More Animals

     I haven't written much about animals so I thought that today it would be appropriate to write on the most common type of animal that we find here, bugs.  It is flying ant (termite) season.  After a certain amount of rain, something triggers the migration of the termites and out they come.  They look like large ants but they sprout wings and emerge all together in large swarms.  They will head to the lights like many flying insects and you can see them swarming in the halo of the overhead lights.  You can see them collect in the .5% chlorine step buckets that we use to disinfect our boots.  There were so many there this morning that you had to depress the mass of them to get your boot soles wet.  Then they shed there wings which also litter the walking paths. In some areas, there are so many that you can't avoid stepping on a few as you walk.  Then, in another day or two they are gone, back underground.

     There are a lot of other notable insects as well.  Certainly there are a lot of mosquitos but not as many as I had feared.  This may change when during rainy season when water starts pooling everywhere.  Another insect that is prominent is the rhinoceros beetle.  This critter can be almost 2 inches long and an inch thick.  It does have a  large horn similar to a rhinosorus.  It doesn't bother anyone, but it does occasionally freak out one of the expat nurses.  Then there is the Nairobi bug.  It is a brightly colored half inch long bug that doesn't seem particularly impressive.  However, you do need to be careful of insects that don't need to camouflage themselves.   This one secretes, basically oozes, a toxin that causes a nice burn on the skin.  You don't even need to hit it, even brushing it off can get enough of the toxin on you to cause a nasty burn.  There have been several of the expat staff who have had a bad encounter with the Nairobi bug.

     Of course there are many other insects, spiders etc located here.  Some are familiar like ants, house flys etc.  Some are big and juicy but don't cause any problem except cleaning your boots when you accidentally step on them.  Also, these insect support a great many insectivores, but there always seems to be many more insects than there are of whatever might catch them.  I guess I could do with a few less of the bugs.  I'm rooting for the insectivores, except when they are in my room.