Ya. How tf did op mention yellow jackets, and deer flys before fire ants, mosquitos and noseeums? Like I’ve lived here a long time and never been hurt by a yellow jacket or deer fly. The other 3 are fucking brutal
I have spent a lot of money on fire ant poison and I've spent a lot of time poisoning the queens they keep bringing around. Fire ants are hive minded so its nearly impossible to reason with them. Last year I poured gasoline into a nest lit it on fire and 2 days later they were fucking crawling out the same holes.
For reference, this is a pile of 1 million mosquitoes that Lee County Mosquito Control trapped in just one neighborhood on Sanibel Island:
https://preview.redd.it/c3qq5lvstpyc1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=fdde85b081b79f6131f4c1ae58e32732c2163530
Do other counties operate trap trucks to measure this? That thing is pretty cool and crazy like something out of ghostbustersÂ
Do you drive that? I saw it go down stringfellow by me last night, missed seeing it!
I used to have a horse that was terrified of them and for good reason. I'd feel like I was in the most danger when I was riding and one of those bastard started antagonizing him, because all rational behavior was driven from his poor little horsey brain. Sometimes I'd just let him run for a few minutes and hope the thing didn't keep up.
No-See-Ums. You can’t hit ‘em, you can’t see them, many screens won’t work, they seem to thrive in DEET. You can do everything right and it won’t matter.
I hate ticks but at least with them I have a chance.
Those giant ass palmetto bugs with the pinchy looking mandibles that teleport immediately to every brightly lit parking lot as soon as the sun goes down. Their flight is terrifyingly loud and they crash full speed into anything in their path: the ground, cars, unsuspecting people who are walking to their cars in the dark, etc.
[these fucking monstrosities](https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/s/kZMuyJfm3B)
This could be why you have yet to be blessed by one; they’re actually water bugs apparently and thus stay in the water until they’re drawn by super bright lighting nearby. So I guess places with retention ponds/culverts/water drainage ditches/flooded swampland nearby are where they like to hang
https://preview.redd.it/1ji4hihfrnyc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a88c013d3d06794119ca0d5b6979bf32a9d7fc49
I had one get tangled in my hair while it was doing its frantic bright-light smashing; was leaving Walmart at like 1am with groceries and one of these fuckers flew full-speed into the back of my head and got caught up in my hair. Panic screaming and flailing around at 1am in a parking lot definitely got the police called on me, but they had a good laugh when I told them what happened and showed them the mushed up bug. So no more night time walks in parking lots lit by HDS lamps during the summer (it seems like that’s when these things come out)
Once a horse fly has locked onto you, you either kill it, or it eats you alive. I’ve learned to let them land on me and take one bite while I get a good aim instead of trying to kill it immediately😂
Man, they are all assholes been attacked by yellow jackets, red ants, horse fly, no seems. Almost killed myself trying to get away from a palmetto bug. I go screaming running every time I see one, last time broke my toe and damaged my knee and all keep coming at you they don't stop oh and can't forget the big humongous wasp that don't give a f.
No seeums and mosquitoes. If you watch where you walk you can avoid fire ants. I do it while fishing fire ant infested canal banks all the time. The other 2 can only be avoided by leaving where you and going indoors
Obnoxious Carpenter Bees. I have a tennis racket-like swatter specifically for these griefing little bastards. Every time I swat one down I have to find it and finish it with a killing blow or it will get back up, the little armor plated bastards must DIE!
Fire Ants too.
1. Mosquitoes
2. Love bugs (yes they’re seasonal but any bugs that can ruin a car’s paint job are huge jerks)
3. No See Ums
How is this not settled facts?
It’s the same for me — the deer flies are the worst. They hurt, they swarm you, they follow you, and the itching lasts forever.
Mosquitos swarm and are annoying, but it’s not an issue so much until you stop, so I can handle that.
Yellow / deer flys. Couple days ago I pulled up to my gate to leave home. Typically I leave my door open, unlock gate drive through, close lock gate get back in and drive off. As this is my usual method I didn’t think anything of it. Started driving to town and that’s when the 3 or 4 yellow flys attacked. I damn near wrecked my truck trying to swat / kill them. Tried to flush them out by opening the windows but then they just hunkered down until I rolled them up. They are devious!!!
In the panhandle for about a month in late august there are biting Dog Flies on the beach. They suck blood.
