LOS INSECTOS Y LOS PESTICIDAS (PESTICIDES)

When you live surrounded by a jungle, one might expect there would be insects.  (and you would be correct)  They come in all variations and sizes here.  Some are really scary like the "jungle spider".  It has a leg span of 6 to 8 inches and is hairy.  A couple of years ago, I wrote a posting about the one I found in my bathroom in the middle of the night.  The most insidious is the mosquito.  Now, I understand the ecological reasons for bees, flies, ants, and even termites, but why in Hell did God create the mosquito?  In Vallarta they are so tiny people call them the "no seeums".  They are smaller than a gnat and make no noise.  There is no buzzing sound to alert you.  Not only do they bite like Hell, but carry all kinds of diseases.  Denge fever is the worst.  I know many people have become extremely ill with it, although I know no one who has died of it.  The Zika virus is just beginning to appear here (coming down to us from The U.S,)


Every four to six months, I call Allen to spray my apartment. He sprays the floors, walls and ceilings, and then sprays the balcony and my entire terrace which is huge.  He charges 250 pesos and it takes him two hours.  He is a nice kid (who does speak English) and also mops the entire place when he is done spraying,  so I started giving him 300 (about $18.00) .  This year I waited too long.  I think the cat food had something to do with, but I had ants everywhere.  The ants come in three sizes.  So tiny you can only see them on a white surface, the regular ants, and then huge black and red ants that I really hate.  Kitty used to gobble everything I gave her, but now that she learned she has food on demand (by screaming) she will only eat part of it.  I guess she plans on coming back, but either her sister (the evil twin) will finish it or the ants get it.  I do not know where they come from (maybe I do not want to know) but if a speck of food lands on the floor within minutes they surround it.

The ant guys keeps telling me the stuff is harmless to humans, but then why does he wear a gas mask?  For months any bug that ventures across my floor will start to shake then roll over dead.  How can it be that harmless?  I am sure whatever the stuff is, it is illegal in the U.S. Of course I do not plan on getting down on the floor and licking it.  Even if I could get down that low, I would not be able to get up.  It kills bugs big and small and unfortunately I will lose a few small geckos after he sprays.  We have more than ants here.  One day kitty crossed the balcony railing with a cockroach in her mouth (it obviously came from my neighbor)  She dropped it in front of me.  Did she think I wanted it, or was she just trying to show me she could be useful.  The following day after the spraying, not one ant appeared around her food.

Bees come in three varieties also.  The regular honey bees, a small skinny black bee and a strange large blue bee.  Not really sure what it is, but it acts like a bee around flowers,   I had also noticed that I seemed to have more wasps buzzing around my terrace.  Then Saul pointed out a wasp next hanging in the back yard on a small tree.  For the photo I did not want to get too close, so you have to look hard to see it  It looks like a strange fruit right next to the trunk of the tree.  I wanted to see if I could get a photo with the sun hitting it, but apparently the wasps built it where it is always in a shadow,

 Most evening you will hear the katydids or crickets (especially during the rainy season)  They will be joined in song by a tiny frog that sounds like a piccolo.  As soon as we get the first rains, the termites swarm.  For weeks I will be sweeping up the wings.  Where do the bodies go, if all I find are wings?  They attack any piece of wood they can find, especially my Mexican equilapli furniture.  But the bug man gets them too. We also have what they call "rain flies"  It looks like as black termite and swarm just like they do.  You will see them clustered around any light burning (another mess to clean up)  I mentioned the huge green grasshopper that can devour a whole palm frond in a day.  Also there are many other strange creatures that I do not know the name of.  Like the tiny ugly brown bug that has eyes that glow in the dark.  They look like blue aqua jewels. At night we also have huge black moths. What amazes me is how few flies we have.  Southern California has far more flies.  I think the iguanas eat them.  By the way, I still sometimes spot my green iguana crawling along the wall.

My plants are like my children and I take very good care of them.  With all the rain and humidity my big pink plants were invaded with something that looked like tiny aphids.  My regular spray did not work.  I would wash each leaf, then spray and the following morning they were covered with the bugs,  So I called Filipe to take me to El Dragon where all kinds of chemicals are sold.  They speak no English so I had Filipe explain the problem and I had brought some leaves with the bugs on them in a sealed plastic bag.  The man ruminated about it for a while saying things I did not understand to Filipe who translated some of it.  Finally he came up with two bottles.  He was explaining how to mix them in the sprayer.  One and a half milliliter of one bottle and a cap of the other in a liter of water.  What is "one milliliter"?  They tried to explain to me and finally Filipe said we would stop at a pharmacy and pick up a syringe.  Then the bill came 480 Pesos.  I was shocked and sure I did not understand.  I have never paid anything like that in Mexico.  He explained that he could sell me a cheaper pesticide, but it would kill the plant.  (What would be the point in That?)  He also said that it would last for four or five years.  I saw no need to tell him that I did not have four or five years.  We had just bought two blue blooming vines for my wrought iron that cost 30 pesos, so you can understand how astounded I was.

