Insects

Lately i been hearing that Japan has an insect problem. Lots of cockroaches and Huntsman Spiders and there are snakes, centipedes and bees that can supposedly kill you with one bite/sting.

For those who have travelled to Japan, how is the insect situation in Japan?

Im dont mind bugs but if they can kill me, and i dont feel like waking up to a Huntsman Spider trying to crawl inside my mouth while i'm sleeping.

Thanks very much in advance.

This is the first time I have heard of Japan having an insect problem. I've travelled Asia extensively - and I would say that there are normally less cockroaches here than most of asia. I also rarely see spiders - apart from out in the countryside. I will say that bugs can get quite bad in real out of the way places - but this is the same as going to any natural area. You've got nothing to worry about

Huntsman won't even hurt you anyway, their venom is not dangerous to humans. Even if there were any, you'd have to piss them off to even bite you in the first place.

Japan is no different to anywhere else...
the only "nasties" we have encountered in 4 trips are some ants when we sat down in a park to eat,(what country doesn't have ants) and a spider in a web in Kenrokuen, NOT where you could walk through it.......as you might expect
Dont stress, and enjoy your trip

I've seen a few cockroaches in Tokyo and was bitten by mosquitoes when sitting down on a bench at the Meiji Jingu and as soon as I got to the countryside, so very much similar to back home, nothing really what I would call a insect problem at all :-)

I've done some hiking in Japan and not seen anything that worried me other than warning signs for bears and I noticed other hikers using bells to help avoid meeting bears. So bears might be an issue.

Okay thats pretty good.

I seen videos on youtube about the Mukade and Suzumebachi so it alarmed me thats why i decided to ask here just in case. lol

I guess you stumbled upon a website like this? http://zoomingjapan.com/life-in-japan/insects-and-other-pests/

Yes, those might be out there, but having been to Japan 6 times I would honestly say there's hardly anything to worry about. I just returned from a trip trough Hokkaido and Tohoku, I heard an awful lot of cicades (most of the time wondering where that sound came from, not seeing a single one of them), I've seen a single bat seemingly lost inside a train station, and a few pretty large spiders in the countryside but nothing like a huntsman. An that's probably still more than I've seen during the other five trips combined.

I've only been once, and the worst insect I encountered was the mosquito that bit me in Tokyo.

And the noisy cicadas. But I didn't really see them, I just heard them.

If you want to travel to a country with an insect problem, head down to Australia.

Yeah i know Australia is really bad, my cousin moved there for 3 weeks, and came back. She probably developed a phobia for bugs while she was there, thats how bad it was for her. She completely freaked out and she wouldnt leave her ex-boyfriend's house until she had to take the plane back to Arizona. lol

We have mukade every summer at work. One per year in the bathroom. You won't die if it bites you, though.

@Wizard: Tohoku and Hokkaido have a cooler climate and it's well-known that they have less insects then the rest of Japan.
Consequently Okinawa is usually the worst.

I just stayed there for 2 weeks and I got a cockroach, a lizard, a few spiders, a beetle, ants and a few mosquitoes all in one night in one of my accommodations there.

There's a difference between just visiting Japan for a few weeks or actually living here.

If you live here - especially if you live in the countryside - you will eventually run into those creepy crawlers.
It DOES greatly depend where you live!

In my first four years in Japan I never met a suzumebachi. In the past two years I've seen them a lot, even had to run away from them a few times. They've been inside my workplace and they're huge!

I've met a lot of roaches, even a mouse and bats were in my apartment (that is in the countryside).

As a short-term visitor you certainly don't have to worry too much about these, especially if you come outside of summer.
However, I think it's important to know about them, to know which ones are dangerous and how to deal with them.

I guess they don't have venomous insects and snakes in the US?

Not everywhere. Where i live yes, poisonous Snakes and Scorpions but you dont see them in developed areas. if you go to the desert, they are everywhere. The worst Scorpions come out at night though.

Japan has no more of an insect problem than any other country in the world with a temperate climate. It has insects and spiders, yes. Some of them bite or sting, yes. Just like anywhere else you see them mostly in rural and wooded areas and not in cities. Cockroaches occasionally come inside, yes, again just like most other countries with a similar climate.

@marble:
But Japan has poisonous creatures that can kill people and every year people die because of them.
To name just a few: suzumebachi, habu snake, habu kurage (jellyfish)

zoomingjapan,

Habu is a poisonous snake but only found only in Ryukyu islands in the south and not on the 4 main lands (Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu). Without mentioning this fact, it is misleading and sounds as if any tourists could encounter such a snake anywhere in Japan.

As mentioned above the average tourist in Japan isn't going to come across a habu. I've been to Okinawa twice and have never seen one that wasn't pickled in a bottle of alcohol.

I've lived in or near Tokyo for 15 years without getting stung by a suzumebachi yet. People do very occasionally die, but that's usually because they have an allergic reaction- people also die of ordinary bee stings for the same reason.

Honestly, spending any time at all worrying about Japan's bugs when you are a short term visitor is just wasting time and energy.

I think this is a case of fearing the unfamiliar more than the familiar.

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/insects/
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/snakes/

The U.S. also has popular diseases such as Lyme's Disease and West Nile Virus.