I lived in VA for 20 years. Ticks, Skunk, copperheads, mosquitos, ticks, poisonous spiders, poisonous caterpillers, and more ticks, all daily potential foes. I moved to England. We have Foxes. The most dangerous aspect of living here is having hound dogs that roll in fox poo. It stinks in a very special way.

What may help with the tick problem is beneficial nematodes. They don't eat all the ticks, but will help because they eat the tick larvae. We have an orchard and use these critters to help us combat the ticks.

How do you introduce these nematodes? Are you talking about microscopic wormy things?

JeanStryker ... yes. Certain species prey on ticks. Get those species AND have the right soil conditions for nematodes (moist) and they can help with tick control.

Not all species will attack ticks.

Black bears and raccoons, both of which are looking for food. If you leave food out after a cookout, or put your garbage out too soon, they will come for it and you will have a mess, in addition to the fact that bears are not exactly something you want to meet up with.

And bears

tsudhonimh and grandmariver, do you have specific recommendations and where to get?

I had never appreciated how dull it is here in London! The squirrels eat my bulbs and camellias and foxes leave really stinky droppings but we really can't complain.

One house I had contained foxglove (digitalis) in the yard. My dogs left it alone so it wasn't a problem. When I sold the house a young couple with newborn twins bought the place. I pointed it out to them and told them they might want to move or get rid of it before the kids go mobile, especially if they liked to put things in their mouth. My current place must have had a ton of fleas in the yard. Shortly after I moved in one of my dogs was coated in bites (very allergic) so I had to bomb the yard and the one room of the house with carpet. No problems since then and its been a couple years.

ANN, Speaking of rattlesnakes, I am deaf and I hate the most is rattlesnake because I can't hear its warning so I have to be more careful to look around the rocks and bushes while I hike. I found the best way to kill rattlesnake is using .22 mag. CC-1 bullet. It has a plastic tip with so many tiny B-B and it won't go far as solid point bullet which can travel one mile. CC-1 goes probably 30 to 40 feet and it won't kill people, just hurt badly. I encourage you or anybody to kill these rattlesnakes because they are dangerous and poisonous killers. We don't need them around here! We have plenty good unharmful snakes like garter or rat snakes. You just need to tell them shoo off!
Or if a city forbids using firearms, using diesel or bittered taste soap like Tide or hot red pepper around the house or the area you want not letting rattlesnakes getting there and even good for camping area.

Why would anyone let their cat out when there are dangerous predators around?? Don't you care about how horrible it is when they're caught? Shame on you!

Lisa Rogers, sounds like you need one of these bear proof garbage cans. Love the video on this page: http://www.thegrowlercan.com/

In answer to the nematodes question-You can purchase nematodes from garden centers. They come in a dry medium, which you will soak for 1 hour in water. You then sieve the mixture to remove the vermiculite. Place the strained mixture in a sprayer and dispense over the area you want protected.

Actually, the best way I saw ticks and chiggers dealt with when I lived down south was by keeping a flock of guinea hens in the yard - they eat those suckers up and also deal with Japanese beetles and june bugs....

They're cute when they're little, not so much when they get big, but as the 2nd photo shows they will even chase rattlesnakes out of your yard...

I would rather meet a bear than a snake.

We had a 10 foot rattlesnake in our yard last summer. Our son chopped off its head but I got lectured about not catching it so they could milk the venom.
We also have coyotes that howl every night. My husband saved a tiny child that one coyote was stalking. Very scary.
We also have the regular horrors of tarrantualas (which aren't deadly & we had one as a pet for awhile), possums, raccoons, bobcats, mountain lions, hawks, and skunks.
Great skunk story: my husband was sitting on the patio reading the Sunday paper when he felt something on his shoulder. He very slowly turned his head (he is a very silent guy) and looked directly into the eyes of a skunk. He didn't move. The skunk went across his shoulder and down the side of his chair and off into the woods.
Wish I'd taken photos of all this.
But the most deadly and scariest is the brown recluse spider bite. My husband almost died from the bite. It took several years to completely heal. And they are such tiny spiders and hide in dark places...be careful!

