Loading ...I grew up in Wisconsin, so I know about the winters!! Moved to Hawaii at the tender age of 25 and never looked back.
Yes, we have bugs. Roaches if you don’t keep your kitchen and house clean. A few years back the Big Island here got invaded by Coqui frogs when a nursery here imported shrubs from Puerto Rico that had frog eggs attached. They have infested the wet areas now in hordes with their loud, high pitched ‘peeps’ that many people find hard to sleep with.
We also got ‘little fire ants’ from somewhere that are rampant on this island. Nasty little burning, itching welts from the bites. The university developed a DIY ant bait of a protein gel with a specific insect growth regulator. It’s not an outright poison, and can be applied to fruit trees with no danger. The ants eat the bait and feed the larvae and queen, and it sterilizes them so they cannot reproduce. It can take six months or more for the colony to finally die out, but it has been fairly effective in keeping the ants down in certain wild areas. I eliminated them from my property when I bought it, but I have a wild jungle lot next to me that is a constant source of them, and I treat the perimeter every few months.
The state is trying hard to prevent the ants and frogs from getting to the other islands. Occasional outbreaks on Maui and Oahu are quickly addressed and eliminated while small.
Now about the Volcano… we have a geothermal power plant here very near the 2018 eruption. Two of the twelve ‘wells’ were covered by lava, but the main plant was surrounded but untouched by lava. They have redrilled the two wells and the geothermal plant was just recently restarted again. It provides 25% of the electric power for this island.