When chill winds blow, the cozy warmth inside your home is inviting.
That’s why the scorpions, wasps and other uninvited pests
show up there.
“They’re called incidental invaders,” said
Nancy Hinkle, an associate professor of entomology with the
University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences. “They don’t really want to be inside your
house. They just don’t want to be outside in the cold.”
For years, Hinkle has tried to sell people on the idea that
these insects are doing them a favor by showing up inside. But
she admits it’s a pretty hard sell.
“I am still not getting that one across,” she laughs.
“But really, they’re letting people know their homes
aren’t energy-efficient.”
If your home has openings big enough to let wasps and other
insects or scorpions, millipedes and other arthropods in, she
reasons, it has openings that are letting heated air get out.
Insects trying to escape the chill outside just follow that
warm air inside.
“Any place you can see light coming in from outside,”
Hinkle said, “there’s an opening big enough for
a scorpion to find its way inside.”
The insects themselves aren’t really a big problem. Even
the scorpions and wasps don’t normally last very long
in unnaturally cozy homes.
Scorpions usually die fairly soon after they come inside, Hinkle
said. But if you have a damp basement or storage area that has
the silverfish, cockroaches or other little insects that scorpions
can prey on, they might call that home for a while.
Spiders are great scorpion predators, she said. So you may want
to rethink your aversion to the spiders around your home, especially
the ones that live around the outside of the building.
You may want to rethink your landscaping, too. Typical Georgia
landscapes are just about heaven for the kinds of insects that
invade your house.
“We tend to put our foundation plants right up against
the house in the South,” Hinkle said. “But research
has shown that if you move the shrubs two feet away from the
house and replace organic mulch with gravel or pebbles, insects
do not like to cross that no-man’s land.”
When you catch a scorpion, be sure to thank it for letting you
know some of your costly heating is going to waste.
Competing
in a Global Economy
The University of Georgia is at the forefront of the globalization
movement in higher education with a wealth of opportunities
for international experiences. Our students are flocking to
study-abroad programs, thriving on the challenges inherent
in confronting a new cultural environment. More and more,
students on campus are also making choices that reflect an
understanding of the importance of global awareness—from
living in a residence hall-based language community to starting
a radio program in another language to minoring in a foreign
language. These experiences, whether at home or abroad, influence
how our students perceive the world and their place in it.
We’re producing graduates prepared to be world citizens—well
informed, culturally sensitive and technologically sophisticated.
They’re ready to take on the challenges of our global
society, and they’ll be equally at home whether in the
Peach State or the Republic of Georgia.
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