This is one of the wildest bunch of comments I've ever read! All together it has the stuff of a huge horror movie. As a widow I've been looking about to move- want to have a dog sanctuary in the country- or so I THOUGHT! I freaked out when I opened that skimmer thing in the pool and there was a dead Vole in there last summer- completely freaked! The blighted streets of Philadelphia and all of their myriad dangers are at least 'familiar!'

Dear victoran: please say where you live so I will never move there. Thanks. :)

Susan148 Then .22 mag CC-1 will not stop the bear except making him more angry at you. Best prevent him attacking you is use CC-1 aiming at his eyes. Probably it will stop attacking you, but you must get the hell out of there fast as you can. Or use firecrackers but you better sneak hide and throw it at him. Because bears do not like surprised. Good luck!

I have to laugh at the horror of those from the U.K. at the wild, wild goings on in the big, beautiful wilderness that is most of the U.S. In addition to listing the vast assortment of dangerous creatures with which we must coexist, we talk about how and where to shoot an approaching bear. Love it! I do have to say though, I will take my chances any day with numerous pesky and dangerous critters rather than deal with those from the human race who gather in overcrowded cities and suburbs.

bluenan: Great comment. I am left wondering what the heck fox poo smells like. I'll take our critters over trying to drive in London. Scariest thing I saw were those zigzag road markings.... I had no idea what they meant!

victoran, our previous neighbor fed the stray cats (food was placed outside)..but in turn fed also fed the skunk unintentionaly...anywhy, the skunk came to be accustom to humans i guess. That skunk now see's humans as non threatening but still sprays from time to time...thinking it's because of cats and/or dogs

I am laughing at myself, because I also am wondering about that fox poo smell.

I live on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. We have a very large deer population and Lyme disease is here. I had over $8,000.00 in vet bills because of Lyme disease. It drives me crazy to here people from the N.W. say "we don't have it here"' yes we do and you better get use to it. In our neighborhood we have black bear, coyotes, and I almost hit a cougar when it was sunning itself on a dead end road. I have two cats and they never go outside. Would be lunch for the bald eagles with the 5 ft. Wing span

jalarse: Live in a cul-de-sac in Portland metro, know these things are in the NW, just not in my (mostly) paved neighborhood. Grew up out in the woods, playing in the creek. Moved to town after college, and am not sorry.

You guys have it way worse than me! I live in the foothills of California, in the Sierra Nevadas. When I'm not shooing away the mass amounts of deer (really, the long-legged rats are as common as flies here), I'm fighting mosquitoes and ants. Oh, and woodpeckers which are capable of drilling baseball-sized holes in your siding. There's also bears and mountain lions on occasion, but they aren't fond of the neighborhoods so I don't give them too much thought. Oh, and the flocks of wild turkeys harassing the neighbor's peacocks, that's a laughter-inducing sound to wake up to.

Oh yeah, there's that drought thing right now. And natural disaster caliber snow storms. Highs of 110 and lows of 5, wear layers. Otherwise, I've got a tranquil mountain life compared to you people!

I feel so blessed having read all of these comments! I live in south Alabama and I just do not have any issues that are problems. We get fire ant beds, but they are easily seen so are avoidable. We had 2 feral hogs who got attached to my ground-level bird pond (they would lay in it. haha), so we shot them and gave them away to someone with a smoker. I've seen a raccoon once. Our snakes are non-poisonous and not a bother. Carpenter bees will bore holes in untreated wood, but not many around (and no untreated wood either). I have a beehive and even the honeybees are super docile -- hubby can get them to crawl on his hand. There is an opossum who has been lurking around the base of my bird feeder pole, but the neighbor's dog keeps him away. I see the occasional brown recluse and black widow spider, but we have lots of frogs which must be taking care of those. I guess nature is balanced in such a way that it keeps everything else in check. Without the snakes, I'd have too many rats; without the stray dog, I'd have possums in my house; without my dog, I'd have squirrels in my attic. Really no problems to speak of (knock on wood). Last hurricane threat was 2005, no tornadoes, and live on a hill so no flooding. Lightning likes to take out our TVs, but we solved that with surge protectors. Mosquitoes not an issue with bug spray or Avon Skin So Soft. Again, very blessed.
Need to edit to say that we DO have poisonous snakes around the county, just not in my neck of the woods. I'm not in the city limits, but I am not near deep wooded areas either.

