Idaho Lacks This One Thing & You’ll Be Happy to Know What It Is

I was back visiting the midwest over the weekend when I realized I had become accustomed to the lack of pesky insects we have in Idaho. In Indiana, it was nothing but bugs, bugs, bugs, bugs, bugs! Seriously I felt like I needed the bug spray every time I stepped outside. There was a variety of them too - from annoying flying nats to large crawling insects. I saw them all.

In fact, I even had someone there who lived in Wyoming themselves for a while say to me, "you aren't used to all the bugs here after living in Boise are you?" Absolutely not! We both related to each other how the upper western states have a lack of pesky bugs. After he said that I stopped to think about it and realized he was right. I hardly ever encounter obnoxious bugs during my day-to-day life in Boise, Idaho.

Now obviously, we still have PLENTY of creepy crawly insects in Idaho. They just aren't as in your face as they are in other regions of the country - we have our high desert dry climate to thank for that. According to Vulcan Termite and Pest Control Inc., Idaho is actually listed as the fourth state with the fewest bug issues. Most of the bugs that irritate humans live in wetter and more humid areas like the south and midwest. Mosquitoes, for example, reproduce using standing water.

If you'd rather live somewhere away from all those annoying bugs you're best bet is honestly Alaska where it's too cold for those kinds of insects to thrive. The Pacific Northwest is not that bad either. There are some bugs of course but roaches, for example, are rarely seen and ants are only common during the summer. A finding in the 2015 American Housing Survey was that only 1% of Seattle homes had a roach infestation in the previous year.