Creepy Crawlies

The humid, tropical weather here creates the perfect environment for bugs.  Mosquitos THRIVE over here.  The bathrooms are outside and they really love it in there.  They get more dense during rainy season and I once killed 25 during a shower!  

There are also tons of ants, flies, bees, lizards crickets and such.  Here are some of the guys I have encountered:

praying mantis

(with my finger so you can see how big it was)

dead frog (there are lots of live ones, but I thought this dead one looked especially gruesome so I took a picture)

giant grasshopper

With my hand once again for scale.

big dragon fly

This creature is some type of lizard, but it moves more like a snake with legs.  I walked into the bathroom one day and saw the back half of one slither under the trash can.  I swiftly turned and used a different bathroom!  In Thai it's called ching len.

Tanner got a video of the ching len moving/walking/slithering:

Big 'ol crickets  (Read about my first interaction with one of these HERE)

I have no idea what this monstrosity is called.  I am really glad that Tanner found and killed this one when I wasn't in the room!  He said it was crazy fast too. Yikes!

There are lots of millipedes.  This was one of the biggest I've seen here.

I also saw a centipede but I didn't get a picture.  I just went and got Tanner straightway so he could kill it.  The centipede was probably 8 or 9 inches long.  I thought that was REALLY big.  When I told Tang and Ton about it they said that was a small one!!! When I told my students they confirmed that that was small for a thai centipede.  Yuck!  I'm getting the chills just thinking about it.  It took Tanner a good 7 smashes with a shoe and one good chop with a shovel to kill it.

There is also a bug here that is a mix between a spider and a scorpion.  I don't know what it's called.  I found one month and month ago and when I got the guard he said, "Oh.  Bad." and killed it--which kind of a big deal.  Bhuddists don't typically kill bugs unless they are harmful.  Once I called Joj because there was a huge cockroach (I despise roaches).  Joj just guided it outside with his foot...  Well, until last month I had only encountered the spider/scorpion that one time.  A couple weeks ago when I came out of the bathroom there was one right by the door.  (The bathrooms here aren't my favorite.  I am really looking forward to a completely closed, indoor, air conditioned bathroom!)  I just quickly jumped over the creature and went back to my room.  Well last week one appeared in my room.  I yelped and woke Tanner from a nap to get it.  He smashed it real good.  I tried to get a good picture but that devil was fast and I couldn't risk a) getting too close or b) risk letting him escape.  So I didn't get a very good picture.

Thailand is really strong in the bug and creature category.   Not the best strength to have in my opinion, but it is what it is.  I'm so grateful Tanner is here to be brave and kill them for me!