I was also wondering what does fox poo smell like??!! I'm just guessing that the bad smell must be down to the scavenging diet in the cities. We have country foxes here but you would feel lucky to even get a glimpse of one, certainly wouldn't be afraid. My big huge fear is rats!! I live and work in the countryside, near the seaside and rats are the most common and most scary creature that i know of, and have a terrible fear of!!!

I have lived where coyotes snakes and bears roam. The biggest problem was my neighbors two small dogs who roamed the block, yapping, biting and in general annoying and upsetting everyone. I am scared of snakes so they are my worst fear. Coyotes have the eeriest eyes and way of looking at you. We kept our cats inside but they would peer in the glass doors. Javalinas packs in Arizona that would charge us as we grabbed the morning paper. Blind big and mean. Woodpeckers who hammer on the chimney. Still prefer the country over towns and cities.

Wow! After reading about the dangers in everyone's backyard, I'm glad the only danger here in central New Jersey is running out of wine coolers on a Sunday afternoon!

I have to watch it when I'm gardening, because I have almost grabbed things less friendly than weeds. Snakes, spiders, and one time, a rat. That rat just looked at me, like I was encroaching on HIS territory, and then approached. He was big, black, and scruffy. I went inside and called my neighbors. "Lisa," I say, "can you send John over here to shoot a rat for me?" "Well I can't," she says. "He's out running errands. Besides, he's a lousy shot." But she did come over to see this thing. The rat is just fearless, and approaches her just like he did me. We were both terrified. After a while John comes home. Here he comes up, pumping his air rifle. "I only have one pellett," he says. Great. A lousy shot with one pellet. So the rat is now very interested in smelling something on a log. John points to rifle right at his head, point blank. The rat doesn't care. Fearless, as I said. John pulls the trigger. Nothing. Brings the rifle back up, pumps it a couple of times, checks the safety. Repoints the rifle. Nothing. This happens two more times, and that clearly insane rat never moves. Finally, POW!

I am not brave enough to stare down a rat. So outta there! As much as I know it's such a girly move, whenever I run across a critter out of a horror movie, I rely on insecticide spray, and more often than not, Windex. Slows them down.

Here in Texas, on an island on the coast, the dangers around my house are mostly plants that have thorns to keep stupid humans like me away from them. Lime trees have thorns on their branches. Who knew? I sure didn't the first time I reached in there for a lime, the darn thing is vicious. Roses, Blue Agave/Century Plant, palm trees, bougainvillea, Mexican Desert Red Bird of Paradise, Dragon Fruit cactus, and the afore mentioned citrus trees have all drawn blood and curses.

I almost got bit by a baby rattlesnake when I was taking the hurricane shutters off after a storm. A hawk swooped into our back yard once and tried to pick up our Chihuahua. A blue heron stalked our fish pond for days and ate his fill of our pet baby turtles and all the koi he could catch and then left (with a little encouragement from me and my broom). Only one turtle survived. Fire ants, sticker burr plants, black widow spiders in the garage above my clothes dryer are more of a nuisance than 'a danger'. The coyotes are only a problem on trash night and the tarantulas are scary as all get out, but not gonna hurt anybody.

We have at least a thousand frogs that live in the retaining pond next to our house. At night, all the males sing at the top of their lungs trying to woo one poor female frog. Until she picks one, they keep on singing. I don't mind them, they come up to the porch often, including all their little babies.

We live deep in the country of Upstate New York directly on the Vermont border closer to Canada than NYC. We have bears; bald eagles (they do NOT eat cats etc they mostly eat FISH) hawks; fishercats-my dog treed one; mountain lions--I have a dark pic of one trying to get our mini Fox Terrier; foxes that breed and live in the barn next door and then move to the hill behind our house one of the kits was hit and killed trying to drag a plastic bag of trash back to the den; skunks skunks skunks; coyotes-we had a three legged old female who used to come eat the left over apples on a neighbors ancient tree; coydogs; snakes of various breeds inc a copperhead who does NOT belong here we think it came in some ones RV when a local lake opened for the summer; rattlesnakes , adders; a giant black snake that used to sun itself next to our sheep and lived under the dog house; moose---don't HIT one you will die; more deer than there are stars in the sky and where DO they COME FROM? They materialize as if from Star Trek.

