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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Insects in Costa Rica

One of the things I wondered about before moving to Costa Rica was the prevalence of insects and how they would impact our life. One hears and reads all sorts of things before arriving here.

Readers of my blog from it's inception know that we had had never travelled to Costa Rica before moving here. Instead, we had done about fifteen years of research on line and talking to people before making the decision to give it a try. Our attitude is: "If not now, when?"

In the almost two years we have lived here, we have had just one scorpion in the house, and it was a small one at that. The ebbs and flows of nature and climate bring the insect world into our lives. Right now, the tiny "no-see-ums" are bothering my husband but not me as much.

This does not mean we cannot sit outside because we can .. all day and all year long. I remember days in the awful humid summers of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, before the advent of air conditioning, and the mosquitoes were unbearable ... and so was the humidity. My husband, Lance, can tell you all about the insect life in Alberta in the summer.

I've been bitten by ants here and that hurts for a bit. We use repellant products and ointments to put on any bites. About once a month, we spray around the perimeter of the house as a precaution. All the mercados carry insect sprays so they are readily available.

We have yet to experience the army ants that apparently will march right through a house and do a thorough job of cleaning up other insects, food crumbs, etc. Maybe we never will. Heck, if a bunch of ants want to clean my house for free, I'll happily go out for a few hours and leave them to it.

So, for us, insects have not been much of a problem but this applies to where we live. It could well be, and probably is, different in other parts of Costa Rica.

One thing for sure, I've seen some absolutely beautiful insects here.

 

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