Ants, cockroaches and other beasts

India is full of beasts, I came across so many during my stay that I had to learn to get used to them. I soon learnt that the best investment I would make during my stay was to buy Hit and Mortein cockroach sprays (approx 80 rupees). I wish I could have been more Buddhist like about killing things, but believe me when you see a huge cockroach running like a racehorse towards your bedroom just before you go to bed, you’d invest in sprays too (despite the chemical overload and the poison warnings). I was hugely disappointed Mortein don’t do a handbag sized can! I also discovered cockroach chalk, you draw a few lines around drains, windows or under doors where cockroaches are managing to squeeze themselves in, they walk in it and soon die. I was also surprised to learn on this visit that cockroaches can fly and they look like ridiculous flying sausages, and I'm sure they make a hissing/sniffing noise. I also discovered that cockroaches may be the only animal scientists think will survive a nuclear attack, but that’s only if they land upright, if they landed on their backs they couldn't get back up – they are useless, dirty, surprisingly fast creatures. I didn't have as close an encounter as friends who found roaches crawling up their legs/backs as they lay in bed ... urghhhh! As monsoon drew nearer the weirder the beasts that appeared were so I sprayed each room daily to kill whatever may have been lurking around – my motto was “If it has more than 4 legs ... spray it”.

I sorted out the mosquito issue really quickly by buying Good Knight (54 rupees) or Mortein plug ins, so my apartment and my nights were mosquito free. The mosquito ‘danger’ hours are between 4pm and 7pm, and thankfully all the windows in my apartment had velcroed net on them. Sitting outside in the evenings was made easier by lighting a mosquito coil and putting it on the veranda. I avoided lighting mosquito coils in the house or bedroom as the toxins they give out make sleeping a hallucinogenic nightmare. Being out and about wasn’t a problem as I always carried a Badger Anti-Bug Balm (see links below), it’s a natural citrus balm and mine has been on 4 trips to India with me and I can’t do without. I also took along some Deet free mosquito repellent roll-on and took along two Autan sprays. I hardly got bitten, so they definitely worked. I took anti-malaria tablets, I bought a supply of Paludrine/Avloclor tablets as I’ve used these before and have had no adverse side effects. I only took mine for the first few months of my trip and pre/during monsoon. Dengue fever and Chinkungunya are vector diseases and are currently on the rise on Goa, so it’s better to be safe than sorry – particularly if you are a walking McDonalds to mosquitoes. Goa still has a major rubbish problem so it’s a breeding ground for insects and disease and Calangute and Mapusa markets in the rain are like a Disney Park for Disease!

I got used to seeing rats as big as Jack Russells, especially in Mapusa and Calangute markets, I lived with lovely harmless little lizards in my apartment that ate mosquitoes, and got chased around my bathroom by a huge spider (which I hit with a Coke bottle until it's legs flew off). I had a very close encounter with a rat at a friend’s new Portuguese style house which has a gap between the walls and the roof, the rat fell off the rafters onto my legs in the middle of the night – I woke up yelling and I then stayed awake until dawn! Flies are everywhere, and I soon got used to eating food they’d landed on and weirdly I wasn't as precious about them in India as I am at home, I had no adverse effects from eating food flies had been around. However, the biggest pest I encountered during my time in Goa was the smallest ... ants! I hate them, I really do. They come in large, medium and small sizes and the smallest is the absolute worst. They got everywhere, my handbag and even my underwear (yes, I had ants in my pants!). They have an amazing ability to sniff out food, especially sugar, from a mile away and they formed orderly queues across my work surface. Cooking became a battle, I’d unwrap something, turn around and within seconds the food would be infested with teeny ants. I poured boiling water into a tea cup one day and just before I drank it I saw tea leaves floating on the top, which turned out to be bloody boiled ants! I’ve probably eaten more than a few - I'll class it as protein. I have to admit that my daily battles with ants did result in me killing thousands in increasingly bizarre ways (which I won’t type about for fear of a ‘Stop Cruelty Against Ants’ group hassling me).

http://www.mortein.com.au/pests_cockroaches.php
http://www.digitalgoa.com/tag_article.php?id=79