I was sure the druggist would think I was shooting dope so I sent Filipe in to buy it. (cost 18 pesos) Can you even buy a syringe in the U.S.?  Of course you can buy almost any drug you want at the pharmacy with no prescription.   We also have the farmacia similar stores where they carry all the generic drugs at a fraction of the cost.  Prescription drugs (without prescription) are very cheap.  I have an insurance policy in The States where any drug will cost me $5 to $15, but I can buy it here for $10 with no insurance.  The pharmaceutical lobbyist do not have the control over the government like they do in The State (the drug cartels do).   So anything you cannot buy at the local pharmacy, you can buy on the streets.

I carefully measured out the two chemicals and sprayed away.  It seems to be working, but I do have to continue the spraying.  After about a week and three liters of spray, it seems to be working.  To my delight, the butterflies still feast on my flowers every evening, along with humming birds.  Some how it has no affect on them.  So, my plants are happy; I am happy and my place is almost bug free   What a beautiful life it is.


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LLUVIA EN VERANO (SUMMER RAIN)

This year has been the coolest summer in the six years I have lived here.  Of course we have at least another three months more of summer, so I could change my tune.  Now it is still often down right uncomfortable, but thankfully we have had lots of rain this year. Without the rain, summers in Vallarta would be almost unbearable.  Luckily summer is the rainy season.  Which seems odd to me, but then coming from Southern California, rain seems unusual. This year the rain started late.  June was hot and humid, then the rains started.  Almost every afternoon clouds roll across the sky keeping the blazing sun off my windows. It rains mostly at night.  Many nights this July I did not need to turn the air on.

I love the rains here and not just because it lowers the temperature.  Dust is a constant problem here with the cobble stone streets and all the belching buses.  Rain cleans up the town, not only does the dust almost disappear, but all the foliage gets rinsed and everything is a bright green.  The hills get sort of brown and dusty looking during the winter, but now they are a verdant green.  The tall coconut trees in the picture of my view off the back are at least five or six stories tall.  They were shot from my terrace on the third floor.  Twice a year an old skinny guy climbs up and cuts down the clumps of coconuts.  He used nothing but his feet and a rope around his waist.  He cuts them off with a machete.  But first he wraps a rope around the clump and slowly lowers the coconuts to the ground.  Once they hit he sort of jerks on the rope and it comes free and he pulls it back up.

I love sitting under my cabana (with cocktail) and watch the rain beat down.  Sometimes it pours off my roof like a waterfall.  Now some days  it will just sprinkle which only increases the humidity, but this year we have had lots of downpours.  The rain drops can be the size of a dime.  Since Vallarta has no curb gutters or storm drains, the water all flows down the streets until it reaches the beach or river. You can see how flooded my street gets and I am five block higher above the beach.  You can imagine what the lower streets look like.  I have seen the water up over the curbs and across the sidewalks.  No photos of that as I do not like to go out during those downpours.  I do not mind getting wet, but am terrified to cross a cobble stone street under six or eight inches of water.

You can see how my plants love the rain and how bight and green they all are.  Of course about a half dozen are under the cabana, so they still have to be watered and sprayed.  I love my plants (all 32 of them), but they do take a little work.  Just during the rainy season I do not have to water most of them.  Most nights the clouds come over in the late afternoon and the rain starts around 7 or 8:00.  Sitting under my cabana, I enjoy not just the rain, but the thunder and lightning show.  The lighting can come so rapidly that it looks like the street is being lit by strop lights.  You can tell how far away it is by the time it takes for the thunder to hit. At times the lightning is directly overhead so I hear the loud crack of the lightning with almost immediate thunder.   The clap is so loud it seems to shake the whole building. It is a show unto itself.  We all pray the rains continue, but we also have the hurricane season (September and October) to look forward to.  Oh, yes the electricity might go out.  Usually just for a little while, but that is why we all have candles about.  It never dull here.   Maybe this isn't really paradise here, but in my old age, it seems a perfect place to live out my days.

Kitty does not mind the rain or the thunder.  She keeps dry curled up in a corner of the balcony.  She is quite happy here and rarely strays inside.  She knows I do not like it.  She disappears for a while each day to go to the bathroom on someone else;s property.  Her evil twin

shows up on occasion, but she is afraid of me and runs as soon as she sees me.  Oh, I can be pretty scary  looking, especially in the morning.  One day I spotted her eating the last of kitty's bowl while kitty sat right next to her. She looked up at me with the big blue eyes as if to say, "What's the big deal?  I just invited her  over for tea"  Next she will probably go down on the street and scream "Free lunch on the balcony at 265" and I will have ever stray cat in town on my balcony.  But, like everything else in life, I will deal with that when and "if" it happens.  People in Mexico do not worry about what "might happen"  and I like that way of thinking.

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