The Bugs

one of the villa visitors

When we knew we were going to Costa Rica for Christmas, we made sure our malaria and other tropical disease inoculations were up-to-date and we bought the most powerful DEET insect repellent on the market. We expected serious insect activity, and wanted to be prepared.

We were completely wrong . . . . the bugs were not a problem at all. We have been here almost 30 days now and we have not been bitten once. Not even Regis, who is usually the target of any biting insect.

The variety of insects is amazing, there is always some fascinating new bug showing up every day, and there are as many insect varieties as there are birds, and it is perhaps this combination that keeps them under control. I suspect the many varieties of small birds feed on the insects, and are aided by the many geckos we see around the villa.

They do utilize many types of insect control as well as the natural ones. We have often seen men walking in fields or along roads with cans of insecticide on their backs spraying. And there are some sort of electronic insect repellent plugged into receptacles around the house.

a surprise at the door

Now there are lots of insects, they just have not been any sort of problem. Every morning I have to go out and clear the pool of dead insects (death by drowning) before her ladyship can go in for her early morning swim. There are a dazzling array of beautiful butterflies including huge iridescent blue ones. As well, there are LARGE insects here, giant moths come by at night, and we have seen huge beetles and cricket like insects. One morning I found a large furry spider drowned in the pool. This looked like a small Tarantula. There are large bumble bees buzzing around the many flowers on the property and the regular flies come in the jumbo size here, but their numbers are small. There are lots of what I have come to refer to as “Stupid Flies”. It is these insects I find myself clearing out of the pool every morning. They seem to fly around, bumping into walls and if they land they often fall over and cannot always get airborne again, so they are easy to swat. There are also tiny little insects like black flies, that buzz around, and annoy, but they do not seem to bite. The dragonflies are all around the pool and as you swim they fly overhead. Then there are the strange bugs. One morning I opened up the front door to find a large cream coloured insect clinging to the door by the handle. It remained there most of the day and was gone by the following morning. A strange looking black & white wasp like thing sat on the veranda for most of one morning, and one day when I went get a key from the burlap bag hanging on the veranda door I found another large strange bug. I find it best not to tell Regis about my many interesting bug finds.

We were worried about the bugs in Costa Rica, but actually they never bugged us at all.