Friday, May 6, 2011

Cockroaches



I am thinking about cockroaches today because one stared me down throughout lunch today, just daring me to come at him. I ignored him until I finished my lunch, determined that the enjoyment of my delicious chicken jambalaya burritos would not be disturbed by the likes of him.

I’m no expert, but I do live in the home of hissing cockroaches. The island of Madagascar, that is, not my hotel home specifically. The hotel itself is very clean, there’s just nothing you can do to fully keep those creepy crawlers out.

Downstairs there is a keyboard. My friend was having a hard time playing it, so took it apart to see what was broken. Nothing was broken. The keyboard was full of dead cockroaches. He removed them and the keyboard went back to playing without issue. Ew.

I lived my entire life thinking cockroaches would only come if there was food or dirt for them. This is incorrect. While those might draw them more mightily, they also show up in my MEDICAL cabinet. These bottles of meds are sealed and plastic. Where is the draw in that??? Our stored food is all sealed or in gallon Ziplock bags and they still nose around in there at night. They don’t get anything; they’re just rude.

There are multiple kinds of cockroaches in Madagascar. How do I know this? I have heard hissing cockroaches fight in my kitchen. Hissing cockroaches do not fly. I was dive-bombed by a flying cockroach last night. Thus, there must be more than just the hissers.

These are a few of my cockroach thoughts that I decided to share with you. Hope they enhanced your day. ;)

5 comments:

Sarah said...

I love your cockroach thoughts! Made me smile. Hope they're not being too rude to you.
Enjoy your day!

Tamara Gentuso said...

hahaha! Familiarity changes the way you think about them, doesn't it?!? And how you react to them.

When we were in Cote d'Ivoire, we found a dead cockroach one day in the hallway. He measured CLOSE TO TWO INCHES. NO JOKE. That does not include the antennae thingies...

When it came time to deliver my third son, Paul had a delivery bed from the hospital brought to the house (I wasn't too keen on being inspected by a constant stream of curious folk, bless 'em anyway!). We had a sudden and marked increase in the visible cockroach population. Upon opening the door to a storage space under the delivery table, I found all surfaces to be dirty...closer inspection with a flashlight revealed that the brown-black bumpiness was NOT filth, but rather it was a solid layer of wiggling cockroaches frozen in the light of day.

Oh well. We sprayed and stomped and hooted and laughed and the night time visitors ceased. The table was spic and span in time for Andrew's arrival a week later!

Anonymous said...

Cara, you made my day! =)

Anonymous said...

I notice you did not send this out until AFTER I came to Mada. I'd say rude & disgusting and I'm glad I only saw a few. Haven't unpacked yet, either.

Tammy, maybe you had better say what country you delivered Andrew!!

Gwyn

Daniel said...

"They don’t get anything; they’re just rude." Love it. Enjoy those cockroaches. I don't envy that aspect of Mada. :)