Georgia’s warm, humid climate supports a wide variety of insects and arachnids year-round. From fire ants and mosquitoes in summer to stink bugs invading homes in fall, the state has a rotating cast of pests that changes with the seasons. Some are just annoying, others can damage your home, and a few carry real health risks worth knowing about.
Summer Pests: Mosquitoes, Fire Ants, and Flies
Summer is peak bug season in Georgia, and mosquitoes top the list. They breed rapidly in the state’s humid conditions and are active from late spring through early fall. Beyond the itching, Georgia mosquitoes can carry West Nile virus and Eastern equine encephalitis, making them more than a nuisance.
Fire ants are aggressive when their mounds are disturbed, and those mounds are everywhere in Georgia lawns, parks, and roadsides. A sting produces a swollen red area that develops into a blister filled with pus-like material, and these blisters heal slowly. Multiple stings are common because fire ants swarm quickly once agitated.
Housefly populations surge in summer too, drifting indoors through open doors and torn screens. Wasps and hornets also become more visible, though they’re generally not aggressive unless you disturb a nest. They’re actually beneficial as pollinators and pest controllers. Their colonies die off in winter, making nests easy to remove once cold weather arrives.
Fall and Winter Home Invaders
As temperatures drop in late summer and early fall, certain insects start looking for warm shelter. Brown marmorated stink bugs and Asian ladybugs are the most notorious fall invaders in Georgia, entering homes by the hundreds through gaps in siding, windows, and doors. Stink bugs release an unpleasant odor when crushed or disturbed, which makes removal frustrating. The key is sealing entry points before they arrive, ideally by late August or early September.
The Joro Spider
If you’ve noticed large, colorful spiders spinning golden webs across your porch or between trees, you’ve met the Joro spider. Native to Japan and China, Joro spiders likely arrived in Georgia inside a shipping container and have spread rapidly across the state. The southeastern climate suits them well, and their cold tolerance, high metabolism, and ability to disperse by releasing silk threads into the wind have helped them establish large populations.
Despite their intimidating size and bright yellow-and-blue markings, Joro spiders are harmless to humans and pets. Their bite is comparable to a mosquito bite. They actually provide some pest control benefits: Joro spiders are one of the few natural predators of brown marmorated stink bugs, and their webs also catch moths, flies, and mosquitoes. Their long-term impact on native spider populations is still unclear, since they compete with local species for food and web-building sites.
Venomous Spiders
Georgia is home to two medically significant spiders. Black widows are common throughout the state, recognizable by their shiny black body and red hourglass marking on the underside of the abdomen. Their bites are very painful and can cause muscle cramps, nausea, and other systemic symptoms that sometimes require medical attention.
Brown recluse spiders, by contrast, are extremely rare in Georgia despite their reputation. They have a dark violin-shaped marking on their back. On the rare occasion a bite does occur, it can cause a spreading, slow-healing ulcer that leaves a permanent scar. Most spider bites in Georgia that people attribute to brown recluses are actually from other, less dangerous species.
Ticks and the Diseases They Carry
Georgia’s wooded and grassy areas harbor several tick species, and the diseases they transmit are a genuine concern. Between 2020 and 2024, Georgia reported 143 cases of spotted fever rickettsiosis (which includes Rocky Mountain spotted fever), 130 cases of Lyme disease, and 50 cases of anaplasmosis and ehrlichiosis combined. These numbers reflect only confirmed reports, so actual infections are likely higher.
One emerging risk worth knowing about is alpha-gal syndrome, spread by the lone star tick. A bite from this tick can trigger an allergic reaction to a sugar molecule found in red meat and mammalian dairy products. Symptoms typically appear two to six hours after eating the triggering food and can include hives, nausea, severe stomach pain, difficulty breathing, and in serious cases, a dangerous drop in blood pressure. There’s no cure for alpha-gal syndrome. The only management is avoiding the foods that trigger it. While still relatively uncommon in Georgia, the Georgia Department of Public Health is actively tracking it as an emerging concern.
Termites and Structural Damage
Georgia’s warm, moist soil creates ideal conditions for subterranean termites, the state’s most destructive household pest. Native subterranean termites (Reticulitermes species) are the most common and can silently damage wooden structures for months or years before you notice signs like bubbling paint, hollow-sounding wood, or mud tubes along your foundation.
Formosan subterranean termites, a more aggressive invasive species, have been found at a number of sites in Georgia since the early 1990s. A Formosan colony devotes 15 to 20 percent of its population to soldiers, compared to just 1 to 3 percent in native termite colonies, which gives some sense of their aggressive nature. They’re sometimes spread through infested railroad ties used in landscaping. While still rare in Georgia, Formosan termites can cause damage much faster than native species when they do establish a colony.
Keeping Bugs Out of Your Home
Sealing your home is the most effective long-term strategy against Georgia’s many pests, and the details matter more than most people realize. A gap of just 1/16 of an inch under a door is enough for insects and spiders to enter. A quarter-inch gap, roughly the diameter of a pencil, lets mice through. Start by lying on the floor and checking for light under exterior doors, then install door sweeps or thresholds and caulk along the bottom edges and sides.
Other high-priority entry points include:
- Utility openings: seal gaps where pipes, wires, and vents enter your foundation with caulk, cement, expandable foam, or steel wool
- Windows and screens: caulk cracks around window frames and repair any tears in screens to block flies, gnats, and mosquitoes in summer and overwintering pests in fall
- Garage doors: fit the bottom with a rubber seal (vinyl doesn’t hold up well in cold weather)
- Sliding glass doors: line the bottom track with half-inch to three-quarter-inch foam weatherstripping
- Attic and crawl space vents: cover with quarter-inch wire mesh to block wildlife and larger insects
If sealing alone isn’t practical, an exterior barrier treatment with a liquid insecticide applied around door bases, foundation vents, utility openings, and a two-to-six-foot band along the ground perimeter can supplement your defenses. Timing this treatment in late summer helps prevent the fall invasion of stink bugs and ladybugs before they find their way inside.