The Tarantula in the Bedroom

THE TARANTULA IN THE BEDROOM

            Before we left for Botswana, several people talked to us about the supposed dangers from wildlife in Africa.  Mostly, they revolved around snakes, particularly the black momba.  Well, I have not seen any mombas, black or otherwise, since we arrived.  I have seen a couple of live snakes and a couple of dead ones, but they were neither large nor particularly dangerous looking.

            In training, we learned much about keeping ourselves healthy, given that we are often posted to villages remote from top-notch medical facilities.  The number one ailment that afflicts Peace Corps volunteers worldwide is – diarrhea.  We were warned repeatedly about the dangers of untreated water, unwashed fruits and uncooked vegetables.  Diarrhea, however, is the least of our worries.  The starches that make up the bulk of a typical Setswana meal are made from maize or sorghum.  The maize products are called setampa and paleche, and they have a consistency similar to mashed potatoes.  Sorghum meal is used in making bogobe, a delicious porridge.  These products tend to harden in one’s intestines like concrete, leading to a problem the polar opposite of diarrhea.

            Another common problem for Peace Corps volunteers is malaria.  Luckily, we are posted in the southern part of Botswana where malarial mosquitos are not present.  Whenever we travel north, we need to get a supply of anti-malarial pills that can suppress, but cannot prevent, malaria.

            Snakes, insects, spiders and the like did not take up any class time during training, and they get little mention in our medical handbook.  More ink is used to discuss various parasites that may invade us, or explain how to sterilize a nasty cut we may get.

            Here in Goodhope, we share our house with a variety of bugs, which is not uncommon worldwide.  Occasionally we will see a very large cockroach.  A stray millipede may crawl around on the floor.  Moths and beetles occasionally fly into the house.  Small and very fast mosquitos manage to get into the house every warm evening, biting me until I apply bug juice.  Some beetles (but not those that invite themselves into our house) can grow almost to the size of Rhode Island.  Actually, they can be as large as bats, and they can fly.  We attended a band concert at Stephanie’s school hall in December, and as a blind blues singer sat at her keyboard and crooned, an enormous beetle flew around in circles above her head.  The audience remained in rapt attention – eying the beetle and the danger it might pose to the helpless, sightless singer.

            One night last week, Stephanie switched on the light in our bedroom as she turned down the bed for the night.  She lowered the bed net that we sleep under.  The bed net is treated with DEET, and it means that we can sleep soundly without mosquito bites and without the sound of bugs buzzing around our heads.

            She noticed something brown on the floor in the corner of the bedroom.  It was about six inches across, with eight hairy legs and a thick body.  She yelled to me in the other room, and I ran in to see what it was.  Thinking quickly, I ran back into another room and grabbed a can of Doom, the most popular insecticide in Botswana, supplied by Peace Corps to volunteers.  The creature had not yet moved.  I sprayed it with Doom.  It moved away from the corner, along the edge of the floor, and then stopped.  I sprayed him again, and he clattered away again, always on the edge of the floor.  I repeated this another two times.  The creature seemed not to be doing well. So I used the bottom of the Doom can and crushed it right there on the floor.  I killed it, and then I dispatched it into our trash bin.

            What was it?  We assume that it was a spider related to a tarantula.  It was big and had eight hairy legs, which is good enough for us.  We asked people at our work place the next day.  Tarantula is a European term and it is not used here.  I was told our visitor was a tseru spider, and they can be nasty.  Stephanie was told that it is a spider that sprays a caustic liquid onto nearby animals.  In humans, it causes painful blistering and skin infections. I looked on the web, and it also could have been a highly venomous baboon spider or a relatively harmless rain spider.

            How did it get into our bedroom?  Probably through a window.  Our bedroom is the only room where we keep the windows open, even at night.  During the summer, it is the only way that we can sleep.  To keep bugs out, we use screening that we brought from America, and we apply duct tape around the casement window frame to keep it in place.  But the duct tape does not work perfectly, and we need to peel back the tape to adjust the casement window openings from time to time.

            Some may ask about the safety of using insecticides like Doom.  We are not sure exactly what the ingredients are, although it uses pyrethroids, which is derived from natural sources.  Doom, like most products we buy, comes from South Africa.  We have noticed that there are many fewer safety and environmental controls placed on consumer products here.  So, while we have some ambivalence in using products like Doom, there is no way that we are going to avoid using them when needed.

            Since that episode, things have been quiet here on the bug front.  Now that fall is coming, we expect to have fewer of them visit us indoors.  Let’s hope that is the case.