A Rodent Eat Rodent World

I finished watching a 2-hour documentary from Animal Planet called  ” Madagascar Diaries.” The program simultaneously energized and terrorized me. And for just a moment I thought “What in the heck am I doing!”

Madagascar is home to thousands of animals, insects, and plants that are only found in Madagascar.  And let us not forget the 80 different species of lemurs.  The island has every different kind of climate and terrain you can envision- deserts, beaches, mountains, rain forest, hot and dry weather to cold and wet.

When one dreams about these exotic places you think about the exotic flowers, animals, birds, beauty, colors, foods, and customs. You try not to think about the bugs and rodents.

We lived on the beautiful Caribbean island of Barbados for a while back in the mid 80’s. Think turquoises blue water, white sandy beaches and eye blinding, clear blue skies. Don’t think lizards, rats, and gigantic cockroaches.

Upon waking on my first morning in Barbados I opened my eyes and found a large green lizard staring down at me from the head board. His long pink, forked tongue flickered in and out of his narrow mouth. I was not sure if he was harmful and did not want to scream or move for fear it would put him in attack mode. I lay perfectly still until my sons, ages 5 and 2, came running into the room. The lizard quickly darted back behind the head board. “Mom!” by son Anthony shouted “Guess what?”  “There are lots of cool green lizards all over the house!”  “Yes, I know!” I replied.  “Don’t touch them, they may be dangerous.”  “No, Mom they aren’t, the gardener showed us how to catch them and if you catch them by the tail, the tail falls off they will grow a new one.”  How thrilling I thought. These lizards lived behind every picture and piece of furniture in the house and walked in and out as if they owned the place.

My two boys were thrilled and began feeding them and naming them.  They named the one who lived behind the refrigerator “Fred” and trained him to come out in the morning and eat small bits of toast while they had breakfast.  The boys had visions of creating a circus act with them.

The cockroaches came next. These were not your mild mannered, pint sized, mid-west cockroaches, which I now laugh at, these cockroaches were as big as rats. They seemed to be immune to any pesticides I used.  But the lizards loved them, so I tolerated the lizard who ate the cockroaches as a main meal and the mosquitos for dessert.

There came other “friendly” creatures in our travels throughout Central America and the Caribbean.  One night while watching a family movie and eating popcorn a smallish mouse came up between the cushions in the couch and held up his tiny hands, looked at us with those bright, beady eyes and begged for a piece of popcorn we were eating.  The boys thought this was hilarious and fed him, he ate it and went back and brought his family of 5 the next night. We discovered they actually lived in the underside of the couch.

The mice I could tolerate, the rats were a different story. If the cock roaches were as big as rats, the rats were as big as cats. They ate through all the heavy Tupperware I kept the rice and flour in and also carried a dangerous disease in their urine. Cats were out of the questions to help tame them since we had family members with cat allergies, so we settled on the next best thing– boa constrictors. They are not poisonous and eat rodents.  We had two as pets and they also lived as they pleased, mostly in a corner in the pantry and they, with the help of some traps, did a good job of keeping the rat population down. But I was never able to keep any household help, once they discovered them they all ran shrieking from the house never to return.

Centipedes were a problem in one place we lived and we discovered the house we lived in was built on a migratory path, so these hideous creatures with a million legs would march through the kitchen, living room and out one of the bedrooms each night.  Sometimes they crawled over my son to get to the window.

Scorpions followed, found in my young sons closet and I was not encouraged by a story the gardener told me of being stung by one in his sleep and describing in detail how it felt as if someone took an axe and split his head open.  Just what I needed to hear! A trip to the Chiquita Banana research lab in La Lima, Honduras, a few miles from our home, to consult with an entomologist confirmed my fears that they also were immune to any pesticide or insecticide.  They suggested getting a chicken to peck them out of their nest in the surrounding yard!

I know that Madagascar will be a beautiful exotic place to live, full of amazing animals, plants, flowers, foods and also full of scary bugs and rodents.  But at least I have had some experience with that. Having lived with lizards to eats the cock roaches, snakes to eat the rats and chickens to eat the scorpions!  

They say it is a dog eat dog world, or in my case, living in “exotic” places  a “rodent eat rodent” world.  

Sometimes I wish insects were just a little more intelligent, just enough so that if I put the heads of their fallen comrades on a toothpick along my window sills they would know I mean business and stay away.

An interesting Madagascar insect!

Madagascar hissing cockroaches!

Yes, this is an insect found in – where else Madagascar!

No matter what part of the world you are in at this time of year I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and the best of 2017. I hope to hear from all of you in the new year as I begin my new job in Madagascar.  I have had a few conference calls with the director in Madagascar, some of the other volunteers and have begun packing. I promise to keep you posted.