Like all tropical climates, the one in San Jose, Costa Rica is warm and humid – perfect for bug breeding.

We have the tiniest ants possible and so we try to keep all food well packaged and no crumbs or anything on the counter. Fruit flies are everywhere in the kitchen because I always have fresh fruit ripening.

The smallest termites possible reside in our wood-construction house and every once in a while – like when a cat walks on the roof – we are showered with termite dust (poop, for all I know).

There are also all of the normal outdoor bugs: gorgeous brown and black moths as big as an adult hand, lovely and colorful butterflies, beetles of many colors and a bunch of others I can’t identify.

We regularly sprayed the house for mosquitoes and, at one time, there were so many that I would apply insect repellent to my skin even indoors. But, we must have done something right because the population (at least inside the house) eventually diminished to nothing.

And then…. There are the roaches. Some are as big as an adult thumb, they are brown, can climb walls and walk on ceilings and are – in no way (!!!) – an indication of how clean I keep the house.

After a month or two of living in Costa Rica, we still weren’t used to the number and size of the bugs. We had a woman move in with us – she was a student at Jacob’s school learning how to Teach English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). C.J. told us that the bugs didn’t bother her because they are just ‘palmetto bugs’. I had never heard that description before and, knowing there are palmetto trees in Costa Rica, settled for living with palmetto bugs – not cockroaches.

Over the summer months, we had two nieces, a nephew and his girlfriend, a sister in law and a girlfriend visit us from Canada and the U.S. One niece didn’t care what they were called “just get them out of my room” – I told her to either take a Kleenex and flush it down the toilet or ignore it. The others generally just ignored the bugs although I did get Nathan to kill a few for me.

In the months since C.J.’s departure, I’ve been wondering what exactly is are palmetto bugs and don’t they look an awful lot like cockroaches?

I now have irrefutable proof that cockroaches and palmetto bugs are, indeed, the very same thing. Oh well, my self-disillusionment helped me to live with the big buggers for six months. And what’s wrong with that? Not a thing.

Learn more (especially you C.J.): Wikipedia Palmetto Bugs/Cockroaches

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