Many Peace Corps volunteers adopt a pet at some point during their two year service. I admit that I’ve considered the idea but never seriously, as the responsibility of caring for any animal here is most likely more than I would want to take on. “Pet” means something different here than in the states; animals rarely receive the level of affection, attention, and coddling that Americans lavish on their beloved furry friends. Instead, pets are guard animals, pest control, and scrap clean-up. They are generally left to their own devices, and are rarely kept indoors (or, to be honest, kept at all – most spend their days wandering the streets, looking for food or potential mates). However, being an American, I would most likely struggle with this method of pet ownership. I would want to keep my pet safe and comfortable, and possibly have it stay in my room. Which would then mean I would need to constantly be worried about a host of insects, parasites, and general filthiness that the pets here carry with them. Then there are the vaccinations, the spaying or neutering (sadly underused here), the food, and pet care while I am working or traveling… See what I mean? Too much trouble for lazy me.
But I may have found another solution. I can just consider all of the various creatures that invade my room on a daily basis my new, albeit temporary, pets. For example, there are the toads that visit me after rain storms. Or the bees that fly in after visiting the branches of the flowering trees that drape over my roof. Or the mice that make nightly appearances, with their incredible ability to scale walls or find and devour any scrap of food, no matter how small, well-packaged, or hidden. Sometimes they also eat things that I would not consider to be food. Which brings me to a story about another “pet” – one that I hope does not make a reappearance.
Thursday night, as I prepared myself for bed, I noticed a large dark blotch on the wall near my shoes. I went to inspect this unidentifiable form, then quickly recoiled – it was a scorpion. Dark brown, fat, with a body the size of a half dollar. What to do? I could attempt to grab one of the shoes and squash it, but it was so close to the shoe that this might provoke an attack. Furthermore, I am not known for my accuracy when attempting to kill insects on vertical surfaces; if I missed, would it run toward my feet? Jump at my hand? I wasn’t willing to risk it.
So I did the next best thing. Standing on the corner of my bed, I grabbed my can of Raid, aimed, and began firing. At which point, I realized that this was not just any scorpion. This was a mother scorpion. With dozens of baby scorpions, all riding on its back. As the Raid worked it’s horrifyingly toxic magic, the family was left twitching on the floor. I blasted everything a bit longer for good measure, then tucked myself under my mosquito net, turned off the light, and struggled to breathe (made difficult by my lingering terror and the overwhelming cloud of toxic fumes).
I slept poorly that night, and awoke feeling exhausted and ill. I climbed out of bed and went over to the corner to examine the remains of my kill and determine clean-up processes, only to find….nothing. The corpses had disappeared completely, leaving a chemically saturated but otherwise clean patch of floor. I panicked. Had I been wrong about the effectiveness of the Raid? Were they simply wet, and were now lying in wait, plotting their revenge? Once again, I lost my breath. Then, it came back to me. The scuttling and crunching during the night. I asked around, and had a very helpful friend back home do some digging, and it turns out….mice will eat dead scorpions. Even toxic scorpion corpses. I don’t know if this makes me more afraid of the mice, but I can rest easier knowing that I don’t have a family of reanimated scorpions out to kill me.
The funny thing? I may have avoided a scorpion sting on Thursday, but last night as I was getting ready for bed, I was bitten by yet another, more common visitor: a cricket. Which, according to the research conducted by my friend, will also eat scorpion if given the opportunity.
Word of the week: Alacran – scorpion.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFull-figured mice (sometimes disguised as rats) will also eat scorpions. There are very few things that eat scorpions though and not so much info on the interwebs about it. Sounds like 1. you've got all the right "pets" to avoid more scorpion visits and 2. your very helpful friend had to dig deep into the pages of the Google for these answers. He/she deserves a cookie :P
ReplyDeleteEw ... I think you're much better equipped to handle such situations than Amy and I - we would have tried to throw spoons at it!
ReplyDelete