Sorry for the late responses but I'm helping with a conference and it's in 2 weeks. It's getting hectic around here.
Sand burrs are like grass sticker burrs but they are buried in the sand. They can get in paw pads and they hurt trying to pull them out. They also hurt when you step bare foot in them.
Ticks and fleas and mosquitoes are the main things. Definitely heartworm prevention is year round down here. The only other thing I can think of would be scorpions and venomous snakes. I've never had a scorpion in my house down here in Houston but have seen them in my mom's house in East Texas. I've been stung by one too.
You'll get the rain bands. Once the tropical storms (TS) or hurricane comes through they usually drop pretty quickly and break apart into strong rain bands once they hit land. We are supposed to be in the low 90s this week so it should be quite pleasant as far as weather goes.
Now to make this even longer, I'll tell you about Moody Gardens. By the way, I have pics of the RF if you would like me to post them. Moody has 3 pyramids - the rainforest, the aquarium, and the discovery museum. I work in the RF and it is a 1 square acre heavily planted free flight aviary. We are a zoo but the largest mammals we have are an ocelot and some sloths. So no giraffes or elephants or rhinos. The RF covers 3 regions of RF throughout the world and we are revamping the entrance and exit to add in some new exhibits with reptiles. The AQ covers the caribbean, south pacific, south atlantic, and north pacific. There are fur seals, sea lions, and harbor seals, penguins, and lots of fish. The caribbean area has a walkthrough dome in the main tank so the fish are swimming above your head as you walk through. The discovery museum is a changing exhibit area but right now it has a music exhibit that is interactive and great fun for kids. And within the next month we will start setting up for our Festival of Lights exhibit. Basically Christmas lights. Sorry this is so long.