Safety Tips in Florida

Florida is hot and humid the majority of the year.. a perfect breeding ground for bugs you never knew could exist!

Tips:
- Do not leave food out for any period of time... ants, roaches, flies, and other undesirable will find it, even if you are inside a nice new clean house!!
- Keep ALL food sealed, by sealed I mean airtight.. not a porcelain jar. If you don't your bread will have ants / mold, sugar will become an ant farm and rice will turn into its own lifeform.
- Even the cleanest places in Florida have nasty bugs, try not to freak out when you see one.
- BEWARE! of the fire ants! When walking avoid the mounds of dirt you may see in yards etc... stepping in one can result in a very painful experience. Fire ants a very small, but extremely painful and come in swarms. They can also be found anywhere a normal ant could be found. They also float on water... I have seen a mound of fire ants floating in a river, it looks like a pile of dirt in the water.. don't touch it.
- BEWARE! Killer Bees - If you plan to explore the woods, kayak through a forest, etc... look before ducking under palm branches or anything that may appear to be leaning or have a large bump on it, these bees group together on branches and palm leaves when traveling, and it can be deadly to disturb them.
- The Super Large roaches are actually palmetto bugs.
- Be prepared to be swarmed by mosquitoes when outside.
- Sand gnats or "no see ums" as we call them, are very small, painful, flying, biting bugs that are very common near water and sandy areas. They can attack you in places that even a mosquito will not dare to fly.

We saw this atmospheric phenomenon on flying into Florida from the plane. We could not decide, whether it was only a thunderstorm, or already a hurricane. Finaly the Captain told us it was thunderstorm.
The hurricane season in Florida is from June 1 - November 30. The hurricanes are strong tropical thunderstorms with a surface circulation and winds of 74 mph or higher. If you get into a situation like this, you should decide to leave for a safer location in order to be there during the storm.
Some tips if you decide to leave:
- Keep the gas tank filled in your vehicle.
- Be sure to have a road map with the evacuation routes clearly marked, so that you won’t spend valuable time and fuel in searching for the right way to go.
- Buy bottled water and ice.
- Get out of the area as early as you can, in daylight. Give yourself enough time to leave so that you can drive calmly and allow for traffic congestion; avoid putting yourself in a panic situation.

You have probably read about rip currents on my North Carolina page, but here is a sign I found at Pensacola Beach that actually illustrates what to do if you are caught in a rip current. This is an effective technique and it really works well.

At Pensacola Beach, you will find signs such as these located along the beach accesses. The Green, Yellow, and Red are universal for most locations on the coastlines of the U.S. However, the purple flag for Marine Life was a new one that I have never seen before.

Florida provides a website of active hundred acre fires that may endanger populations and highway travel. It is updated twice daily.

http://www.fl-dof.com/wildfire/index.html

SERIOUSLY!!!!

Do NOT feed or aggravate the alligators. It really is their land!!!

Same goes for snakes, which can be found on land AND in the water, too!

Sharks & Barracudas!

Leave the shiny "bling" on the beach or boat and your chances of getting bit will be less!

Be careful when purchasing theme park tickets in the Orlando area. Compare deals carefully. The problem lies in the fact that often park-hopper passes list too many parks to be visited in too few days. With this type of an offer, it is really impossible to see all the parks on your purchased list before the time period expires. If you do not go to most, if not all of the parks on the list, you may actually loose money. So it is important to decide which parks you plan on visiting, then do a careful price comparison before purchasing tickets for each park, or purchasing a package deal. You may find that the deal turns out to be no deal at all. If you have not been to the parks in the past, you will probably want to spend at least one full day in each that you visit. So if you have two or three days, and purchase a pass to get you into five parks, this may not be a savings. The people that this type of pass is best for, are those who have been to Orlando a number of times, and want to pop in and out of various parks.

Fakahatchee, I love this preserve, but when you are in the back country be aware that there is a lot of poison ivy, as well as wasp mounds. Many other preserves and state parks also have poison ivy, and other poisonous plants. Find out what they are and what they look like so that you can avoid them.

Stay at least 15 feet away from wild alligators, they may look slow, but they can move fast for a short distance. Also that old tale about if a gator chases you run in a zigzag fashion is only a wise tale and will only slow you down. I have seen LOTS of gators in the wild country of Florida, and have had no problem with them.

If you are camping be aware that raccoons, and birds such as crows, ravens, gulls, and even vultures, will rob your picnic table if you leave food out. Pack it away inside your car, hard sided storage box, or RV, even if leaving for a short time. Tents are no protection, some animals, such as raccoons, will have no problem entering your tent for a snack.