I recently received the following private message and thought i would go ahead and answer it publicly:
<QUOTE>
triple wide aluminum sliding glass door - if you leave doors open, are you not inviting tarantulas, centipedes, and snakes in?
I've now read there are also black widow spiders there..
Being from a place where we have nothing even remotely like these, the thought of them all quite have me... well, I'll say "Nervous" with a capitol "N"!
Since I'd be living in a rural area, on a farm, I'm thinking I'd be right where all those nasties will be.
I hope I don't sound like too much of a wuss...
</QUOTE>
Creepy crawlies will always be around. it is a fact of life in the tropics. Here are my experiences after living on a farm here for 4 years.
Snakes are pretty rare. I have only seen 3 or 4 live ones and lots more dead on the road. there are no poison snakes in this island. since snakes eat rats, i am very happy for any that take up residence on my farm. Dominicans and Haitians are terrified by them and kill any they can find.
tarantulas are common but nonaggressive. they mostly live under large rocks outside. they won't normally come in your house unless it is filled with junk to hide under. I find them in my shop, but it is filled with lots of good hiding spots. I only know of one person who has been bit and he was provoking it. Another employee was almost bit while moving rocks but was wearing heavy leather gloves.
Another large spider commonly seen here is a bit scary at first, but harmless. The run real fast and love to eat cockroaches. I like them and let them be.
centipedes are nasty, aggressive and no really good way to keep them out of a house. The biggest ones life in septic tanks and sometimes come up the drains. Make sure you have drain covers installed on the shower. They can get up to about 15 inches long!!!. More commonly they are about 3 inches long. They can be very hard to kill and dont step on them while wearing scandles. Thankfully I have only seen 2 large ones in the house so far. Chickens love to eat them. The bite is very painful and causes sever swelling but is not fatal. Most dominicans have a good centipede horror story. My favorite is the guy who woke up with one weaving between his fingers!
scorpians are here but rarely seen and small. unlikely to find one unless you go looking. I have only seen them in weird places like under tree bark etc.
never seen a black widow here.
Tarantula Wasp. An amazing 3" long blue black wasp with red wings that hunts tarantulas, paralizes and buries them with a single egg. These beautiful insects have an INCREDIBLELY painful sting but are not normally aggressive. I was once stung in the forehead by one. My face swelled so much i couldnt see for 3 days. Mostly active in fields during the summer months.
Red ants: can be a real pest. They like fats and grease so make sure you dispose of it away from the house. Painful burning sting but not dangerous unless you have an alergy to them.
Termites: cause lots of damage of course. There is a species here with a flying female that swarms after spring rains. Close up the house and turn off the lights or you will have thousands all over in the morning. Another species has a flying female that has a painful bite.
Bees, wasps, yellow jackets etc: same as everywhere else in the world. leave them alone and they will leave you alone.
Some people are also terrified of the following completely harmless animals:
tree frogs, bull frogs, geckos, lizards, preying mantis, palm borer beetles, june bugs, grasshoppers, bats, cockroaches, spiders.
the end of the story is to learn to live with them, or adjust your environment to limit and control them. The big resorts spray heavily to keep the properties sterile so your average tourist wont see any of these things. In truth, none of these animals are truely dangerous. A bite might be very painful but not life threatening.
<QUOTE>
triple wide aluminum sliding glass door - if you leave doors open, are you not inviting tarantulas, centipedes, and snakes in?
I've now read there are also black widow spiders there..
Being from a place where we have nothing even remotely like these, the thought of them all quite have me... well, I'll say "Nervous" with a capitol "N"!
Since I'd be living in a rural area, on a farm, I'm thinking I'd be right where all those nasties will be.
I hope I don't sound like too much of a wuss...
</QUOTE>
Creepy crawlies will always be around. it is a fact of life in the tropics. Here are my experiences after living on a farm here for 4 years.
Snakes are pretty rare. I have only seen 3 or 4 live ones and lots more dead on the road. there are no poison snakes in this island. since snakes eat rats, i am very happy for any that take up residence on my farm. Dominicans and Haitians are terrified by them and kill any they can find.
tarantulas are common but nonaggressive. they mostly live under large rocks outside. they won't normally come in your house unless it is filled with junk to hide under. I find them in my shop, but it is filled with lots of good hiding spots. I only know of one person who has been bit and he was provoking it. Another employee was almost bit while moving rocks but was wearing heavy leather gloves.
Another large spider commonly seen here is a bit scary at first, but harmless. The run real fast and love to eat cockroaches. I like them and let them be.
centipedes are nasty, aggressive and no really good way to keep them out of a house. The biggest ones life in septic tanks and sometimes come up the drains. Make sure you have drain covers installed on the shower. They can get up to about 15 inches long!!!. More commonly they are about 3 inches long. They can be very hard to kill and dont step on them while wearing scandles. Thankfully I have only seen 2 large ones in the house so far. Chickens love to eat them. The bite is very painful and causes sever swelling but is not fatal. Most dominicans have a good centipede horror story. My favorite is the guy who woke up with one weaving between his fingers!
scorpians are here but rarely seen and small. unlikely to find one unless you go looking. I have only seen them in weird places like under tree bark etc.
never seen a black widow here.
Tarantula Wasp. An amazing 3" long blue black wasp with red wings that hunts tarantulas, paralizes and buries them with a single egg. These beautiful insects have an INCREDIBLELY painful sting but are not normally aggressive. I was once stung in the forehead by one. My face swelled so much i couldnt see for 3 days. Mostly active in fields during the summer months.
Red ants: can be a real pest. They like fats and grease so make sure you dispose of it away from the house. Painful burning sting but not dangerous unless you have an alergy to them.
Termites: cause lots of damage of course. There is a species here with a flying female that swarms after spring rains. Close up the house and turn off the lights or you will have thousands all over in the morning. Another species has a flying female that has a painful bite.
Bees, wasps, yellow jackets etc: same as everywhere else in the world. leave them alone and they will leave you alone.
Some people are also terrified of the following completely harmless animals:
tree frogs, bull frogs, geckos, lizards, preying mantis, palm borer beetles, june bugs, grasshoppers, bats, cockroaches, spiders.
the end of the story is to learn to live with them, or adjust your environment to limit and control them. The big resorts spray heavily to keep the properties sterile so your average tourist wont see any of these things. In truth, none of these animals are truely dangerous. A bite might be very painful but not life threatening.