Bugs & Beasties

Mosquitoes and Malaria

These are sad little creatures! Not only do they never experience love during their lives (no sex – so no parent child relationships), but also the adult has a blind gut so they live their lives in a permanent constipated state!

All sympathy disappears though when you experience their nasty side. Chiggers are the larval stage of a mite.  When you pick up a chigger in long grass it bites into your skin and liquefies the tissue with its saliva.  In reaction to this, your tissue creates a hard tube called a stylostome, which makes a handy drinking straw for the chigger.  After about 4 days the fat and happy chigger leaves but the stylostome remains and carries on itching for a week or more.

More people die each year from coconuts falling on their heads than from being eaten by crocodiles.

Niguas

The books don’t mention these little beasties!  The first you know about them is when a incredibly itchy small black spot appears on the sole of your foot or a toe. At this stage the nigua, a type of small worm, will have eaten into your skin and laid a sack of white eggs.

The only way to prevent a colony of niguas developing is to dig out the parent and its eggs with a needle.  A generous soaking with TCP avoids the wound getting infected and kills any eggs you might miss.  Things get a bit more complicated though if the nigua manages to burying itself under a toe nail before it is noticed!

The current Nigua scoreboard reads:  Steve 3, Jude 2

Snakes !!

Of the 106 species of snake in Honduras, 21 have a fatal bite.  However, the vast majority of snakes will slither away quickly if they hear you coming.  Therefore, it’s best to make lots of noise and stamp your feet when walking through long grass and undergrowth.  

One of the most dangerous snakes in Honduras is the fer de lance.  It has the worrying habit of holding its ground when unsuspecting people come its way rather than backing off.