Nov 25, 2008

Bug Wars

So the past 24 hours have been a lesson in rain forest bugs. First the night started off with a few big wood roaches sneaking into our little house. No big deal for me since I grew up in roach-infested New Orleans...but Allison screamed like a little girl...and I had to kill them for her. It was really funny because she is not a girly-girl, she just hates roaches and spiders.

Later that night I killed about 200 fire ants in my bedroom...they found some crumbs from an orange muffin I bought from a bakery in La Ceiba and were trying to carry my whole purse out the door. Allison heard me smacking them with my shoe and asked what I was killing...so I went in her room and told her about the ants...when I spotted another big roach on her sneaker. She screamed and scared me and the roach...but luckily in all of the commotion the roach met it's maker.

Back in my room while I was getting ready for bed I noticed this silver looking cocoon on the wall. I had seen them before on the walls and asked Wendy what they were. Turns out that they are silver fish eggs...yuck! Anyway...the one on my wall was furry and it was moooving...it was hatching silverfish! I had to stop my stomach from turning as I watched it begin to spit out these really gros looking bugs. I smushed it with a piece of paper and then went cocoon hunting in the rest of the house.

This morning at clinic I came face to face with a panicked Allison...she was white as a sheet and breathing heavy...she barely got out the word tarantula between short pained breaths. It turns out there really was a tarantula crawling out of the courtyard in the clinic...a little old lady killed it with her sandal. It was pretty big too...about 3" in diameter including the legs.

Then about 30 minutes later we killed another big spider...about the same size as the tarantula but it wasn't as meaty...it had really long legs but a tiny body. Rachel killed that one with a broom...and broke the broom in half trying to get it!

Next us was a close encounter of the termite kind...we busted up 3 big termite nests from our new house and then fed them to the Williams' chickens...they went nuts over them!

Needless to say Allison and I are getting a crash course on the local wild life. All of the rain is driving the bugs inside and driving us crazy!

2 comments:

Laura Ferry-Jimenez said...

that's right, who's scared of a roach after living in nawlins! :) this post while hilarious and gross reminded me of when we were on mission in mexico. I was the leader and heard commotion as the teen girls were showering. yup, I had to save them from a tarantula in the shower stall. oh, what a great trip - just like yours is shaping up to be!

happy thanksgiving!!!

love, - laura

Kelly Pitts said...

Ha.. welcome to the mission field! I'm glad none of them got you guys.