First, let me say, I was expecting worse. Maybe I just exaggerated the potential bug situation while living in a tropical climate to prepare myself; maybe I have yet to encounter the extent of the critters that reside here. Either way, I feel like I am handling the insects very well; there have been almost no high pitched screams(I’ve been known to lose control of my vocal cords when surprised). As I was first adjusting to life in Asia the mosquito bites were plentiful, large and itched intensely but they are somewhat familiar. The cockroaches that you quickly learn to spot on the sidewalk don’t bother me as much as some(one friend got so startled she threw her bag on the ground in an attempt to squash it and only succeeded in smashing the bottle of whiskey we had just purchased. It was a travesty). I’m fine with the cockroaches as long as they don’t run over my foot, and they can move very fast. 

After getting used to the bugs I see out and about on the street I had to come to grips with the ones that invade my apartment. The little beetles that fly into my room when I leave my balcony door open to get some fresh air are ok. Sometimes they land in my hair and I hate that but they’re also very slow so I can kill them easily(sorry I’m not a Buddhist). I’ve also come up with a pretty good system of turning my bathroom light on and turning off the overhead light in my room when I leave the door open so the bugs aren’t attracted to the light. My true nemesis in my apartment are the ants! 

I hate these tiny red ants that creep through any crack and go everywhere. They don’t bite me so they are more annoying than anything else but they are masters at sniffing out food. They get into everything; unopened boxes of cereal, the slightest drop of fruit juice, a snickers wrapper. I would wake up so many mornings to my trash can covered in an army of them marching in a line right out the door. They even crawl all over my toothbrush!!! I resorted to keeping all my food in the fridge just for the sealed door and I still found some in there, although they had died from the cold. They also love to crawl into my computer so working on my computer now entails the periodic pause as I grab an ant crawling on the screen or keyboard and squish it between my fingers. For a while there was a trail of them along the wall next to my bed, uuugghhh! I’ve learned to tolerate them but I really despise the fact that if I left some food or a dirty dish out for even one minute it would be swarmed. Then I was saved! A friend told me about some ant chalk that you draw on the wall around windows and doors and it stops them. Well, most of them, but it is a much more manageable population. 

The other regular house guests I have are the geckos. The first one I saw went scrambling up the wall as I closed the curtain and there was definitely a frightful scream then. However, I like them. They are cute and I like to think they eat some of the ants so they are on my side. Thankfully I have not come face to face with any large spiders but I’m sure that will not be the case for much longer(as much as it pains me to say it) because I’m planning on doing a lot of camping in the next month. In fact, it’s likely that I will meet worse critters than spiders while camping, so stay tuned.