Suddenly, without warning, nospam exclaimed (01-Dec-05 4:02 AM):
Hello friends, I am moving to Arizona and want to hear your experiences on
the following:

1. How to pest-proof the home against black widows, scorpions and snakes.
2. How do cats react when they see these creatures? Attack? Run?
3. Any other precautions/advice.

Many thanks for your help.
al


Meep has lived in Australia, where everything is either poisonous or
pointy. If she came across any snakes, she hasn't told us about them,
but she's never been bit by the myriad of poisonous spiders, like
redbacks, the Aussie black widow. I'd heard that cats are much more
sensible about snakes than dogs are, and rarely get bit even if they do
have an encounter.

There's really no way to completely pest-proof your home, but there are
some types of Black Flag that you can spray around door and window
frames, and it's supposed to kill anything that crosses for a couple of
weeks. This worked well to keep the Aussie ants (pernicious things!)
out, and seemed to keep the arachnid population down as well.

Meep has a rule about spiders: If they're under about an inch and a
half, they're a toy. If they're bigger than that (some were MUCH
bigger), they're simply entertainment - something to watch, but not
touch. Which is how we knew when there was a big'un in the house, she'd
be intensely staring in some corner, or under the fridge. Shouldn't use
past tense though, there's some suprisingly good sized spiders that
wander through our house here on a regular basis as well.

As another poster said, keep the rodents away and the snakes shouldn't
bother you. Just never stick a limb into a dark space - woodpile, dark
shelf, shoes, etc - without checking it for creepycrawlies first.

jmc