There's a ton of bugs in Florida's subtropical climate, and they have to go somewhere when hundreds of miles of habitat are suddenly altered.
TAMPA, Fla. — For Richard Frank, it's normally the insects that are buzzing. But in the weeks after Hurricane Ian's landfall, the incessant buzzing now comes from his phone.
"I've absolutely seen a change since the storm," said Frank, a licensed entomologist. The uptick of customer calls in Ian's aftermath have included bagworms , rats , millipedes , roaches and ants . Scharf's job, as he describes it, is at the intersection of bugs, the public, the pest control industry and state regulatory industries. And as a recent Indiana expat, he's quickly finding that Florida is a busy place for critters.
The unwanted title of buggiest city in Florida has since been reclaimed by the South Florida area, where 29% of households reported roach sightings and 4% reported rodents, according to the same survey four years later.
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