Voles - awful little things that will eat up your plants like they are at a buffet. They are particularly attracted to expensive or well-loved plants. Moles - dig little tunnels everywhere and make your yard look like a mess. They build tunnels that the voles use to get near your valuable plants. Groundhogs - ever lost a leg in one of their large holes? Ever got a tractor stuck in one? Deer - will eat at everything even if they don't actually finish their meal. They love yanking small plants out of the ground and leaving them for you to find just after you examine the serious damage they've done to one of your trees. Snakes - don't usually bother too much, just scare you to death when you don't see them until you almost step on them. Wild turkeys - love building nests in flowerbeds and in mulched areas around trees. They'll dig and make a real mess. I still feel sick when I run over one of their nests with babies, when I don't see them in time. The list could go on and on, but those are the ones I run into most frequently.

Weighing in on the subject of Spiders 'n Snakes (what was that song? Wasn't it Jim Stafford? Am I dating myself?). I steer clear of Widows and Recluses -- my husband got tagged by a Widow two years ago working on a big brush pile. They like dark places; I often find them between gallon pots that are close together in shady spots in the nursery. No fun. My DH informs that the bite of a Widow hurts "like a sumbitch". He ended up going to the spiderbite clinic at Vanderbilt; the fact that they have one tells you how common the problem is. That pic of a recluse is a little misleading, as it makes the body of the bugger seem bigger than it actually is. A recluse is 90% long skinny legs, a tannish brown color all over with a thinnish body. That violin marking is visible only when you get close to it, like I did last fall when I mercifully happened to glance over at the purlin in the greenhouse about 6" from my right hand and looked a Recluse right in his/her 8 eyes. I most commonly see recluses in out-of-way places like high corners, where they make messy little webs. They're much more common than folks realize. Other spiders are fine with me, though, and I particularly enjoy wolf spiders, which seem to have a Groucho Marxian personality. In my world snakes are welcome. I am not cursed with that fear that so many have of them, thank heaven. Brown snakes and black rat snakes are what I usually see at my place, and I'm happy to have them. The browns eat slugs, and the other eats rodents. Fine with me. However, I'm with Joseph on ticks. They're just gross and unnecessary, IMO. And they are EVERYWHERE, at least in my part of the state. Plus they carry diseases -- in fact, the lady who originally owned my current abode died of Rocky Mt. Spotted Fever she got from a tick bite. I have a list of concerns to bring up with Management if I get the chance when I move off this mortal coil. Ticks are high up on the list, along with tooth decay. :) Marty

I live on a ranch in central Texas and have quite a few snakes as well as wasps, scorpions, etc. in my 100-year-old pole barn that I use for a garage. So, For the wasps - both mud daubers and paper wasps - I spray them early in the morning before they get active. For spiders - I have quite a few of the big yellow/black garden spiders (genus Argiope) but I leave them alone. I do keep the barn swept and raked and periodically use a broom to knock down spider webs that I can reach, as well as mud dauber nests. Now, for snakes - I have LOTS of snakes - Texas rat snakes, water snakes, garter snakes, blind prairie snakes, and rattlesnakes. The main ones I have are rat snakes because they eat field mice from the pasture, and so I'm learning to coexist with them. You have to take care of the food source - get rid of the mice - and the snakes will go away. Do you keep any sort of pet food, other animal feed, or anything remotely edible that would attract mice? I keep my dog food in a galvanized metal trash can with a metal lid. I did try "snake away" last summer after the 10th snake in my house - turns out it is just mothballs, and no, it didn't work. YMMV. How are the seals along the bottom of your garage door? Have you inspected for holes where critters can get in, and caulked everything?

Mtn, yes rats! In CA we have roof/tree rats. They are bigger than a mouse, but smaller than the Norway rats you find in NYC. They are agile little buggers and love all the food provided by the fruit trees found all over So. CA. No winters to slow them down or kill them off. We haven't found one in the house, but did have one go in the garage before we got new doors. We have quarterly pest service with several traps around the yard. The big dog is doing a great job of keeping them away. Nini, a friend's son got his masters at Rollins not too long ago and they were very happy with the program.