<p>Coming from the North, I haven't had to deal too much with exotic insects around that area capable of causing mass paralysis or heart attacks with a single bite.</p>
<p>Could a current Georgia Tech student or Atlantian near that area tell me about that situation? Are there some insects or arachnids in particular I should be wary of, any certain medication I should bring,..etc? I'm not allergic to anything that I know of, but I'm sure I'll have the textbook reaction to poison from any insect.</p>
<p>And finally, do the dorms get infested with bugs at certain times in the year?</p>
<p>You probably won’t see any but there are Black Widow Spiders down here. I’ve seen them on the side of my house and we live in a city South of Atlanta…</p>
<p>Also Metro Atlanta has copperhead snakes. But then again I’m thinking you probably won’t see them on campus.</p>
<p>I haven’t really had many traumatic experiences with bugs. In the summer there are mosquitos, and occasionally cockroaches. They are on the streets and I would not wear open toe shoes at night, they’re hard to spot in the dark for obvious reasons and usually out and about. </p>
<p>I lived at Towers last year (which is essentially the oldest, and hence worst freshman dorm ever. They are doing a 30 million dollar project to renovate it though, and it is currently underway I believe). The biggest thing I’ve had in my room was a spider the size of like a keyboard key, with legs included and everything. In other words it was tiny. Just keep your room clean and tidy.
My friend down the hall however, and I’m not trying to scare you, had a pretty big cockroach in his room. My other friend destroyed it though. So moral of the story is if you are afraid of bugs, like myself, make friends and be sure they aren’t so they can save you.</p>
<p>Thank you both for your inputs. I’m not particularly scared of getting bit as I am of the bugs themselves. I spent my early years in India, and living next to cockroaches kind of instilled a fear in me of most creepy crawlies.</p>
<p>I don’t imagine you have to be too concerned about dangerous bugs on campus. If you turn over rocks or look under lumber or something, you might run into a black widow or a small scorpion. They are small and like to live underneath things. Just give them the respect they deserve. If you go on outings, be careful of snakes when stepping over logs. The other thing you may not have experienced is fire ants. They make prominent clay colored (reddish) mounds. Avoid stepping on their mounds. They will swarm and attack anything threatening the mound and they DO hurt.</p>
<p>jaharrison, thanks for the tips. I’ve had a little experience with fire ants, and I saw Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull (Horrible movie), so I’ll make sure to keep my distance, haha.</p>
<p>I would keep some hydrocortisone cream and benadryl pills on hand. Fire ants bites DO hurt and if you get bit you may want to use one or both of the above.</p>
<p>^ I second that.
So bit of a story… When I was in Hong Kong the summer a year ago, I don’t know what I was bitten by, my ankle was swollen to the point that the ankle bone is no longer visible, and I was in so much pain that I couldn’t walk for like 3 days. Anyway, I was bit by I don’t know what early in the Fall semester (like 2nd week) and woke up and could hardly walk. But luckily that was over by the next day.</p>
I just wanted OP to know they are not poisonous.</p>