common animal pest here. They can't be prevented, only controlled, by regular tenting.

Growing up in Fort Worth, TX, the pest (aside from fire ants, scorpions, and snakes) that I hated the most was the asp- not the snake, rather these black fuzzy caterpillars that look all happy and nice until you touch them and realize that the "fuzz" is really a bunch of horrific spikes that embed themselves into your unassuming hand. My friend grabbed one that was hiding on the top of her trash can lid one morning- not pretty.

Miller moths and stinkbugs in Colorado. I love the Millers, because I grew up with them fluttering around my nightlights and making shadows on the ceiling. As a baby, my brother loved them too - as a snack. Ugh!

They migrate through Colorado on their way to somewhere. You get a whole ton of them sometimes, only for a few weeks. In summertime, It's Miller Time!

I hate stinkbugs because they hang out in the eaves and divebomb your head when you exit the house. Nasty!

@ bepsf: having moved to SD from SF, your comment definitely is the funniest. I lived right off of Haight for a number of years and on the rare occasions I tried to bring home leftovers for the next day, I would have to take quite the circuitous(sp?) route to avoid someone trying to guilt me into giving my leftover to them.

Now, I don't have the homeless problem, I have the scary garage with blackwidows, and the ants brought on by heat waves. Oh, and the termites we had fumigated out last year.

There are spotted skunks, which can carry rabies, and oppossums here. I see them less and less, and so no longer think of them as local pests.
Mice stay outside and snakes keep the mouse numbers down, so I don't think of mice as local pests, either.
Some people who attracted mosquitoes have benefitted by taking a daily B-complex supplement permanently.
Lyme disease, deer ticks, and deer rarely come this far south, for which I'm very thankful. I agree that Lyme disease is horrible.

When visiting Costa Rica, I discovered an invasive crab population during their 'travel' season. They were all over the place, inside and out. Granted they didn't harm you unless you got pinched by trying to pick them up or stepping on them....Luckily my husband and I stayed on the second floor of the hotel but the people below us were not so lucky. The best part was watching the charade that ensued when the other patrons were trying to convince the hotel they wanted to change rooms because of their unwanted 'visitors' without knowing English or Spanish to describe the crabs. The hand motions of pincers finally got through to the front desk.

I don't see bees as pests since I notice fewer and fewer of them. Sadly, most of the bees I see lately are dying on the ground. Locusts, aka lubber grasshoppers, greatly aggravate garden hobbyists. Lubbers uglify ornamental gardens fast, and are hard to control. What are called pus caterpillars here sound like what another commenter called asps--awful insects. Ants invade my home in unbelievable quantity and variety to avoid drowning during rainy season. Although South Florida's pests are unpleasant, Australia's pests are much more dangerous.

Growing up in California, I learned to check the shower and bathtub for scorpions before stepping in. We had rattlesnakes in the woodpile, and they occasionally slithered inside to rest on the hearth of our woodstove. There were also numerous black widows and giant wolf spiders.

I moved from a suburb to a wooded area in Central Alabama, and I see a lot of camel crickets and carpenter ants now. Camel Crickets aren't terrible, but I always think they're spiders at first glance.

I ggrew up in Michigan, but have lived in central Texas for three years now, and I hate, HATE, fire ants. The scorpions don't seem to be in the city, and the cockroaches only seem to visit ocassionally, but the ants ruin anything outside.

Makes me wish for freezing cold winters here to kill stuff here, or at least have better population control. I'm petrefied of bugs, when i never was before.

I don't see spiders, lizards, and frogs as pests, because they help to control the mosquitoes that restrict my summer outdoor activities.
University of Florida students tell me that there's a problem there with biting lady bugs, too, crosberg. Are they really ladybugs/ladybirds, or actually a completely different insect that merely looks similar?

I don't find the insects in extreme SW Florida too bad. Palmetto bugs (agreed, PR name for a bull cockroach) are big and relatively infrequent, the Gulf breeze keeps mosquitoes at bay, venomous snakes are rare and alligators pretty much mind their own business.

Lizards and geckos are entertaining and great insectivores. The climate makes manatees, otters, exotic birds and dolphins welcome as a balance and you won't die from walking outside in gym shorts come February.

South Louisiana, on the other hand, was full of venom and bites at every turn. I miss the food and music, but the biting critters are welcome to it.

Well after reading this nothing in my area seems like a pest anymore. Alberta, Canada may be colder than a lot of places but the lack of pests is a definite positive!

