Casa de Tortugas - Stories
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Yes, we have insects
Living in a tropical area, especially next to a jungle, we have insects. A lot of them.
On short visits in the past, these little critters really "bugged" the heck out of us. People kept saying that they aren't a problem after 6 to 12 months. We worried that they were just shining us on. But once we moved, and started eating like locals, we did notice an improvement. At first it was a small improvement. We lived in town for the first 6 months and only came out to the island when working on the house. But once we moved we started to notice that the insects tried to get us less and less.
They are still annoying in the morning and evening, but during the day they aren't too bad. And the reaction to them when they do bite us is far far less than in the past.
If you are planning on moving here or just visiting, you will want plenty of bug spray at first. But, the longer you stay, the less they will bother you. But they will never totally leave you alone. Even the locals who have lived here their entire lives are annoyed by the insects.
Some things we do to help:
- Run our fans (even on low) as this makes it harder for the bugs to get to us.
- Burn insect coils. These smell fairly nice and annoy the insects.
- Keep the house closed in the morning/evening. Smaller bugs can make it though the screens or between the small gaps in the doors, but the majority of the insects are kept out. Honestly, most of the insects that get into the house are during the day when we are fully open and we trap them in at night.
- Burn yard debris. The insects really hate the smoke and this can chase them away for the bulk of a day or two.
- Use bug spray only when it gets really bad. This stuff isn't good for our skin so we only use it if we are working near an area with lots of bugs.
- Use insect netting over the bed. We don't do this any more, but we did in the beginning when we had no doors or screening. But if you are dealing with insects at night, these bed screens really work well. The only issue is they limit air flow and that can make it stuffy at night. It's a trade-off.
Is it annoying? Sure.
Is it worth it? Absolutely!
| We recycle what we can Published 23-Apr-2025 | What day is it? Published 17-Apr-2025 |
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