Comparing Critters

Really got the catching cockroaches act down. Been getting one every few days. They seem pretty smart to me, I can sort of sense them thinking and being scared. They hide well - well, maybe like a five year old kid. See me and scamper for cover. They're still pretty easy to get. It's good we don't want to catch the tiny cicak (pronounced chichak) lizards that I used to think were small gecko.
Those guys are super fast. But we want them. I tell them to eat the cockroaches but many of them must be too small - shorter in length and way less in width. I wonder if the cockroaches eat them - if they can catch one. The cockroaches aren't bad or dangerous. They're just a nuisance. They're elsewhere sometimes but mainly the bathroom - because of the water for sure. I walk in there and start looking for one. We don't kill anything inside. I use what I call the Have-a-Heart Roach Hotel, a large plastic cup with a hard sheet of plastic a little larger than the diameter of the cup. Quickly put the cup over the critter then slide the plastice under, carefully pick up not allowing any opening it can slip through, walk it out front and release into the bushes. 2017 update: We've stopped new ones from coming in. There are cups over the floor drains in the bathroom that allow for slow draining as for shower water, and now steel wool around the kitchen sink drain pipe where it enters a hole in the floor. The steel wool is better. Have seen up to six at one time in the shower cup and once when it was left uncovered, caught ten in an hour in the bathroom.

In Japan the critter we'd stumble on would be centipedes. I just remembered Elin and me driving up to our Okayama house with my mother, sister, and Kelly, returning from a little trip. I immediately had a danger signal going off in my mind. Left them to unload, unlocked the door, went in first, walked straight to the bathroom, carefully picked up the towel off the towel rack and there was a maybe five inch long centipede on the back of the towel. Oh yes - here's another one - Taigen was staying with us and Elin and I had to go teach classes. When we came back, he was nursing an inflamed toe that had been bitten by one of those chilopoda. He said he'd wondered if he should cut his toe off. Good call not to. Told him I'd read there are no really dangerous centipedes, just painful ones. Glad we don't have them here in Bali. I'd compare my take on the cockroach with a creepy neighbor who comes over and you just wish would leave - and the centipede more like having a really small psycho inside with a tiny axe.