How to eliminate silverfish

No, not this kind of silverfish:

This kind!

This creepy little insect is a silverfish. I hate these disgusting little creatures. They don't bite and don't carry diseases, but they move in a fast slither that is just plain creepy; and if you're fast enough to smack one, they smear into a grey smudge.

In Panama (especially in rural areas), silverfish will be found in any place that has books, paper, cardboard, boxes, etc. I never saw them in Panama City, but I saw plenty in El Valle de Anton. This may be because of El Valle's elevation and relative coolness. Silverfish don't like temperatures above 80 Fahrenheit.

Silverfish especially eat foods and products that are high in protein, sugar, or starch. This includes vegetable foods, such as flour and cereal; fabrics, including cotton, linen, silk, and rayon; sizing in paper; starch in clothing; and paste or glue. They also eat wallpaper, book bindings, and paper when trying to feed on the glue or paste underneath them. Their damage is usually recognized from their irregular feeding marks and the presence of feces. Silverfish and firebrats can go for months without feeding.

They lay eggs in cracks, crevices, and other narrow, confined spaces. Silverfish prefer cool, moist, dark places with temperatures between 70o - 80° F and a relative humidity between 75% - 95%. They are often associated with basements, closets, bookcases, and storage areas.

How to Get Rid of Silverfish

Silverfish and firebrats are associated with damp conditions. You can reduce their numbers by correcting moisture problems:

1. Dry out damp areas with a fan or dehumidifier.
2. Repair leaky pipes.
3. Ventilate closed rooms.
4. Repair leaking roofs.
5. Seal concrete walls and floors.
6. If the problem occurs in a bathroom, make sure the ventilation fan is used during baths and showers.
7. If you can not move materials, provide air spaces between boxes and other objects to promote air circulation.
8. Keep in mind that as air cools the humidity in that air increases, so using a dehumidifier or gently heating the surrounding air can have a big impact on the infestation!

You can also reduce silverfish and firebrats by removing sources of food, especially in damp areas. You can reduce potential hiding places by removing old papers, books, boxes and other clutter. Seal cracks and crevices, including those found in baseboards, cupboards, and walls to limit harborages.

Kill Silverfish with Boric Acid

Last but not least, poison them! This can be done with boric acid, a type of inorganic dust. Common trade names include Roach Powder® and Roach Prufe®. Diatomaceous earth, also known as silicon dioxide, is also available. A representative trade name is Concern®. Follow the label and place the dust in cracks and crevices where silverfish have been sighted. Do not apply dust where children and pets can reach it.

You can also make residual spot treatments along baseboards, cracks and crevices, and other areas where silverfish or firebrats are found. Insecticides, such as permethrin, deltamethrin, cyfluthrin, and cypermethrin are effective insecticides against these insects.

In Panama you can purchase boric acid (acida borica in Spanish) at most hardware stores or Chinos (Chinese-owned corner stores). Buy it in bulk, by the pound if possible, rather than the small packets sold in the Chinos.

Borax Soap for Ants

Doug on Panama Forum points out that you can also use a 50-50 mixture of borax soap and icing sugar to get rid of sugar ants. The ants take this toxic mixture to their nest and share with the colony, and they all die.

On that cheery note, take care and be silverfish-free!

Bugs on the Brain: Wild life and insects in Panama

Quick word: I have finished the website that showcases my house for rent and for sale here in El Valle de Anton, Panama. See it at http://www.CasaPanama.com/

Now on to the wildlife:

One of the joys of life in the tropics is the incredible wealth of life, both plant life and animal life. Panama boasts more species of birds than any nation in the Americas. El Valle is a birder's mecca. People come here from all over the world to hike up into the hills and birdwatch. Within a few hours hike you can spot toucans, a huge variety of hummingbirds, herons, eagles, many species of quail, macaws, parrots, cuckoos, owls of all kinds... the list goes on.

In this house, I wake up to bird song. It's a lovely sound to be greeted by. Often when I walk in the evening, I pass horses grazing on the road in front of the house (it's a grass "street"). I see owls, bats, possums, armadillos, ñeques, and the occasional sloth. And I sleep to a symphony of frogs and crickets.

Speaking of crickets, however, that brings me to an aspect of life in the tropics that may annoy some people: the bugs.

Anyone who is afraid of insects would need some therapy here. This is a tropical country, and bugs of all kinds are a fact of life. Right now it's beetle season. Every day I find several in the house, usually upside-down and waving their legs in slow motion, like a drunk trying to flag a taxi. They are beneficial insects, so I pick them up and take them outside.

By the way, did you know that there are more species of beetles than of any other animal in the world? There is a mind-boggling 350,000 known species of beetles in the world, which is 40% of all described insect species, and 25% of all life on earth!

