Friday, June 5, 2009

Hong Kong Chronicles: Let the Screaming Begin

I’ve been having my first critter experiences in my new home.

First, I live with mosquitoes. In my apartment. I know my apartment isn’t air tight, but I kill 5-6 mosquitoes every night and have 4-5 new bites every night. I have taken to wearing mosquito spray inside my house. I scare Molly to bits when I go on a mosquito-killing rampage. It scares her to the point of making her rush off to her box and making her shiver with fright. I’m not quite sure what it is that scares her so much. Then again, if you're 15 inches tall and your mistress goes around clapping hands in the air, flailing arms, and slapping at the wall, you might run away in fright, too.

Second, I had a little gecko lizard hanging out in the apartment. I saw something run from my bathroom to one of the bedrooms out of the corner of my eye. I had a suspicion it was the gecko, but I’ve seen VERY LARGE ROACHES and heard there are also large spiders. I had the geckos all over my house in Texas. They make me feel at home. Thank goodness, it was the gecko. I let him be.

However, I saw one of the VERY LARGE ROACHES (VLR) in my bathroom the other day. When I saw him I knew there was going to be screaming. I think the feeling was mutual. I’m pretty sure the screaming was mutual as well. He was crawling on my laundry basket. This is one of the large water roaches. I think he was about 1.5 inches in length. I may be exaggerating. (I think adrenaline can do that to you.) But, he weren’t one of the little roaches. After a few chases, I managed to capture him under a glass, slip some cardboard under and dumped him in the toilet. Only he was big enough to jump out of the water. (Let the screaming commence. Both of us.) He didn’t jump out of the toilet. He just ran around under the rim. It was really creepy. B-Movie Creepy. After screaming and flushing ten times, I felt safe leaving the bathroom. With visions of that VLR running around under the rim of the toilet, I now do a “pre-flush” before I use the facilities. I really don’t want to be surprised.

Do you want to know how big he was? Check out this cartoon...



(Note: I know this cartoon is copyrighted, but I don't know where else to link to it...I'll remove it if requested.)

2 comments:

  1. Been there, done that. I used to live in Galveston, where the roaches are Texas-sized and don't even have the decency to be scared of you. Thanks for the laugh! (I still break out in a cold sweat when I see a roach, any size.)

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  2. Yes. These are Texas-sized roaches. I should be ready for them. I guess they are preparing me for the summer. At least I'm on the third floor. I hear the ground floor is much more...ahem..."active"...

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