There are certain things that you have to put up with or learn to live with when you are living in the tropics. One of them is bugs! Yep, no matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to eliminate all of the bugs! As I think about it, though, I have really grown used to living with other little species all around me. I mean, you see cockroaches in the house, ants, mosquitoes and such… and honestly, no matter how hard you try you can’t get rid of them. If the bugs are a huge problem, you can take steps to reduce the number, though.
The ways to reduce the number of bugs are numerous. Of course, you can use sprays or lotions to keep them off of your body. There are mosquito repellents to keep the number of mosquito bites to the minimum. There are sprays and other chemicals you can use to kill cockroaches. There are also natural remedies for many of these things too. But, regardless of the remedy you choose, you will need to learn to tolerate such pests to some extent.
If you are going to the fruit stand or public market, do you know how you can tell which fruit there is the sweetest? Well, you look for the fruit that has ants crawling all over it, and those are the sweet fruits that day! If the fruit was not sweet, the ants would not be there! So, in choosing what to buy, ants can actually be your friend! When you get home with your purchases, just wash them off with water, and the ants will be (mostly) eliminated from the fruit!
I can remember when we first moved here from the States, if I saw ants on food or anywhere outside the house, I would immediately go into action to kill them, or shoo them away to go somewhere else. Now, I pretty much just look at them and go on with what I am doing – no big deal!
How about you, if you are planning to move here do you think you can learn to live with such pests?
Hmmm, an ant just crawled across my screen as I was typing this …. actually, no joke …. a couple months ago I had a problem with the keyboard of this laptop I am using and took it to the computer shop … I stayed while the tech opened it up because I was half-afraid the problem might have been that the machine was crammed full of ants. It wasn't, but not because the ants haven't been trying LoL.
Anyone planning to live here had best be able to make their peace with these little buggers and a bazillion of their larger relatives, because you are going to deal with them. You can't eliminate them by sanitation and you certainly can't spray enough poison everywhere. There is a cute ittle "chalk" sold in retail stores that's alleged to be non-toxic and that will "divert" them form their ant highways … but nothing will eliminate them … just another part of life.
I have travelled for many years but this year the mosquitos decided i was perfect lunch, and worse than that for some unknown reason every bite became a major problem with serious infections and unsightly craters.
Thank god that stage is over, and no one ever found out why I went through such a strange over reaction for a month only, maybe it was the alchol in the body
Dave,
The sprays they have there is kill on contact. That is fine for the little guys inside, but the queen just keeps sending out more.
I was telling Elena, when I move there, I am bringing a case of Terro. It is a thick liquid ant poison. When you first put a drop out, for about 2 days, you will see more ants than you thought were there. They call all their friends and tell them it is a feast. The thing is, it is a poison that they bring back to the nest so the whole nest dies.
Kill the nest, reduce the problem.
Bob,
Next you will be telling us the protein levels of eating all the bug. Maybe fried grasshoppers will be on the menu. LOL
John, I had a similar problem while in Phils earlier this year. Turned out to be a staphylococuss (not sure of spelling) infection which was treated with antibiotics. Came home with a few scars (mostly on legs) as souvineers of my trip. Such is life.
Hey guys i have recently found a product here in the States that worked fantastic on ants. Its called " Combat" ant gel, I own several apatment buildings and for years have used various products to control carpenter and ground ants to no avail. I tried " Combat" ( hell tried everything else !!) and with in 3 days the colonys were not just dead but totally GONE ! Told a pal of mine and he had same results ! Don't know if u can get it there yet but planning on takng a few packages over to inlaws and see if it works there.
Hi Dave Starr – Just a while ago I went over to a friend's house (Klaus, a co-columnist here). I parked my car, opened the door and some kind of flying buy attacked me! It went inside my ear. Luckily, it wasn't able to fly through and exit on the other side! 😆
Hi john – I'm glad to hear that you overcame that problem! Sorry that you had to go through it.
Hi Bruce – Yes, there are sprays that will kill ants on contact, that's not really a problem. Thing is, you still have to get used to them, because everytime you go for a picnic, eat at an outdoor type restaurant, go basically anywhere the you will have to deal with ants and other critters! And, by the way, how did you know what my column tomorrow is about? Indeed there is some excellent protein in those bugs! You have to eat a lot of ants to get your daily supply, though! 😆
Hi Anthony – That can be a serious infection! Quite a memory of the Philippines!
Hi Brian – I don't recall if I've seen that "combat" here or not!
Ok Bob,
Here is a question and as you aren't a gardening man I hope you can still assist. When working in the soil in the Philippines are there any poisonous critters that need looking out for in the soil or greenery ?
Hi Richard – Oh yes, there are critters to watch out for! There are plenty of cobras in the Philippines! I had one in my house one time when we lived in GenSan! 😡
Hi Richard,
Watch out for Centipedes. They are poisonous and can be found anywhere, even in your house. Another one is "Til-as", I guess it’s one of the varieties of caterpillar. Mostly they are of green and black colors and shape like caterpillar/worm. It’s not poisonous but it really stings when it touches you skin. They can be found in any green leafy plants and trees. 😮
This is what I found as control for the Til-as caterpillar:
Control: Parasitized by Tricholygiabom bisum Bech, a large gray course-harred tiachinid fly. The strategy is done this way. Upon sensing the presence of the adult fly parasite, the caterpillar swings the anterior portion of its body continuously from side to side to discourage the fly from approaching nevertheless, the fly will mount at the back of the caterpillars and lay many eggs, individually glued on the back of the caterpillar. The parasite maggots that hatch from the egg penetrate into and completely consume the inside tissues of the caterpillar which die in the cocoon before it could actually pupate. The maggot get out of the dead caterpillar and pupate inside the cocoon.