I looked up "lady bug" in Wikipedia and found this in the "Human Impact" section. "After an abnormally long period of hot dry weather in the Summer of 1976 in the UK, there was a marked increase in the aphid population followed by a "plague" of ladybirds, with many reports of people being bitten as the supply of aphids dwindled.[12][13] Recent studies suggest that coccinelidae can also cause allergic reactions, such as eye irritation or asthma."

I grew up in South Africa and had some of the most terrifying, if not exactly life-threatening, native fauna to deal with:

The Parktown Prawn (from wikipedia) is renowned and feared for its ability to jump long distances when threatened (they tend to jump towards the threatener). They also release a vile-smelling black fecal liquid.
The resilience and strength of the Parktown prawn allowed two cartoon versions to become objects of humour- in a cartoon, the Parktown prawns get 'high' on insecticide (in reference to their size and how much poison is required to kill them), and produce two prawn-shaped indentations on the bottom of a frying pan with which they are swatted, in reference to their hard exoskeletons.

HUGE (non-poisonous) rain spiders- hairy buggers that look like Tarantula's. They come indoors in the rainy season (summer) and hide in nooks- like shower caddies and door frames, just waiting to terrify the bleary-eyed night-pee'er!
One night a really monstrous specimen managed to span two wires in our electric fence (about 10 inches apart) and thus got fried. It took a good ten minutes and thousands upon thousands of volts to get him to drop off the fence.

Also- When we were building our beach house in an area famous for it's puff adder population the contractor told us that snakes can climb unassisted up two floors of the exterior of a brick house. Shudder!

No pests in Alaska, besides bears. But at least they don't hide in our shoes!

I live in rural ND where we have the common ticks, mosquitos, mice....however, furry little creatures have been known to be quite the household pests too. Raccoons and skunks sometimes make their homes under our homes. One of my good friends even had an unfortunate surprise while driving their motorhome and saw a raccoon in the back window! Turns out the lil bugger had snuck in and had her family behind the couch!

Poisonous spiders, but only rarely. Lots of homeless, unfortunately. If I visit friends who live in nearby canyons and hillsides there are an abundance of rattlesnakes and scorpions (so I insist said friends come to my house instead).

I don't know how anyone can live in Florida. No personal income tax is fabulous, but contending with the "nature" of the state would give me a stroke!

precisely the reason why in other countries women dont blindly sit on a toilet seat...having a seat down and sitting in the dark can bite you in the @$$

I lived in AZ for a bit. I found at least two or three scorpions in our house. I also encountered at least two tarantulas. I think they came in under the door because the property manager did a poor job of sealing the cracks under the doors.

I live in south-eastern Australia- there are a ridiculous amount of pests here. Huntsmen spiders, red back spiders, white tail spiders, brown snakes, red bellied black snakes, rats, mice, mosquitoes, anooying weevils in the cupboard, ants, termites.. not to mention the bloody possums in the roof and outside.

.....and I live in a regional area!

In Southern California, it is starting to be spider season. They're mostly outdoors, but any time you walk "between" anything, especially in the mornings, you have to keep an eye out for webs. In our area, they're harmless garden orb spiders, but walking through a spiderweb is an icky feeling!

Growing up in South Texas, I learned to deal with cockroaches the size of Rhode Island (in addition to cicadas, the occasional scorpion, various snakes and asps! [Thanks, @lizziepeony! I had no idea that's what those little buggers are called!])

But after five years of living in Chicago, I still lose my s--- every time I see a house centipede. Nothing brings on a case of the shakes (and empties half a bottle of bug spray) like seeing one of those awful things.

Glompbot in Sydney - you forgot to mention bats - my garden is full of them. Sometimes I arrive home and as I walk towards the front door, a bat flies towards me, scaring the bejeezus out of me.

My garden is also home to several varieties of deadly snakes (king brown, red belly black) and spiders (funnel web, redback, black widow), and huge water dragons which, while not poisonous, are freaking scary. Then in summer we have sharks and blue bottles at the beach to look out for. Sheesh!

A friend of mine grew up in Indonesia and tells a story about finding a cobra sleeping in the toilet... this was after he had done his 'business'...

Timely post! A few minutes ago, my big kitty caught a cicada on the porch and brought it in the house. The noise from just one of these things was crazy! Not to mention how totally enraptured he was with the bugger.

