Creechies

Before we came, we read about some of the different critters that we would likely encounter. For some reason, I hadn’t paid much attention to the description of creechies. I was more concerned about the tumbu flies that would be laying eggs in my clothing. We iron everything to kill them so that the larva do not borrow into our skin. I’ve heard too many stories about squeezing the little worms out of you skin, yet I won’t be too shocked if somebody ends up with one, or many. At this point, our main pest has been the creechies. They are very small, but quite terrifying. They seem to love our fluorescent lights and we find them in various places throughout the house, especially in the bathroom around the shower. We have been warned to never smash one that lands on your skin. Instead you must flick it off. When you smash them, they release an acid that causes burns on your skin. I am certain I have not intentionally squashed any of them, except for the ones that are on the floor or the wall that I’ve hit with my flip flop. This past Sunday, however, Dale ended up with a burn on his forehead, I received one on my neck, and later in the week, Jonathan suddenly had one appear on his leg, and Micah had one on his neck.

There are very large spiders as well. They seem to come out only at night, and I think maybe they will eat some of the bugs that we do not like. If you were ever at our house in California, you will know that we were somewhat fascinated with praying mantises. We have enjoyed seeing many of them here. Also some varieties that are different in color from what we are used to. They are also quite large and seem to be everywhere, including the backs of the pews in church. The saying, “Ants in your pants” has been given new meaning for us this past week. I bet you could have guessed, the ants are also pretty big, and there are many of them. I am not sure if they bite or simply have little pinchers on them, but it is not uncommon to come back from a venture out into the nearby forest and feel these sharp pinches on your skin. Jonathan performed a very nice little dance as we removed his clothing after a venture of this sort.