We have::: Run completely OVER a fox at 2 AM on our motorcycle; hit more deer than we can count and have the bills to prove it; Opened the little kids wagon to find that copperhead inside one of the small seat compartments-my son in law wanted to know if we could keep it for a PET; had a nest of wasps that built INSIDE my kitchen where a door had shifted and let them in behind a large hutch--that was FUN to remove with several highly allergic people living here; I was bitten by a Brown Recluse when we got a load of wood to build a porch and only managed to save my arm because the MD I had was from the South and recognized the kind of bite--the local guys thought I had some fast acting bone cancer and were ready to amputate.

We also have the "usual" run of mice ants other insects that fly creep crawl and sting. And poisonous plants--note to all---do NOT burn anything with a VINE clinging to it--once airborne that can cause severe reactions as the inhaled particles of the poisonous plant get into your LUNGS and EYES. Ask me how I know this. This stuff is also fond of turning up in HAY BALES all innocent until you have a reaction in the middle of the winter from poison ivy. And no the ivy anti-allergy shots did NOT work.

The WORST on a day to day annoyance basis--flies. Yep. Flies. We live near many dairy farms and they spread the manure on the fields leading to massive influxes of flies. And our new neighbors bought the old dairy farm next door and bring their horses up a few times a year. The horses are NEVER allowed out of small pens so the manure is concentrated and after they leave we will be invaded by flies. Yes we have screens yes we have invested in many kinds of fly swatters--I am the Venus Williams of fly swatting!!!--and yes we have the unsightly but semi effective sly papers strewn about the place. The fly paper worked ahem great to catch a parokeet who got loose.

Oh and TICKS large and small. There is a clever tick remover you can get at the pet store that looks like a miniature crow bar--levers them out. Invest in several. Place in the house the car your purse and your hiking gear.

Because I live in the mountains, black & cinnamon bears are a "watch out for" in my area. Once went to open the front door at night to let the dog out & hit a bear in the behind. We both ran in opposite directions. :)

halleycomet, holy cow!

Don't think holy cows are considered dangerous.

@PEPITASUAVE and LISA ROGERS--

LOL!!! We have a LOT of cows--we have few cash crops and dairy is the largest legal one. ---but no sacred ones that I know of! We also have apples, potatoes and rocks---that would be slate!!!!---and a few hippie sort of organic places raising pretty livestock for sale at extraordinary prices that no one local can remotely afford.

Other wise it is pretty wild around here.

We were on our motorcycle one day last year and went down a road in a residential area and almost hit a mother bear and her two half grown cubs--the cubs were the size of St Bernards.

On a street corner telephone post---a laminated sign---"This bear crosses here often" and a photo of the guilty party. Along with a disturbing number of MISSING DOG signs.

People tend to hear New York and think of Times Square but---most of the rather vast State is farms and mountains and timber. The two largest tracts of timber in the Adirondacks are held by two private concerns---one is a member of the Whitney family and the other a local family. These tracts are in some cases larger than actual States. The Adirondack Park is larger than some States. We have--not that far from us!!!!---one of the worlds largest concentrations of timber rattlesnakes. And caves full of the last Little Brown Bats. The locations of these are, for obvious reasons, not disclosed.

A few years ago we had a Harbor Seal decide to go swim-about and came up to the docks in Albany--we were lucky enough to see it before it wandered off and turned up in Boston Harbor. Since the Hudson is tidal as far North as Albany odd stuff ends up here often. A bit lower on the Hudson after a fierce hurricane back in the late 70's we had a sturgeon wash up at our dock that was well over 12 FEET long--no one thought THOSE were there either!

And we have moose---this hard and harshly cold winter might have been a very GOOD thing for moose actually; they have ticks and mites and the cold is all that kills them. Since moose don't groom these can get quite a colony going and actually kill their host. We are all hoping that the extreme cold also killed some other invasive species like the Emerald Ash Borer beetle---killing ash and maple trees and so far found as far North as West Point.

