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Bugs in Hilton Head

Bill4728

Bill4728

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Lake Tapps, WA
We are thinking of visiting Hilton Head in the early April but we've heard stories that the bugs are really bad during spring (April and May).

What is the story? What type of bugs? Do you really get bit alot? My DD is always getting bit, will she hate it there?
 
Interesting. We stayed on HHI several years ago in late April. We don’t recall having a problem with these gnats. Maybe we just got lucky.

Best regards.

Mike
 
Bill, there are sprays for no-see-ums. We live in Southern Florida and if we are taking an after dinner walk try to make it a point to be back before dusk when those bugs are the worst. Unlike mosquitos you don't even see or feel yourself getting bit. The bites will itch intensely several times a day for several days. And they always itch during the night enough to wake you up and make you miserable. We've learned not to scratch or try to ignore the itching, to just get up and put the aloe with lidocaine on the bites if we want to be able to get back to sleep. I stayed on Hilton Head about four years ago in late winter and I noticed there were a lot of trees and pine trees. So very wooded. Not sure if they get the no-see-ums but I would expect a lot mosquitos and probably flies in the warmer months and I know they have palmetto bugs.

People new to the South or those who have never seen palmetto bugs are usually totally freaked out by them. You will read people's trip reports about how the place they stayed had giant cockroaches. Okay as much as I hate to admit it palmetto bugs are in the cockroach family. We periodically get a palmetto bug in our master bathroom but have never had one in our kitchen. After seven years it doesn't bother me as much as it did when we first moved to Florida when I get up in the night to use the bathroom and see one. They are gross to kill because they are so big and you have to hit them pretty hard a couple of times to kill them. My husband didn't even tease me about the lengths I went to after I killed one with the back side of my favorite hairbrush. I didn't want to throw it out so after washing the hairbrush in soapy water still had to run it through the dishwasher on the high temp wash with both cups filled to the max with dishwasher detergent and the sanitizing and heated dry cycles too before I was satisfied.

Our six year old granddaughter who lives in Ohio was here for her Spring Break at the end of March. A week later I killed the biggest palmetto bug I've seen so far. She has stayed with us three or four times a year from the time she was two until she started school last Fall and stayed anywhere from two weeks to a month. We've never had a palmetto bug while she was here. We always liked to spend a week on Sanibel when she was here and she used to get freaked out when she saw the tiny little sugar ants in our unit until I assigned her the important job of letting me know if she saw a sugar ant so I could kill it. My husband and I both shudder at the thought of her seeing a palmetto bug. We have visions of her being in her 40's and still telling people about the giant bug she saw when she was with Papa and Grandma in Florida when she was six years old.
 
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We made a trip many years ago to HH in April (for the golf tournament) and got completely eaten up by the no see ums. Didn’t even know it until the next day. Nasty little critters.
 
mjm1 said:
Interesting. We stayed on HHI several years ago in late April. We don’t recall having a problem with these gnats. Maybe we just got lucky.

Best regards. Mike
Click to expand...

Perhaps you had a really good breeze.
 
Jan M. said:
Bill, there are sprays for no-see-ums. We live in Southern Florida and if we are taking an after dinner walk try to make it a point to be back before dusk when those bugs are the worst. Unlike mosquitos you don't even see or feel yourself getting bit. The bites will itch intensely several times a day for several days. And they always itch during the night enough to wake you up and make you miserable. We've learned not to scratch or try to ignore the itching, to just get up and put the aloe with lidocaine on the bites if we want to be able to get back to sleep. I stayed on Hilton Head about four years ago in late winter and I noticed there were a lot of trees and pine trees. So very wooded. Not sure if they get the no-see-ums but I would expect a lot mosquitos and probably flies in the warmer months and I know they have palmetto bugs.
People new to the South or those who have never seen palmetto bugs are usually totally freaked out by them.
Click to expand...

I do feel no-see-ums when they bite me. At times they, or other gnats/flies, are all around my face and I have to fan them away or get inside. Mosquitos don't seem to bite me very often even when others around me are being "eaten up". I attribute it to have grown up in Florida playing hide and seek with the neighbor kids as we ran behind the Mosquito Control trucks as they sprayed! Not sure about my longevity, but there is that one advantage.

Palmetto bugs were very prevalent when we bought our first house in CHS. Driving into our driveway at night, the headlights of the car would catch them scurrying away. We contracted with a pest service quarterly and rarely see one now. But oddly, I see very few outside our house or around town now either, when in the past they would occasionally drop out of a tree on me or near me when out walking or I would see them here and there on the sidewalks. That hasn't happened in 8 years at least. Our "bug man" told us that Palmetto bugs don't like to live inside and that weather conditions occasionally have them seeking water or a dry spot during times of a lot of rain or flooding. The cockroaches one really doesn't want in a house are the German cockroaches. They quickly reproduce and if not removed they will leave an odor in a house that can not be gotten rid of. He claims to be able to walk into an old house and distinguish the odor of German cockroaches from that of bats. :eek:
 
Late May I have never had an issue on HHI with no see ums. I did experience thier wrath on Captiva on one summer trade and at Monarch on HHI. I did not feel being bite or see anything but I sure did itch terribly for long 3 weeks.

There is ointment for no sees not sure how good it works . I have heard of Buzz away, skin so soft and home made remedies not sure if any work well.

Love bugs which do not bite and are in HHI 2nd or 3rd week of September. Right now love bugs visting SW Florida.

In the Massachusetts we have green head horse flies at the beach in July and it is a very painful bite and nothing seems to make them go away in Essex County or Cape Cod.
 
No-see-ums don't bother me...as Glynda said no worries in a good breeze.

Palmetto bugs...well, a cockroach by any other name and all that.

But did anyone see the article talking about the Portuguese Man O War washing up on shore lately? My neighbor photographed one on the beach after she recognized what it was, then the article came out a few days later. I'll be staying out of the water for now.


http://www.charlottestories.com/dangerous-jellyfish-like-creature-washing-onto-carolina-beaches/
 
And people wonder why property is so expensive in San Diego...
 
I swear by STING Stop a natural gel that comes in a tube . After a bite it calms the itching quickly. As for palmetto bugs...not sure why folks brought them up as they do not sting. They are year-round residents of SC and so if you think bugs are icky maybe best to stay home up north in tick country. They all are part of the circle of life...frankly I would rather the timeshare resorts not spray with cancer-causing pesticides.
 
If you are unlucky to get bitten by no-see-ums like I did, I found heating them with a blow dryer until I felt a burning sensation took the itching away for me. If the itching came back I did it again.
 
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