Returning to Planet Klendathu

The sight of certain insects is simply unpleasent. Cockroaches definitly fall into this category, although watching a termite queen isn't that nice either. I was caught off guard by the sight of four huge cockroaches in my courtyard a few nights ago – not little ones, but rather huge individuals, with long antennae, slowy waving forth and back, forth and back. Creepy. This is the kind of insect one would use in a horror movie to freak out unsuspecting housewifes, at least if one was sticking to stereotypes. I did the classical "get the spraycan with insecticide"-run as long as they were still hanging around outside, not giving them the time to get the stupid idea of actually entering my kitchen. The first three were slightly annoyed by my various attempts to spray them and just kept on crawling around on the various walls, mostly avoiding my attacks. But the forth did what I must regard as the equivalent of flipping me a bird in terms of insect behaviour: it just sat around. I sprayed it a nice dose of insecticide, marking a circular, dark spot on the concrete wall, with the bugger sitting spot on in the middle. And what did that little prick do? Waved his anttenae a few times, then slowly crawled up the wall, over the top of it, disappearing in the dark, followed by his fellow brethren. Most likely because of the light I switched on beforehand, not because of the insecticide. To add further insult, I was left with this spot on the wall, showing a perfect silhouette of a huge cockroach in the middle, where the body covered the concrete.

Over the last two weeks quite a lot of invasions took place at my house. About ten days ago, huge numbers of little flies showed up around the security lights outside, quickly entering the house through the gap below the doors. Within minutes I was greeted by the sight of thousands of annoying flies on the walls as well as an ubiquitous buzzing sound. A quick run for the spray can (yes, it proves to be quite useful) resulted in me inhaling and eating a few of my unwelcome guests, afterwards a noise similar to light rainfall reverberated through my dark rooms: dead insects falling to the ground for at least an hour, accompanied by the smell of death, at least for them.
A few nights later I was just standing in the kitchen, baking, when my glasses were hit by a centimeter-sized bug. Carelessly, I pushed it aside. A few seconds later, another one showed up. Looking around for the first time, I see a few of them crawling around next to the door, while a few were already getting comfortable in the kitchen. A quick glance at the window turned into an unbelieving stare, when I saw the mass of insects sitting on it, thankfully only on the outside. I had to move quickly through the courtyard to switch the lights in the house off, which was already invaded as well. All the time these buggers kept landing on me, crawling and clinging to my skin, hair and clothes. When it was dark everywhere, I put up a candle outside, got back in the kitchen, blocked the gap under the door and continued to work.
Some time later the candle went out, but not before the small dish below it was filled with dead, burnt bugs, which were also stuck to the candle and ultimately extinguished the flame. Disgusting.

Just a few days ago, a lot of big, green locusts showed up around the center. In the evening one of the cooks showed me a big plastic container full of what I had seen once or twice in my life in Austria: Heupferde. I had to turn his offer down when he asked me if I wanted to eat some of them fried on the next day. Not at the moment, no. But still, these little guys are kind of cute compared to all the other invaders as of lately.
But in the end, revenge was mine. Yesterday in the evening I just passed through my courtcard late at night, with the flashlight on, when I saw a dark spot on the wall, looking somewhat familiar. Slowly getting my eyes adjusted to the low light, I recognized the brown colour of a cockroach nearly instantly, but the shape just didn't fit. The end of the antennae pointed in the wrong direction, there was no head to be seen. About a second later I noticed two black eyes, eagerly watching me, then suddenly the silouette of my little tailless gecko popped out. Grey on grey, perfectly camouflaged. I couldn't believe it – that little fellow, his body being only a few centimeters longer than the cockroach and of about the same width, actually tried to swallow it. Head first, while the legs were still moving. A few minutes later, it was gone – and the gecky looked like it was ready to explode any time. Normally being slender and quite flat, it now presented an inflated body, its flanks moving quickly – apparently exhausted. I would have never thought that these guys were able to hunt something that big, but apparently they are. Way to go, my friend – two thumbs up for the gecko. And up yours, cockroach!