Creepy Crawly Things

Because Sefhare is in an area of Botswana that tends to get more rain than the rest of Botswana, the bugs here are particularly fearsome. I will break down the creepy crawlies I have encountered since coming here for you:

Spiders: Generally harmless. I tend to leave them alone because they kill the mosquitos in my house. 

Centipedes: I saw a centipede that was as long as my forearm and as thick as my big toe crawling on my porch the other morning. I chased it away with a broom.

Beetles: Beetles are attracted to any light. They are thick and black. They tend to fall from my bedroom ceiling and make a loud crack sound when they hit the floor. However, they are harmless, and I sleep with a mosquito net, so any Beetles that would fall on me while sleeping are caught in the net.

Cockroaches: The first night in Sefhare, I battled a cockroach that was coming up from the pipes in my tub. It was gross and I finally managed to kill it by spraying it with about half a can of this wonderful bug insecticide called DOOM. However, I couldn’t push it back into the pipes because it was so big. I pushed as much of it back into the pipes as I could, however its antennae were still peeping up from the pipes. So I plucked its antennae from it’s head and hoped it would eventually disintegrate. I was squealing a lot during this encounter.

Thankfully, the only other bad encounter with a cockroach was when one the size of my pointer finger climbed down my wall (I was doing crunches, and when I leaned back I saw the little bugger climbing down from my wall). I immediately sprayed it with DOOM and (because of where it climbed out of) it fell in my bed frame. This caused me to spend several painful minutes searching carefully in my bed frame to see where it fell. As soon as I found it, I killed it with a shoe. Luckily, it was pretty disoriented from the DOOM and so it didn’t put up much of a struggle.

Scorpions: My. Worst. Nightmare. They are EVERYWHERE. They are huge, usually about the size of the palm of my hand. I have never hated bugs before, and was not scared when killing them in the States, but these scorpions are terrifying. They are also bright orange and hairy, which is gross.

The other night, I woke up in the middle of the night because I heard a squeaking/scratching sound coming from somewhere in my room. I turned on my very handy headlamp (thanks, Dad!) and saw a scorpion the size of my hand eating something it had just killed on my floor. I decided not to try and kill it, and instead tucked my mosquito net closer into my bed, and tried to go back to sleep. The next morning, I found the remains of its kill on my floor, along with something else that had also been eaten on my floor.

This is a picture of a scorpion I killed in my bathtub my first morning in Sefhare (and yes, that is my footprint you see around it):

I’ve seen scorpions run out of my laundry and be nestled in clothing I am about to wear. I check everything before I put it on now.  Just to be safe.

Yesterday the water went out. Luckily, I was able to store some water in a big pot to use later for brushing my teeth and drinking. I then left the pot on the counter of my sink. I came back half an hour later and a scorpion had fallen in and drowned to death in my drinking water.

Luckily, I don’t believe they are poisonous. The general rule of thumb that a PCV told me is this: If the pincers are bigger than the tail, it means that the primary way it catches its prey is by it pincers, and not stinging it with its tail. The pincers on the scorpions I have killed here are bigger than the tail, so… win?

Lizards: I have a family of lizards that live in my house. There is an adult and a few baby lizards. I have found them in almost every room in my house, but I tend to leave them alone because they eat the bugs.

In summation: DOOM is great. And I hate bugs in Botswana.