Friday Five: Pests...

Jan, over at the RevGals is having issues with fleas and other weather-affected pests. She offers this Friday Five:

1.What kinds of pests are in your neighborhood or area? We have a ginormous raccoon that frequents the garbage bins for the church, which share a driveway/parking area with me, the church, and the resident caretaker. We have lots of ground squirrels, tree squirrels, rabbits, and deer, which mess with our gardens, trees, and bird feeders. And, a couple of huge woodchucks that live under our deck.....and, because the house was empty for two years and then remodeled, we have had a lot of spiders - constant white house spiders, mostly. Which are no big deal...

But, really nothing all that serious. Much different from the toxic pests we had in Arizona - poisonous spiders, scorpions, snakes, Javelina, coyotes, mountain lion,...

2. Is there a time of year or day that increases their activity? Weather affects their activity or not? The deer and tree squirrels are here year round, but the other creatures tend to hibernate or leave during the winter.

3. Is there any pest that was new to you when you moved to a new location? No, all familiar creatures here.

4. How do you treat insect bites? Are you allergic to any? I take daily doses of seasonal allergy meds - zyrtec - so usually that helps manage any effect I may have from a bite. I do get spider bites once in awhile. And, in some years, mosquito bites, too. But mostly I don't do anything.

5. Anything else you want to write about connected with insects/pests? The photo above is of a wolf-spider. Once, while on retreat at a desert retreat center, I sat on the floor preparing to do some yoga. Suddenly I was charged by a giant wolf-spider. The speed and size of the spider caused me to react quickly - I jumped up and dropped my computer (with the yoga DVD in it) on top of the spider. The spider died, but thankfully the computer was okay.