I'm from richmond and I'll second the squirrels! I've had them shoot out of trashcans as I'm walking past, causing my friend and I to scream bloody murder. They also used to dig up any plants I put on my back patio.

When I lived in Savannah, Georgia we had GIANT roaches (ahem, I mean "palmetto bugs") The worst was walking around at night. Many streets were dark and naturally kind of bumpy, and you could not see the roaches until you almost step on them. They would crawl over your feet. Even my 50 lb dog was scared of them. There were sand gnats too! They weren't really a problem on the beach where theres lots of sand, but after standing in sandy areas in the city you would realize later on you had tons of tiny itchy bites.

I hate roaches, too, and don't understand how some Palmetto bugs keep running after they've been stomped on repeatedly.

In Georgia, the worse thing in my opinion, are brown recluse spiders. I had a friend bitten by one years ago. Must have been in the grass at the lake her family was vacationing at. She did not know she'd been bitten until part of her foot swelled and started turning black from dying tissue. Dreadful things. I kill any spider that looks even remotely like a recluse and try to watch out for them under furniture and in shoes.

Atlanta, GA. I live on the edge of a National Park/forest in a condo. We have coyotes, foxes, raccoons, possums, owls, hawks, rabbits, chipmonks, squirrels, turtles, lizards and almost anything else you can think of. We have a beaver pond on the front of the property, so we have beavers, ducks, geese and big turtles. Snakes all around, but you rarely see them.

Insect wise I get nailed pretty bad because of the railroad tie wall on one side. Little brown scorpions get into my house fairly frequently. Centipedes and millipedes, although I put pelletized lime dust outside against all the walls, which really minimize them to almost nonexistent. I have a bunch of small spiders I battle inside and outside. My dog rolls around in pinestraw whenever he is outside, so I have to keep an eye on him for ticks, and ticks that make it inside then drop off him. They are usually dots on the wall.

I wouldn't trade the place for the world. I love walking out my sliding glass door and into a national park. You can't beat that.

I moved to New York City last year, into the current apartment in February, and I have to say, BEDBUGS are the most godawful pest you could ever get. There's a bedbug epidemic here, we've been told. My roommate brought them back a few weeks ago and now all of our belongings are in ten-gallon Ziploc bags.

Back in Chicago, the most annoying things had to be the "dustmop bugs" (as I took to calling house centipedes) and the ladybugs. Are centipedes a Chicago thing? I thought it was just the building I was in (old with lots of trees and vines and stuff). The ladybugs would fly into the ceiling lights and make that annoying tapping sound, until I learned to spray them with water so they couldn't fly, and let my cat eat them.

When I wrote that I don't see spiders as pests because they eat mosquitoes, I was referring only to the harmless majority.

I'd considered immediate severe pain an identifying symptom of a brown recluse spider bite. Prompt professional care improves its prognosis, so thanks for sharing that a person may not feel the bite.

Millipedes here don't bite people, but the centipedes can cause you pain.

YES! Centipedes are a Chicago thing! I hate them, they are so freaky and so big and run so fast. I always see them after it rains.

I grew up in the suburbs and I never saw them until I moved to the city. I remember the first time I saw one in my first apartment. I was so freaked out that I developed a migraine and had to go to bed.

The thing that really makes me glad I live in Canada and survive the crazy winters here - no scorpions! *shudder*

We've had mice and one fishing spider about as big as my hand over the past two decades. Not too shabby.

I can't believe Noone has mentioned Chicago's giant skyscraper spiders!!! Most are about the size of a quarter and hang out on every stationary surface in the city!!! They cover everything and in clusters of 4the or 5 at that! They are all black and have pointy legs and look like the kind they sell as halloween decorations with a fat body like tick and inch long spindly legs! I first encountered them in student housing when I moved here for college 2 years ago crowding my windows on the 45TH FLOOR!!!! If u have any holes in your screens they Always get in and they have terrified me from the kitchen on several occasions! My worst experience with them was standing in the sheltered bus stop in front of Watertower on Michigan ave on my way home from work one summer. It literally dropped down on a web IN MY FACE miss muffet style and had I not leaned back and screamed just in time it would have landed solidly on my bangs! I've never hyperventilated so fast in my life! ALWAYS check the ceiling of Chicago bus stops in the summer! There are usually 15 or 20 lurking! They also cover bridge railing and lightfixtures throughout the city. Thank GOD they disappear entirely as soon as it gets below 40 in the fall