Cute Little Critter

This is the smallest lizard we’ve ever seen.  He was crawling around our dinner table when dextrous Andy commenced chasing him down.  On the list of critters and bugs that inhabit our environs this little guy ranks at the top of the cuteness scale - but, that ain’t saying much!

Shock and Awe!

Shock and awe, which is actually a military doctrine from 1996 (technically known as “rapid dominance”), is our approach to battling an awe-somely indefatigable yet tiny enemy:  the mosquito.  With Dengue Fever an actual, but fairly rare, threat in Santo Domingo we are trying to best these little pests.  Among our arsenal of weaponry is the highly entertaining “mosquito bat” - the racket pictured above.  It electrocutes mosquitoes, flies, etc. in mid-air with a satisfying zap.  Shockingly fun!   

Lizards, Bugs, and Ants, Oh My!

Interesting animals and insects abound here.  As Joselyn (our nana) told me, “Bienvenido a el tercer mundo.  Welcome to the third world.”  The lizards are quite cute and the spiders don’t bother me either (anything that eats insects is A-ok).  However, I’m less keen on the ants, mosquitos, cockroaches, mice, and little bugs that invade your rice.


Our old apartment had a regular flow of tiny little ants all over the kitchen counter and in the living room.  They’re particularly partial to egg yolk.  Anyhow, no matter how many I squished, more materialized from somewhere - even smack in the middle of a marble living room floor.  Where oh where do they come from?

Hannah likes to sprinkle her food crumbs on the floor, “I’m feeding the ants.”  Great.  She thinks they’re pets.

Thankfully the ants don’t bite, and the little bugs in my rice float when you add water.  Perhaps God designed them light-weight for easy skimming.

Fumigation

Mosquitos.  Everywhere.  And it’s not even summer yet when they’re far worse.  Unlike flies (which we also have) the little buggers are near impossible to kill ... until they’re so heavy with your blood that they can’t fly properly.  Then you can squish them as they bounce along the floor (if you don’t mind a mess).  

We’re all getting eaten alive - except Andy.  Our new apartment has huge open windows with only wooden shutters (no screens), which exacerbates the problem. 

Monday morning, Hannah woke up with swollen fingers and toes from all of her bites.  She even had 2 on her eyelid.  She itches them until they bleed and thus looks frightful.  Naomi is covered in pristine un-itched little red bumps.  It looks like she has measles.  

If this weren’t enough I found fresh mouse poo on the kitchen counter (I’d cleaned up lots of dry mouse droppings the day before - please oh please let it not be a rat).  

Enough.  I scheduled the fumigator for Tuesday.  Not sure how safe it is to have someone spray bug killer inside your house.  Thankfully he covered the dishes with a plastic bag (see picture above) and turned Naomi’s crib mattress upside down.  Ha.  Pick your poison.

We’ll also have to figure out a screen solution.  Every critter in the area can currently crawl, fly, or walk into our new apartment.  Eeep.

Pies Sucios. Dirty Feet.

I’m told that women here mop their floors daily.  Dominicans are very clean.  What am I doing wrong?  In a desperate attempt to eliminate black-feet syndrome, I even got down on my hands and knees and washed by hand every square inch of our (all-tile or marble) floor.  

The result?  Nada.  Our feet still turn black within minutes of hitting the floor.  Joselyn (our wonderful new nanny) tells me it’s a losing battle against the continually open windows, the pollution.  Daily mopping sounds like an awful sentence.  No soy Dominicana.  I’m going to raise the white flag of defeat and invest in a pair of house shoes for each of us.