Critters: friend or foe?

Well I'm happy to say that I survived with Chris being out of town in Chicago for a few days last week. .... I also survived a few bugs! Mosquitos, cockroaches, bees, sand bugs, iguanas, stray dogs, and a quite a few geckos. Plus a few frogs or rather toads and the occasional crab.

It's not so bad when I have Kami and Lincoln to the rescue with a shoe or a container. Kamila wanted to keep a gecko as a pet and decided to use a Tupperware to hold it in. Even made holes in the lid. But we let that one go because it's mom was probably looking for the lost baby gecko.... The friendly critters happen to be the spiders (who trap the bugs, who eat the ants) and we have a few but not too scary. Nothing bigger than a quarter (25 cents). Those I can handle. Squish or send out the door.

Gecko above the AC in our bedroom

Note - baby gecko hanging out above the air unit in the picture above.  The gecko or rather the baby iguanas??? The kids find rather funny when I scream. Of course I say "Gecko!" and Kami is ready to pick it up. Though she does remind me NOT to pick it up from it's tail.
As if....
I've had those little critters behind the stove, in the bedroom, in the living room and of course outside walls. Kami thinks they are the cutest pets. Well at least they are low maintenance. LOL plus: They don't make noise but they can sure run fast!

Mosquitos - ha! I still have scabs that are not healing and I'm almost out of caladryl lotion. $6 at the Rey for a bottle.

I've also mistaken a small Panamanian bee for a mosquito. Rather interesting bee. My hand swelled up and remained puffy for a day. Thanks for the benadryl it acted quick in reducing the swelling. Note to self about striped "mosquitos". We do apply almost ritually OFF! Spray when we step outside or go out to dinner. I even carry a can in the car. Here on the beach we have MosquitoTime - between 5:30-7:30 depending on the humidity and temperature. It gets dark around 6-6:30 so when the sun starts going down, the Mosquitos come out to play.

I've been pretty diligent about keeping food tightly sealed, zip locs, or refrigerating things because of cockroaches. But I must say cockroaches not only love food, but also damp towels. For example, kids had a few damp towels from swimming in the dirty clothes hamper. Yup. You guessed. I was sorting out the clothes, put them in the laundry basket to bring to wash. Out of the corner of my eye I knew I saw something. My nerves said it was a gecko. However, as I'm walking with the dirty towels basket, I screamed bloody murder because this cockroach with wings landed on my shoulder. I drop the basket, shake the bug off and it flew inside my shirt!! Talk about sweating. I'm shaking and too afraid to feel the critter on my skin until I finally see it come out on the floor. I had our little neighbor kid Jose over to play at the time, and he squished the critter for me. But it was still moving. Kamila grabbed another shoe and smashed it. That critter had a little funky post death smell. I left it on the stairs for the cleaning lady to pick up the next day. That was a about 2 1/2 inches HUGE!!

Similar to the cockroach I encountered

Lesson is to do the wash ASAP. Ugh!

In the mornings, almost everyday, Lincoln cleans the pool.  Every now and then we have a crab (or two or three) floating or a frog in the pool.  We have also left a door open and a big toad went inside the house. We had to chase it out.

For a city girl, I think I'm adjusting pretty well to the climate, culture and little critters. At least I find myself not screaming any more.  Just calling the kids to come get rid of it.  No problemo. :)

-Lita