Saturday, May 15, 2010

Bugs, Spiders and Other Small Animals

So, small critters of Nepal.
By far my favourite, and the one that is most visible, is the little green geckos that inhabit our living room. They're only a few inches long, including tail, and bright green. We first noticed them in the dining room, where these were at least half a dozen in the first week. They are always on the wall or ceiling, almost never the floor, hiding behind the curtain. Over time we found them in the kitchen, Amy and Kirsten's room, and eventually mine and Caitlin's room. Affectionately christened with various g names - we had no idea about male and female, and couldn't tell them apart, so first randomly assigned a name - they were the most constant animal presence in the house. The sound they make became quite reassuring after a while; I usually heard it in the evening or at night when getting ready for bed.
In addition to geckos, there are numerous spiders and little bugs with way too many legs. On average the spiders are larger than the ones at home, and these are two that have stuck in my memory. The first was about 2-3 inches wide (including legs), and had a face off with a gecko in our kitchen. For a few minutes they both advanced and retreated until the gecko backed down - yes, there is so little to do sometimes that this qualified as entertainment.
The second spider was found under the sink of the kitchen in Gorkha. With legs, it was easily as big as my hand. And the legs weren't very long. It looked like a dock spider on steroids. It was news for several weeks.
Like everywhere else in the world there are cockroaches. Our house managed to avoid them for over a month, and only found 3 or 4 in the course of 3 months. We didn't actually find any until Pip, in Besi, sent a text asking if we'd had any. We found the first two within five minutes of receiving it! They're fun to kill though - lots of Raid.
And bedbugs. I managed to avoid them for almost 3 months, but my luck ran out in Lumbini. The first night I slept under my sleeping bag, with my calves on the blanket at the bottom of the bed. In the morning it looked like I had chicken pox! Thankfully they didn't itch.
There's sometimes some sort of flying insect that also looks like it's on steroids, and is surprisingly heavy and a noisy flier. Caitlin killed one in our room one night - said the only way it would die was under a heavy book.
On the whole, the bugs and spiders aren't that different from those at home - they're just bigger. Interesting bugs are just part of the walls, sometimes fun to watch. Down in the Terai mosquito season has unfortunately begun, but what's spring with no mosquitoes?

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