Bug's Life

Let me tell you about bugs, and my co-existence with them in HK.

Each morning, bleary eyed and half awake, I shuffle into the bathroom for my shower. Despite my semi-conscious state, I make sure my first point of business is a quick spot check for roaches. Usually when I hit the lights, it's their cue to scurry back to whatever dark place they can find. I don't see them every day, but probably once a week. If a particular roach is being ornery and wants a face off, refusing to budge from his perch on the shower ledge, or perhaps sitting in the middle of the floor, disabling me from getting anywhere, a battle ensues. I find the heaviest shoe I can (because roaches are notorious for being hard to kill), and we begin to dance around each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. I pounce, and smash with all my might to destory the thing. I poke it just to confirm it's dead, and then I flush it down the toilet just to make sure.

On other days, moths and Christmas beetles are my enemy. They come in through the open windows (no screens) and doors, and fly all around, regardless of buzzing in your face. The Christmas beetles are the worst, because they fly at full speed across the room until they hit something, then take off in the next direction until they hit something, and so on and so on. So basically you can easily get pummeled by one if it makes it into your home. The big downside to this, too, is once they die in your house, armies upon armies of ants come out to carry them back to their nest.

The most frequent roommates, though, are ants. Fortunately, not big fire ants like we have at home, but your generic, run of the mill ants. And they come in droves. I clean the kitchen every day, and I mop the apartment and sweep, so it's not a question of cleanliness. And others here have the same problems as we do. Especially during the hot summer months, the ants take over the kitchen. And if you do decide to leave a plate with a few breadscrumbs on it in the sink or elsewhere, you can be sure that within the half hour, masses of ants will be swarming the plate. As you can see in the picture below, even a clean, empty sink attracts them. It's unending. If I wash dishes covered in ants, several will find their way onto my skin and crawl around as I swat them away. I can sometimes feel them crawling over my feet if I'm standing in their path. Fortunately, they don't bite, and I'm just thankful we don't have rats (our neighbors have rats, and they're not small).