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I was gone
from home for about 4 days. When I came home I climbed up my ladder, which is a
log with notches cut in it. Shortly after Rubén stopped by to visit. As he was
climbing my ladder all of a sudden he stopped, jumped down to the ground, and
started running away from the house yelling something in Emberá. Surprised and
confused, I asked him what happened. He said, “There’s a hornets’ nest on your
ladder! Those things really sting hard…” Sure enough, I looked and they had
started a huge nest on the underside of the log where I couldn’t see. I felt
bad for being so unwelcoming to visitors, seeing how people couldn’t even get
into my house without getting stung by hornets. I thought maybe I could light
it on fire and burn them out, but then I remembered that my roof is made of
dry, very flammable leaves – not worth the risk. Rubén had the idea to use
boiling water kill them. So I poured a pot of boiling water on the nest, and
killed about half of the hornets. The other half were not too happy about that.
Now my only exit from the house, which is 8 feet above the ground, was blocked
by a raging swarm of angry hornets. Thinking maybe they would calm down and go
away, I decided to get out of the house. I climbed out one of the windows away
from the ladder to try and reach a floor joist that stuck out from the side of
the house and swing down. As soon as I reached it and found my balance on this
plank, I came face to face with a nest of large orange and yellow wasps. They
had also made themselves at home, but in the roof instead.
Living in
my house is a lot like living outside. Basically any living creature smaller
than a Panamanian child can and will get into my house at any time: bats, rats,
cockroaches, frogs, ants, lizards, scorpions, tarantulas, caterpillars, and of
course mosquitoes and sand flies. While having a roof made of leaves is great
for keeping the house cool, it has also developed its own ecosystem in the
spaces between leaves.
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| When ants attack... |
A few days
ago I had an infestation of ants. And when I say infestation, I mean it was
serious. I got out of bed early in the morning while it was still dark, and
felt things crawling all over my feet. Then those things started biting. It was
a terrible way to wake up. So I hopped across the floor to get my flashlight
and discovered that the floor was moving. The entire house was
covered in ants! They were everywhere -
the floor, the walls, the shelves, the stove. So I ran out to the porch and
jumped into my hammock, the only safe place. Apparently these giant swarms of
ants come through and just eat everything in their path. At least they got rid
of all the cockroaches and spiders and left after a few hours.
Keeping my
food sealed in plastic containers and buckets only keeps the pests at bay to a
point. The good news is that the old food chain works to my advantage, and some
of the critters will eat the others. The bats eat the mosquitoes, the ants eat
the cockroaches, the lizards eat the ants, and well nothing eats the rats.
Until now…
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| Classic Calvin and Hobbes |
The most
recent addition to the house is my new pest exterminator. He is also known as a
kitten. My neighbor’s cat had three of them and I was offered one. I figured it
was for the best, since the cat needed a home I needed some help with the
rodents. So now I share the bachelor pad with Hobbes. He is named for the stuffed
tiger of my favorite comic strip. I guess our relationship not quite the same
as Calvin and Hobbes, maybe not as entertaining. But I’m hoping to raise a
trained killer and have a few less creatures visiting the house.
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| Hobbes, my pest exterminator in training |
I was gone
from home for about 4 days. When I came home I climbed up my ladder, which is a
log with notches cut in it. Shortly after Rubén stopped by to visit. As he was
climbing my ladder all of a sudden he stopped, jumped down to the ground, and
started running away from the house yelling something in Emberá. Surprised and
confused, I asked him what happened. He said, “There’s a hornets’ nest on your
ladder! Those things really sting hard…” Sure enough, I looked and they had
started a huge nest on the underside of the log where I couldn’t see. I felt
bad for being so unwelcoming to visitors, seeing how people couldn’t even get
into my house without getting stung by hornets. I thought maybe I could light
it on fire and burn them out, but then I remembered that my roof is made of
dry, very flammable leaves – not worth the risk. Rubén had the idea to use
boiling water kill them. So I poured a pot of boiling water on the nest, and
killed about half of the hornets. The other half were not too happy about that.
Now my only exit from the house, which is 8 feet above the ground, was blocked
by a raging swarm of angry hornets. Thinking maybe they would calm down and go
away, I decided to get out of the house. I climbed out one of the windows away
from the ladder to try and reach a floor joist that stuck out from the side of
the house and swing down. As soon as I reached it and found my balance on this
plank, I came face to face with a nest of large orange and yellow wasps. They
had also made themselves at home, but in the roof instead..JPG)