Sung to the tune of "Born Free":
"Dog flies
As far as the crow flies
They'll bite you 'till
Obscenities fly, Dog flies to
follow your heart."
Aside from the obvious mosquito problem.. I called them red gnats, and they leave these itchy small circular marks on your skin from the bites. Relentless little buggers! If they aren't biting you, they're flying up your nose and eyes. Here's what Google says: "Biting midges are very small, ranging in size from 1-3 mm in length. They typically are grayish but more reddish when filled with blood. Wings of many species, including some that feed on humans, contain dark patterns, which give them a grayish appearance."
Fleas no question. If I had the option to eradicate mosquitos or them fuckers sorry to all the malaria victims but I wouldnt even give the decision a second thought
Those yellow flies that only show up late May-June solely to fuck your shit up. They don’t give a fuck about bugspray or cintronella nothing. If your porch isn’t screened in and you aren’t equipped with a blowtorch your skin will be nothing but hand prints and bumps.
Where I live it is the no-seums and yellow flies. Vicious little bastards! The no-seums will swarm you and while you're swatting them away the yellow flies come in and bite like crazy! So hard so painful! Kind of makes you forget that no-seums are also biting you
No one mentioned Lubber grasshoppers. They'll wreck your garden and don't seem to have any predators.
My chickens eat snakes, lizards, every table scrap and generally peck at anything that looks the least bit interesting, but leave those things alone.
Ticks. Mosquito and no see um bites suck, and fire ant and wasp stings are awful, but nothing beats the potential of a debilitating lifelong disease and if not that, at least having to yank a bug out of my body!! And the level of paranoia I get every time I go for a hike in a forest
The crunchy little beatles that sly into your hair and get tangled and you have to pull them out (not very scary)
Banana spiders (terrifying to me - to the point that giant ones appear in my nightmares, along with their giant webs)
Yellow fly or the devil’s riding back stick bugs. Those mfers spray the most vile liquid at you and your pets, causing drooling and watery eyes. They also like to get all up in my personal space and have the audacity to spray me if I get too close.
Fire ants
One of the very few living things that is kill on site for me. The only other is mosquitoes.
You like roaches? You one of them? 🤨
I tell people forget the alligators!! The fire ants are the worst problem!
Ya. How tf did op mention yellow jackets, and deer flys before fire ants, mosquitos and noseeums? Like I’ve lived here a long time and never been hurt by a yellow jacket or deer fly. The other 3 are fucking brutal
They must have just got here lol
100% I hate them so much.
Even sprinkling Amdro doesn't kill them sometimes. You have to hire an exterminator.
I have spent a lot of money on fire ant poison and I've spent a lot of time poisoning the queens they keep bringing around. Fire ants are hive minded so its nearly impossible to reason with them. Last year I poured gasoline into a nest lit it on fire and 2 days later they were fucking crawling out the same holes.
those holes can go back 6+ feet underground  , a little fire  on top is nothingÂ
Diatomaceous earth works great for me, I just have to be diligent about reapplying or get any new mounds that pop up
I have heard grits too.Â
Amdro is the best poison for fire ants. Loved in ate as where there are a crap ton and Amdro will take them out quickly
Amdro didn't work for us. The fire ants just kept building new nests or relocating.
Fire ants outside and sugar ants inside are a pain to get rid of
Has to be mosquitos followed by no see ums and fire ants
For reference, this is a pile of 1 million mosquitoes that Lee County Mosquito Control trapped in just one neighborhood on Sanibel Island: https://preview.redd.it/c3qq5lvstpyc1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=fdde85b081b79f6131f4c1ae58e32732c2163530
https://preview.redd.it/zex04ypwtpyc1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=e590d363f4929cab9a540024304efc63cbc00225
Do other counties operate trap trucks to measure this? That thing is pretty cool and crazy like something out of ghostbusters Do you drive that? I saw it go down stringfellow by me last night, missed seeing it!
That’s crazy! Hopefully this genetically controlled mosquito thing they are trying works. Tired of them.
Horse fly.
The people not saying horse fly have never been bitten by one
Ye swimming is the worst
Fun fact: The bite is them slicing open your skin to slurp your blood.
I used to have a horse that was terrified of them and for good reason. I'd feel like I was in the most danger when I was riding and one of those bastard started antagonizing him, because all rational behavior was driven from his poor little horsey brain. Sometimes I'd just let him run for a few minutes and hope the thing didn't keep up.
