I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants and your people,
and into your houses. And the houses of the Egyptians shall be
filled with swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand.
Exodus 8:21
and into your houses. And the houses of the Egyptians shall be
filled with swarms of flies, and also the ground on which they stand.
Exodus 8:21
They cover the windows and doors, crawling in wherever they ca
n, even hopping a ride on our hair or clothes as we enter the house. Once inside, they fly and crawl everywhere.Kijabe has been inundated with millions of grasshoppers lately, covering walls and crunching underfoot. Some are about 2" in length and a vivid green, while others are brown and measure up to 4".
Our Kenyan friends say they have never seen anything quite like it at Kijabe. Awakened by the rains over the last few weeks, the harmless but annoying grasshoppers have made quite a scene!
Along with them have come large
numbers of a small Pæderus beetle nicknamed the "Nairobi fly". Measuring only about 3/8" long, the Nairobi fly is brightly colored with red and black bands. We've had only a few in our house, but there are thousands at the hospital.Crawling around on the ceilings and walls, a Nairobi fly will sometimes drop onto the surface where I'm working and meander about.
They look harmless, but they carry quite a punch. Their bodies secrete a chemical which is toxic to human skin, causing a nasty dermatitis. And if you rub your eye with a little toxin on your finger, then you will develop a case of what we call "Nairobi eye". So this is one bug you don't want to squish with your hand!
Living at 7,200 feet elevation, we find that insects aren't much of an issue most of the time. Oh, we have small cockroaches here and there, tiny ants that sometimes appear in numbers, and an occasional mosquito. Earlier in the rainy season, there were the usual swarms of flying termites now and then.
Down in the valley where the temperatures are warmer, there are many more insects to be found. For example, the whistling acacia trees on the slopes of Mt Longonot live in symbiosis with small crematogaster ants. Any animal that dares to nibble on the acacia tree will quickly regret it!But the grasshoppers and Nairobi flies are unusual around Kijabe, and nature has put on quite a display for us!
- Doug
The Naribi eyes used to congregate in our dorm bathrooms around the lights particularly at night. There was no door to our bathroom and the windows were always open. We had to be very careful of them and I had a rash from them from time to time. The very large grasshoppers would come in hordes from time to time as well and be so many that they would get in our rooms and in the bathroom. You could not walk but you would squish them. We tried eating them.. They were ok, nothing special. The biggest excitement would be when they would get in the classroom and disrupt our classes.
ReplyDeleteFun!