BUGS!

This blog post is especially for Simon Aspray who asked a long time ago about bugs here. So this time I'm writing about Tanzania's mysterious.....   creepy crawlies!! We have lots of cool and interesting bugs/insects/creepy crawlies here and lots that cause trouble (like siafu ants which bite very badly). I like bugs, but Louisa likes them more! My favourite Tanzanian crawly creature (although not a bug!) is probably the sand-snake. Some snakes can be dangerous here ... we had a spitting cobra in our garden in Iringa and our friends in Mwanza just had a cobra in their bathroom. We have seen a dead black mamba. Back to bugs, there are lots of mosquitoes here which is a problem for malaria. We have a racquet that we can zap them with - it gives them an electric shock. Big bugs will smoke if you zap them with it! We had a problem with cockroaches in the kitchen, but sugar mixed with baking soda got rid of them. We have to keep lids on things or ants are a problem. Once we had a peanut butter pot FULL of ants. And a margarine pot! We get weevils in things like oats and flour sometimes. We have learned that the things that attracts the most flies is roast pork. Mango flies are a problem ... if they lay their eggs in your knickers (or clothes) on the line. The maggoty creepy crawlies can eat their way into your skin which isn't good. Scorpions can be a problem if they go and sit in your shoe. And you probably already read about our problems with siafu ants!

In the peanut butter

In the flour

But lots of bugs are no trouble and pretty cool. People eat grasshoppers here - fried in lots of oil with lots of salt. Some bugs lose their wings when it rains and we find a carpet of wings outside in the morning. We get lots of geckos which eat the bugs and they are fun to chase and some are really pretty.

How many of these creepy crawlies can you name? Do you have any bug questions or stories?