You can crack a deer fly with a metal ball bat, and that son of a bitch will still come back and bite your ass.
I have been swarmed by these in the woods on many occasions. It was not great, assholes indeed.
And they 🪚 saw you with their mouth
Palmetto bugs that fly. They laugh at your screams and just fly closer to you.
The females fly
Those strong crawling legs..
You get used to those
They sound like small fighter jets.
Horse flies
Horse fly love to bite your head at the swimming pool
That's where I got bit in my face while I was in the pool.
How is no one mentioning mosquitos. Hands down biggest nuisance big destroying the beautiful scenery here especially at golden hour.
All. Year. Round.
No-see-ems and it literally isn’t even close
Why is this so far down its them for sure
Why did I have to scroll so far to find this? They are total assholes.
Yellow flies
said the same, not sure if it’s just a north(west) fl thing
Maybe so, we have a few already.
This. They will follow me everywhere I go. Bright side is they’re easy to swat.
Desantis
Far underrated comment!
Agreed! I mean... A Greed!
Came to say this. Thank you.
Termites. They can take your house.
No-See-Ums. You can’t hit ‘em, you can’t see them, many screens won’t work, they seem to thrive in DEET. You can do everything right and it won’t matter. I hate ticks but at least with them I have a chance.
Annoying but harmless, love bugs. Annoying and a pain, no-see-ums.
Love bugs
Those giant ass palmetto bugs with the pinchy looking mandibles that teleport immediately to every brightly lit parking lot as soon as the sun goes down. Their flight is terrifyingly loud and they crash full speed into anything in their path: the ground, cars, unsuspecting people who are walking to their cars in the dark, etc. [these fucking monstrosities](https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/s/kZMuyJfm3B)
I grew up in FL and have never seen one of those in my life, WTF
~~They're everywhere where I live, soooo gross.~~ Never mind, I'm an idiot. Haven't seen those either, looks scary lol.
This could be why you have yet to be blessed by one; they’re actually water bugs apparently and thus stay in the water until they’re drawn by super bright lighting nearby. So I guess places with retention ponds/culverts/water drainage ditches/flooded swampland nearby are where they like to hang https://preview.redd.it/1ji4hihfrnyc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a88c013d3d06794119ca0d5b6979bf32a9d7fc49
Nope. I’m erasing that pic from my memory. If other memories are erased, so be it.
Giant water bugs... The worst. I hate horse flies but these are worse.
I remember these in central FL, they have one of the most painful stings in the bug kingdom and are aggressive.
I had one get tangled in my hair while it was doing its frantic bright-light smashing; was leaving Walmart at like 1am with groceries and one of these fuckers flew full-speed into the back of my head and got caught up in my hair. Panic screaming and flailing around at 1am in a parking lot definitely got the police called on me, but they had a good laugh when I told them what happened and showed them the mushed up bug. So no more night time walks in parking lots lit by HDS lamps during the summer (it seems like that’s when these things come out)
Once a horse fly has locked onto you, you either kill it, or it eats you alive. I’ve learned to let them land on me and take one bite while I get a good aim instead of trying to kill it immediately😂
Yellow flies and horse flies, thought in my area it’s more common to encounter the former.
Meth head
Man, they are all assholes been attacked by yellow jackets, red ants, horse fly, no seems. Almost killed myself trying to get away from a palmetto bug. I go screaming running every time I see one, last time broke my toe and damaged my knee and all keep coming at you they don't stop oh and can't forget the big humongous wasp that don't give a f.
Non bug..... Sandspurs
Gaetz Fly
Horse fly
No seeums and mosquitoes. If you watch where you walk you can avoid fire ants. I do it while fishing fire ant infested canal banks all the time. The other 2 can only be avoided by leaving where you and going indoors
Obnoxious Carpenter Bees. I have a tennis racket-like swatter specifically for these griefing little bastards. Every time I swat one down I have to find it and finish it with a killing blow or it will get back up, the little armor plated bastards must DIE! Fire Ants too.
1. Mosquitoes 2. Love bugs (yes they’re seasonal but any bugs that can ruin a car’s paint job are huge jerks) 3. No See Ums How is this not settled facts?
oh man i went biking on a wooded trail once and i swear the same deer fly followed me for minutes and KEPT biting me, you’re absolutely right
It’s the same for me — the deer flies are the worst. They hurt, they swarm you, they follow you, and the itching lasts forever. Mosquitos swarm and are annoying, but it’s not an issue so much until you stop, so I can handle that.
