Ouch! That Hurts!

We sure have had our share of insect bites in the last week or so.  Nearly everyone in our house has been stung by wasps or some other creature.  The cry of, “Ouch!  It bit me!” have been heard several times in the last week.

When I was last over at the guest house on Lagonav I was bitten twice.  The wasps like to build their nest in the worst places.  One was over the back door and as I went past a wasp bit me in the head.  I sprayed a bunch of their nests but missed one as waist level along the wall.  Later in the day as I went past my hand must have brushed them because I got stung again.  Ouch!  The picture at left it right by the spot.  Growing beside the kitchen drain is this tomato plant – the seed must have been deposited there after cutting some tomatoes up for supper.

Heather and Emma have also been victims of the wasps.  Only Elijah has been spared so far.  These nasty little creatures have been very plentiful this year.  My guess it is because of all the rain that makes the mud they need to build their nests.  They should be gone in the next month or so as things dry out here.

And then two days ago Ethan by stung by a scorpion.  The kids were playing out on the deck and all the Sunday we hear everyone screaming.  We went out to discover everyone freaking out because Ethan had been bitten – right on his big toe.  We could not find the scorpion after but were assured it was a big one.  No lasting hurt but it did sting for a while.

Mosquitoes have been very plentiful this year.  The rain has kept coming making lots of places for the larvae to develop.  The pictures below show a regular mosquito on the left and an Anopheles mosquito on the right.  The Anopheles mosquitoes are the only ones that carry malaria here in Haiti.  You can distinguish them by their “furry” antennae.

Finally one more bug picture.  We discovered this praying mantis in our kitchen sink the other night.  He was not very big but he was eating something.  It was the leftovers from our spaghetti dinner.  He liked the hamburger meat!  The rolled it over and over in his hands as he chewed it up.