Creatures

I don't consider myself to be living in a terribly rustic setting. I have water, electricity, a refrigerator, and notably, the internet. However, my recent interactions with creatures has made it dawn on me that I am still living kind of rustic. My cement block house with an opening all along the roof and below my door allows for all sorts of creatures to appear in my daily life. Here are a few that I've been involved with in just the last week.


The Wasp
I don't really know much about a typical wasp, but there is this one type of wasp in this area that has really made an impression on me. They are busy! They're pesky also because they are always around and make a considerably loud noise considering their size. Anyhow, I'm featuring them because these little workers have built their homes in my home. With perseverance. They build long hollow tubes on the wall out of a mud they transport from somewhere...I am curious where it comes from. Often one will start construction in my house right above where I'm working, so I'll quickly use the end of my broom to knock down the fresh mud because I literally can't hear myself think when they are building. Plus, if it is in a pretty location that will make it ugly I'd rather not look at it. One day, however, I spent the entire day out of the house. In the seven hours I was gone one little wasp built a tube over three inches. I was impressed. Then I sadly knocked it down. I swear I don't have anything against wasps I just don't want them raising their babies above my bed.


The Scorpion
I used to see scorpions a lot more when I first moved in - maybe I've scared them all away. In the last week though I've seen two little guys. I don't know if they were babies or just a small species, but literally they were as long as my pinky fingernail. (I didn't measure with my pinky, I'm just estimating. Small or not their sting probably hurts.) One of them I saw because I was up late one night and in the calm of the night I heard a rustling coming from a box in the corner. I assumed it was a mouse or a rat (there's enough material on those guys for a whole post), but I wasn't feeling adventurous so I left it alone. The next day, with my boyfriend at my side, we went through the box and the only thing that was there was this little scorpion. Here it is apparently bad luck to kill a scorpion, so my boyfriend just cut off its stinger and threw it out the window...I'm not sure which is more humane.


The Toad
I don't know if the toads here are just kind of dumb, but they are always wandering everywhere and getting killed. If I'm walking around after a storm I always see a few plastered to the road. The other night I had a little dark-yellow visitor. The space under my door is enough for some creatures to get in and somehow this toad found its way under my door. He hopped a bit, but didn't get too far into the house. Thankfully all it took was a little sweeping and he was on his way. Goodbye Mr. Toad!


The Cockroach
The same night that I thought I had a mouse and it just turned out to be a scorpion, I was convinced that I really need to wash everything well all of the time. Or just deal with a myriad of sicknesses I could acquire. It was late and I was up finishing Dan Brown's newest book and I think the creatures of the night know my schedule. So around 10:00 (way past my normal bedtime), all of the creatures started to come out, not realizing my unusual presence. And what disgusted me the most was witnessing a pair of cockroaches scuttling over everything. Namely my dining room table and entire kitchen area. Ewwww. I reorganized the room the next day hoping to throw off the cockroaches for a few nights, but I'm still grossed out.


The Tick
I get ticks here with some frequency. I guess just walking around in the monte (brush) does it to me every time. The thing with ticks here is that they are tiny. And they don't even enlarge much when they've filled up on your blood. So discovering them sometimes takes days. I think I'm done with this one - I don't like ticks or pulling them off of me. And I even dreamt about one last night. Yuck.


The Palomilla (type of moth)
During the first couple of storms of the "winter" there is a massive outburst of these little bugs. I translated their name, but I really don't think they are moths. Anyhow, they are these little black guys with long skinny wings. The funny think about them is that their wings fall off really easily. I had one crawling on my arm while washing dishes yesterday and blew at it to get it to move (since my hands were all soapy), and all I did was blow off its wings. The little body of the guy was wriggling around on my arm still. Can it still live after that? So right now all of the spider webs in my house are full of these little black wings. It's really more funny than unnerving or disgusting. Though they can cause trouble when getting over excited. I had one fly in my ear last year and had to have a friend pull it out with tweezers. Yikes.


The Ants
There are ants here as there are everywhere, but there seem to just be a ton. I think I've got some holes in my house where they are regularly living and there's always some type of brown waste of theirs spilling out. The worst though are the ants that bite because man are they vicious. I hopped down to my "backyard" the other day to collect some kindling for my stove and was walking around when I stepped on a nest. My foot had a scrape on it and that's what they all went for. I had maybe twenty bites on my foot, but was able to shake off the rest of the ants before they bit me. I walked a different direction in order to try to get a little work done and conveniently stepped (with the same foot, mind you), into another freaking nest. Even with somewhat quick reflexes and jumping around a bit I still walked away with no fewer than 40 white painful bites on my one foot. Damn ants.

There are plenty of other creatures that I'm in contact with on a regular basis. I had a hairy horse spider visit just this morning. I've gotten pretty used to all of the creatures, though occasionally one will surprise me or scare me. There are little moments though when these creatures remind me that I'm living out in the countryside and yup, it's kind of rustic.