Within the span of 2 days I found two scorpions in my room (one in my bed) and one centipede. For those of you unfamiliar with tropical centipedes, let me educate you about them. They bite. It hurts. I will assume that you know the same is true of scorpions.
This rash of poisonous pests led me to check the PCV Mcar Health Handbook looking for answers. What to do if bitten or stung by one of these creatures? “Call the medical office immediately.” Ominous.
These creatures are added to the ecosystem of my room. I have 4 spiders working round the clock to rid the place of mosquitoes. I have a team of ants that clean up the crumbs from my table. I have been trying to lure in lizards, but so far only have one vagrant inside and one that lives near my window on the outside. There are some free-loading cockroaches that do nothing to earn their keep, so I sweep them out when I find them. Most mornings there is one.
I wonder what they do when I sweep them out. I don’t like to kill things, so I leave them to go wherever they want. Probably into my landlord’s house, or back into mine. But what to do with the poisonous critters? There are kids living near me. I cannot just let them go wherever they please. The centipede went straight under one of the kid’s hats that was lying on the ground. I showed it to them and they killed it. I killed one of the scorpions myself, but I didn’t feel right about it.
I seem to be on a streak of pests and I guess I’ll just have to decide what to do about it tomorrow morning when I find out what other surprises this place has in store for me.
A few days later.....I have not had any visitors since those two crowded days. I was briefly threatened by a snake today on top of a mountain near my village, but this time it was me invading her territory. I am getting more and more lizards, finally. Perhaps they will eat some of the mosquitoes and drive out the cockroaches. One can only hope to attract attention from the right creatures, not to keep them out entirely.
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Brian, on the topic of critters. The scorpions will eat lots of bugs they are formidable insectivors, the cockroaches will eat lots of debris and garbage and if you get too many of them I would guess you will have some ¨whiptail scropions¨ that specialize in killing cockroaches. In no time you will have a regular ecosystem. I deal with my scorpions by throwing them live over the fence to the evangelicals, I figure they balance eachother out. There are no venomous snakes native to Madagascar so don´t let them scare you too much.
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