The Ten Plagues

The green snake found in our backyard!

Dustin holding the dead green snake. It's almost as long as he is tall!

The baby black snake that was found in our yard.

The Christmas beetle

The ants coming out of the hole in our house

The ant hill in our yard

Hello Everyone,
I’m on a roll—2 entries in one week! Wow! Besides having no internet, I thought I’d share with you some of the things that we have been putting up with on a daily basis. I have affectionately been calling them The Ten Plagues.

Plague #1—We usually lose power or water at least once daily. There is no rhyme or reason as to why we lose them so often, or to the timing of it; it could be any time of day or night. I always try to keep up on laundry, and keep all of our water jugs filled because when the water goes off, you never know how long it might be before it comes on again.

Plague #2—We had no TV and no light in our dining room for more than a month. Those have both been fixed now, but what a pain! We were eating dinner in the dark every night. I didn’t mind not having any TV, but Bill and the kids were not too happy about it. On the plus side, everyone did a lot more reading. Can you imagine—no TV, no internet, no light, no restaurants to go to, no movie theaters, no entertainment of any kind, and no transportation to get anywhere, even if there were some place to go!

Plague #3—Bats! Yep, you read it correctly! We had bats in our attic—7 of them! Apparently they were living right over our bedroom, and more specifically, directly over my side of the bed! I would get into bed and hear them up there—all night long! It did not make for good sleeping conditions. All night I would be worried that they were going to come crashing through the ceiling, right on top of me! I think I would have been traumatized for life! In any case, they finally got workers over to get the bats out, and do you know what they did? They hit them over the head with a hammer to kill them! Ouch! I guess I didn’t really know what they would do, but certainly wasn’t expecting that! My house cleaner got bit by one of them when they were trying to get them out! I was really concerned for him and told him to go get rabies shots, but he did not think it was a big deal and just put a bandaid on it. Luckily, we all had rabies shots before we moved here.

Plague #4—Mosquitoes! Once the bats were gone, the mosquitoes became a huge problem. One bat can eat like 600 mosquitoes an hour, and apparently, the bats in our attic were eating their fair share. Once we started battling the mosquitoes, I sort of started missing the bats. The mosquitoes are a problem because they carry malaria, as well as all sorts of other diseases, like yellow fever and African sleeping sickness. We have had all the vaccinations that are available, and we all take Malarone daily to help prevent malaria, but still. We have tried just about every mosquito product out there: sprays, citronella candles, mosquito coils, small devices that emit a high pitched sound that the mosquitoes don’t like, etc. Let me tell you—none of them work! We have screens on all of our windows and don’t leave any doors or windows open, but still they get in. The company also fogs/sprays the camp at least twice a week, but it seems they all must flock to our house to get away from the spray. We have found the best way to get rid of them is to just catch them and squish them in our hands. It has become somewhat of an Olympic sport for us. You’ll see all of us jumping in the air trying to catch them. I think I’ve got the best record. I would say we frequently have 20-30 a night in the house. So far though, we’ve been very lucky and we have not been getting bit. I think Dustin and I have each had 1 or 2 bites, but that’s about it. None of us have come down with malaria yet, but apparently we will need to continue to be checked for it for a year after we return home. If we get anything that resembles the flu, we have to be checked for malaria.

Plague #5—Beetles! Every year, around Christmas time, we get these big, black beetles all over camp. We call them Christmas beetles because that is the time of year they always show up. They don’t seem to be harmful, just annoying. They fly all over the place making a loud buzzing sound. Then, they hit a light, or a wall and they fall to the ground on their backs, and then they can’t get up from there. They just lay there until a bird comes and eats them. Sort of a pathetic life if you ask me.

Plague #6—Termites! I think I already went into detail in a previous post about the termites. The rains bring them out from underground, and you see swarms of them. We keep our doors and windows taped up to keep them out of our house, but when they did get in, it was just like a scene from the movie, The Birds, except with termites.

Plague #7—Frogs! We always leave our shoes outside because of all the mud and dirt here. Well, one morning, I went to put a shoe on, and lo and behold, there was a frog in it! I had started putting my foot into the shoe, felt something, screamed and threw the shoe, and a frog came flying out! Scared the you know what out of me! Jensen had a similar thing happen to her, except she actually was shaking her shoes out before putting them on, and a frog came flying out. She screamed too—just like me! She wouldn’t wear the shoes until I washed them for her.

Plague #8—Bees! One day, I was getting dressed in my bedroom and I heard a buzzing sound. All of the sudden, I saw a bee fly into the room, from our air conditioning unit. I called my house keeper in, and he pulled the bed away from the wall, and found a bunch of bees back there. We looked out of my bedroom window, and saw a whole swarm of bees out there. By that time, it sounded like my whole house was buzzing. My house keeper went outside and looked around the house and said there was a ton of bees out there. I could see them from every window I looked out of. In Arizona, and other places in the US, we worry about the hybrid Africanized bees that have mixed with the ordinary honey bees. Well here, there is no hybrid; these guys are the real deal! The kids and I went up to the school (no one was there because it was winter break) so we could get away from the house. I let someone know about the bees, and someone was sent over to the house. Well, by the time the person got there, he was completely confused. He could not find a single bee! He seriously thought I was a total looney, and was mad that I had wasted his time. Well apparently, the entire swarm of bees up and left, and flew across the street to my neighbor’s house! I’m not really sure what happened to them from there, but they have not been back to my house!!

Plague #9—Ants! Ants are a problem for everyone, I know that. But here, they not only make ant hills all over the yard, they also apparently build their nests inside the walls of the house. I have found tiny holes all around the outside of my house, with ants coming out of them. Luckily, I had brought some of those Combat Ant trays back here with me from the US, and I put those around the house. A few days after putting them out, I started seeing huge piles of dead ants all around the little holes. The ants eat the junk inside the little trays, and then bring it back to their nests, and that kills them. As they die inside the nest, the worker ants start carrying all the dead ants out and putting them in a pile. It’s amazing how huge these piles are. At least I know the Combat Ant trays are working!

Plague #10—Snakes! Yep, my worst fear! We have had 2 snakes in our yard. I do not believe either was dangerous, but you never know. One looked like it could have been a green mamba, and the other a black mamba, but my house keeper said they weren’t dangerous, so I’m assuming he’d know better than I would. The green one was pretty long—close to 4 feet. The black one was just a baby, so he almost looked like a big long worm, and not a snake. My house keeper found the green one in our laundry room, which is outside. It was actually coiled up inside of an electrical receptacle, in the laundry room. I am so glad he found it, and not me!! My house keeper took care of both of them. The green one he killed, and the black one he threw over our fence. I am very happy to have this house cleaner. Between the bees and the snakes, not to mention that he does a decent job cleaning the house, he has been well worth the money! I almost forgot—Jensen saw a snake too, though not in our yard. It was a baby cobra! It was near her friend’s house, in a drainage ditch. They called the snake catcher to come deal with it, but then it started pouring rain, and by the time he got there, the snake could not be found.
So there you have it. My very own Ten Plagues! Just what I wanted! Now you have an idea of some of the things that keep me on my toes here!

Hope this blog entry finds everyone well, and without plagues of your own!

Cheers!
Laurie