I found a picture of the said caterpillar. Its looks pretty impressive colour wise. http://flickr.com/photos/tagigi/464618604/
So how many varieties of poisonous spider are there?
I wonder if all bugs are sprayed and killed ! Their might be a massive Ant War or Protest. 🙄 Or what will happen to the eco balance ? 🙄 Of course those mosquito-borne diseases must be controlled !
My husband was very fascinated watching the house lizards crawling on the ceiling at my parents' house. He has never seen that many lizards busy catching the litte creatures that go near the flourescent lamps.
And spiders ? The young Pinoy kids would like to hunt them and make them fight. Spider fights and bettings are very common. Of course they're experts to tell the poisonous kinds. They even have names for those good fighter spiders. The black widows might be there but I never heard of anyone who died of spider bites 😕
Jul did you know the most poisonous insect in the world is the Daddy Longlegs spider but because its bite can't pierce the human skin it is not a problem. However there is a spider that lives off the Daddy Longlegs which here in New Zealand is called A White-tailed spider. Now this white tail spider can pierce the human skin and because it has the poison from the daddy longlegs in its system some people react very badly to its bite. Problems such as whole legs becoming infected or some people that have large holes left in the area where the bite occurred. In New Zealand there are only two creatures of nature that are poisonous and they are both spiders. There are no snakes here, so I will need to learn new rules of "do's and don't's."
That is new rules of "do's and don't's" when I come to the Philippines in the new year.
We bring Terro from the States and it works really well, I imagine Combat is also really good. Another name for the Til-an caterpillars is "Saparing" I found out why after coming in contact with one! It is like getting into poison oak or ivy! 'Suffering' is the perfect name! 🙂
There is an old missionary joke that goes like this: first year missionary, finding ants in the sugar, throws out the sugar. Second year missionary finds ants in the sugar and picks out the ants. Third year missionary ignores the ants found in the sugar. The fourth and following missionary who finds NO ants in the sugar says, "Where's the protein?"
Hi Richard:
Thanks for the info about spiders! Some new vocabs I learned beside the popular black widow. I always think that my husband overly reacts when a cute spider gets into our house. He smacks it without mercy and drowns it in the toilet.
To be honest, I tend to swipe spiders with silhig-bikog (broom stick) more often. I don't know if the trees that surround our houses both here and in the Phils are proned to having spiders. However, in the Phils, I also found their intricate webs a work of art. With mosquitoes trapped in these webs, spiders must be having some good contribution to the environment Thanks once again, Richard !
Hi Jul – Ha ha… now that is the ultimate animal lover – the person who won't even kill the bugs! 😆
Hi AmericanLola – Your story about the ants in the sugar kind of sums up my life in the Philippines. These days, I hardly even consider them a bother!
Hi Bob,
The bug that bothers me the most (besides mosquitoes) is the Waterbug/Palmetto Bug, “Uk-ok” in Bisaya, “Ipis” in Tagalog. Incidentally, I just found out that it is called the American Cockroach! (See link below)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cockroach
I thought all the while this was the Philippine cockroach as I haven’t seen them here in NY, and I don’t plan to… 👿 They have a nasty habit of hanging out in the bathrooms and they fly and land on you! Scares the hell out of me, especially in the middle of the night!
Philippine ants don’t really bother me. There are different species, of course! The nastiest ones are the big red fire ants. Their sting hurts! Just watch out for that anthill and you should be okay. There are also smaller red ants that sting, I remember. The black ants on fruits don’t bite and, like you mentioned Bob, they know which fruits are sweet. You see them often on lanzones. The sugar/pavement ants that you see that get to food just get annoying because you don’t want them in your food, obviously, but at least they don’t bite.
Here in the States, we’re always on the lookout for carpenter ants. Any homeowner would know why. I’m pretty sure they’re in the Philippines too although I don’t think I’ve seen any.
Hi Tina – Ha ha… I can just see you having one of those cockroaches land on you! Ha… it just keeps a smile on my face!!!
Yeah, thanks a lot, Bob! Just imagine me screaming, cursing and jumping up and down hysterical in the middle of the night! 😆
😯
Well I've learned to live with all the critters. My wife regularly declares war on the roaches but it's just the palmetto bugs which are relatively harmless. I see the black ants but I don't bother them from their work, besides, they do a good job of pollinating my ampalya. Mosquitos on the other hand… If I could wish every one of them dead in one instant I would. I fought with Dengue Fever on my first trip here and spent almost 2 weeks in Limso Hospital. The workmen say we have a Cobra in the subdiv where I live so I am extra careful going out at night… to the point of carrying my katana sword sometimes lol.
Hi Louis – I bet you have more than one cobra in the subdivision! They usually travel in pairs. So far, I haven't run across a cobra in Davao (thankfully) but did see several in General Santos. 😯
Yes how right you are, they killed the first one about a month ago after it had been seen in the neighbor's yard NEXT DOOR 😯 I'm pretty sure that was the female and this one is the male. He stood up in the tall grass by the NAWASA tap near the guard house. If his head was above the grass then that's about 1.25 meters right there… meaning he could be 3 meters long! Shite, they're wonderful magnificent creatures and I'd love to get a photo of him, but NIMBY you know what I mean? Our one cat just had 2 cute kittens too, I don't want them to become baon for the cobra.
Hi Louis – Ha ha… I hear you! 😆