We also had a cougar pass thru near here that apparently started it's long 2000 mile trek in the far West and ended up dead on a Connecticut highway. DNA and animal cams recorded it on it's journey. No one knows WHY it did this!

We also have Champ the Lake Champlain "Monster" and one of the highest reported levels of "Sasquatch" sightings (some just up the road from me!) and a legend of UFO's that dates back to the earliest explorers.

Just in case the REAL critters weren't interesting enough!

halleycomet - forgive me for blessing the cows!

I am familiar with the Emerald Ash Borer beetle - there was a huge public awareness campaign in Lexington, KY as these dreaded bugs were spreading across the nation. I did lose one small decorative tree - it was completely hollow on the inside and came out of the ground in a second.

Please post photos of Sasquatch sightings (if there are any!).

halleycomet - in Illinois, we have the Great Cougar Conspiracy Theory. For decades, rural people have reported seeing cougars and their tracks. Our Dept. of Natural Resources said that Illinois cougars died out years ago and the sightings were wrong. The Theory went that DNR and insurance companies had secretly brought in cougars to keep down the deer populations.

DNR said if they were here, surely a body would turn up somewhere. Two weeks latter, a cougar was hit and killed by a train in southern Illinois (home of the Great Shawnee National Forest). Then a boat keeper at Rend Lake State Park found a baby cougar among boats stored for winter.

Since then, a cougar was shot in a Chicago alley, and many photos appeared on trail cams .
DNR no longer comments. But I hear that Missouri DNR has now admitted bringing in cougars. ;-))

Yes, there have been sightings and trail cam photos of cougars in St. Louis County.

My neighbor saw a mountain lion in Johnson County, KS and reported it. Animal control said they have had several reports of sightings but since no one has a photo they don't believe one is roaming around.

@CATLADY999 etc--

No one is really making a big deal about "Mountain Lions" etc here---and several have been seen and as I said--I have a dark but def recognizable picture of the head of one observing our small dog. And I saw one on a local road but did not get a pic. This is how much OUR "EnCon" (Dept of Environmental Conservation) cares--- a day or so after we SAW this cat there was a bunch of EnCon field people stationed at our school LOOKING for this type cat. So my kids happened to find this out and went down and TOLD them of the sighting. They could not be bothered to drive 3 miles up the road!

A few months ago EnCon agents chased a moose out into traffic--it was of course hit and killed. As NY claims that all wild life is a "Guest of the State" your insurance will pay for the damage--except for your deductible of course!!!---no mention what happens if YOU get killed as moose are so much taller and with fairly fragile legs so they go THRU your window or over your car---

Sooo---when a moose cow turned up not far from our house people went out and mis-directed EnCon AWAY from the creature. She managed to wander off in peace altho we do have pics!

Ticks and Lyme's disease... Scare me to death. We have fox so cats don't really stand a chance...

It's dangerous out there

http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/~ridge/local/disobedience.html

When I lived in Southern California, they were warning joggers about the mountain lions/cougars because after they banned the hunting of them, the mountain lion population started to grow. However since they are solitary creatures that won't allow other mountain lions in their territory except during mating season, the older stronger mountain lions were keeping the "good" territory away from humans, while the younger less experienced mountain lions were being driven into the suburbs by the older ones. The way a mountain lion hunts is by ambush, they sit up in a tree till a deer runs under them and they drop on it and kill it by breaking it's neck. Unfortunately, the younger ones will do this to human joggers and the last time I checked (a few years ago) there had been more attacks on humans in California in the last 30 years than there had been in the 200 years before that. I'll have to remember to check the figures again and see if the problem is still bad out there, or maybe someone who's living there can tell me?

Living in Alaska, we have had moose and caribou come through the yard ... Watch out for the momma moose ... And have had brown bears in the neighborhood. You should never walk outside without taking a look around just to make sure the coast is clear. Our cat kept my husband from going outside at our remote cabin ... Large brown bear in the yard. I wouldn't live anywhere else!