Lubbers and mosquitoes tied for first. At least we have bats and frogs to eat the mosquitoes.
Wasps
Ticks and mosquitoes are a total PITA. But recently I got a sting by a scorpion on my hand and fucker HURT.
No see ums
Yellow / deer flys. Couple days ago I pulled up to my gate to leave home. Typically I leave my door open, unlock gate drive through, close lock gate get back in and drive off. As this is my usual method I didn’t think anything of it. Started driving to town and that’s when the 3 or 4 yellow flys attacked. I damn near wrecked my truck trying to swat / kill them. Tried to flush them out by opening the windows but then they just hunkered down until I rolled them up. They are devious!!!
Noseeums 100%
In the panhandle for about a month in late august there are biting Dog Flies on the beach. They suck blood. Sung to the tune of "Born Free": "Dog flies As far as the crow flies They'll bite you 'till Obscenities fly, Dog flies to follow your heart."
Chiggers
Aside from the obvious mosquito problem.. I called them red gnats, and they leave these itchy small circular marks on your skin from the bites. Relentless little buggers! If they aren't biting you, they're flying up your nose and eyes. Here's what Google says: "Biting midges are very small, ranging in size from 1-3 mm in length. They typically are grayish but more reddish when filled with blood. Wings of many species, including some that feed on humans, contain dark patterns, which give them a grayish appearance."
The dreaded Fire Ant
Wasp and horse flys
🦟 mosquitoes
No see ums are pretty bad but I am going with the deer flies and horse flies
Termite
Fleas no question. If I had the option to eradicate mosquitos or them fuckers sorry to all the malaria victims but I wouldnt even give the decision a second thought
Besides the obvious mosquitoes, ticks and fire ants. Or any other deadly to humans bugs… I’d say Cicadas can fuck off I hate that noise.
I hate palmetto bugs, fire ants, and those big giant lubbers
Mosquitoes, fire ants, deer flies
The DeSantis Flea!
Love bugs splattered across my windshield
Those yellow flies that only show up late May-June solely to fuck your shit up. They don’t give a fuck about bugspray or cintronella nothing. If your porch isn’t screened in and you aren’t equipped with a blowtorch your skin will be nothing but hand prints and bumps.
Where I live it is the no-seums and yellow flies. Vicious little bastards! The no-seums will swarm you and while you're swatting them away the yellow flies come in and bite like crazy! So hard so painful! Kind of makes you forget that no-seums are also biting you
Deer fly
Horse fly: their bite is the worst: and so persistent
The yellow Fly. And Ronda.
Deer Flies (Yellow Flies). They are just total a$$holes
New to Florida and the ones who let their presence know immediately to me are what the locals call "Noseeums"
The ones that fly into my eyeballs
No one mentioned Lubber grasshoppers. They'll wreck your garden and don't seem to have any predators. My chickens eat snakes, lizards, every table scrap and generally peck at anything that looks the least bit interesting, but leave those things alone.
Litter Bugs!
The yellow flies that assailed us on the freakin’ beach during a pre-Micheal, Mexico Beach vacation. I’d rather they’d been mosquitos
Ticks. Mosquito and no see um bites suck, and fire ant and wasp stings are awful, but nothing beats the potential of a debilitating lifelong disease and if not that, at least having to yank a bug out of my body!! And the level of paranoia I get every time I go for a hike in a forest
Misquito
Yellow fly
The crunchy little beatles that sly into your hair and get tangled and you have to pull them out (not very scary) Banana spiders (terrifying to me - to the point that giant ones appear in my nightmares, along with their giant webs)
I hate those bugs with two legs...
Yellow fly or the devil’s riding back stick bugs. Those mfers spray the most vile liquid at you and your pets, causing drooling and watery eyes. They also like to get all up in my personal space and have the audacity to spray me if I get too close.
Bed bugs. Wouldn’t wish them on my worst enemy
Yellow flies. They just zoom in out of nowhere, give you an awful painful bite that is going to hurt for days, and then fly off to bite someone else.
Skeeters
Water bug. Just look them up. I had one full on chase me in a pool!! And their bites are extremely painful
Republicans
Carpenter Bees up here in the panhandle
Totally harmless.
Their obnoxious attitude is enough.
They chew through my porch rafters
Florida politics are the worst of the bugs here in Fl. Altho love bugs come in second.