Every now and then I'll find a large spider in some corner. They are gray, hairy spiders the size of my palm. Again, I scoop them up with a dustpan and toss them out.

There are at least four varieties of ants that are common here. One always has to be aware of food storage and disposal. Leave anything sweet or sugary out (even juice residue in a glass) and tiny sugar ants will be all over it within a half hour. Breakfast cereal, candy or sweets, and of course sugar must all be stored in the refrigerator. Leave anything with protein out, and black ants will march in to devour it. The same black ants will consume the beetles or other insects if they die in the house and remain on the floor too long. These blank ants bite, and if you accidentally step in their way they will be all over your leg before you know it, biting like Mike Tyson.

I have my own strategy for dealing with mosquitoes. I have gotten very good at killing them and can snatch one out of the air with one hand. The real problem comes at night, when one becomes an unconscious feast. What I do is, in the evening I keep the bedroom dark, and I turn a bright light on in some other part of the house to draw them out. When I go to sleep I shut the bedroom door so they can't get in. If I do get bitten, I've found that a brief application of ice to the bite will cure the inflammation and itch completely, if you don't scratch.

The mosquitoes and moths attract geckos, which can frequently be seen on the walls or ceiling. Again, I don't know how they get in, but they are beneficial and I leave them alone. In fact in Panama they call them "limpia casa", house cleaner. They have a distinctive call that sounds like a mocking laugh. Occasionally they time it just right, for example after I've said something silly or forgot what I was doing, and I have to say, "Yeah, very funny!"

Outdoors is another matter. There is a teeming variety of both beneficial and harmful insects, with the real pests being ants and noseeums (also called chiggers or sand flies). Leaf cutter ants are everywhere, and it's not a good idea to step in their path. Fortunately they are easy to spot, with their clear-cut trails through the grass, and their leaf pieces moving along as if by magic.

The noseeums fertilize cocoa trees, so I realize that they too have a purpose in God's plan, but their bites are maddening, much worse than mosquito bites. I never walk outdoors (even in the yard) barefoot or in slippers. I always wear shoes, socks and long pants.

Bees and wasps are common, and we have twice had to remove wasp nests from the eaves of the house.

With all that said, you get used to it. It's a part of life here and eventually you adjust. It's the price you pay for the fruits that drop from the trees right into your hand, the profusion of flowers, the hummingbirds that can be seen outside the window every day, the amazing variety of bird calls, and all the other wonderful aspects of life in the tropics.

Downside to Life in El Valle de Antón, Panama?

The boys in the photo above live at the end of Calle La India. They play around there and volunteer their services as guides for anyone visiting either La Piedra Pintada (the Painted Rock) or La India Dormida (the Sleeping Indian, a local mountain). Any one of them can take you to La Piedra (it's a short walk), and then give you a long explanation of all the pre-Columbian petroglyphs carved on the rock. $1 is the usual fee for this service.

A reader recently asked me if there were any downsides to living in El Valle de Antón. The truth is that El Valle is a beautiful, special place and I could go on for hours about all the joys of life here. I must leave for personal reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of life here. But yes, there are a few downsides.

Downsides to Life in El Valle

1. Annoying weekenders. El Valle is a resort town. Many wealthy Panamanian families have weekend/summer homes here. It's been this way for decades. They arrive here in force on Saturday morning, rolling into town in their big SUVs. That's great for local restaurants and stores, but the problem is that the weekender kids all have ATVs and dirt bikes and they spend the weekend roaring up and down the streets with no regard for safety or peace. The older kids, in their teens and twenties, zoom up and down at all hours in their SUVs. I like to walk in the evenings but I don't walk on Friday or Saturday nights because it's too dangerous.
   Why don't the police do something? Because these are wealthy, influential families and the small town cops know better than to interfere in their affairs. Aside from the fact of their status, these families support many local facilities such as the public library and the nursing home. So, like the locals, I put up with it in silence. This is one of those cultural differences that gringos must accept.
   
2. No hospital. This is has not been an issue for me, but for many of the elderly retirees here, it is. El Valle does have a clinic that can treat common sicknesses and offer limited emergency care, but for comprehensive medical care one must go to Panama city, 90 minutes away. In a life or death situation, that's a long ways to go. El Valle has an ambulance that was donated by Japan, but it will take you only to Penonomé, which is one hour away and has a hospital but not of the quality you would get in Panama city.
3. No private school. If you have school age children, this could be a problem. There are public schools here but they are underfunded and the quality of instruction is not stellar. I have heard of a private bilingual school in Penonomé but I know nothing about it. It's possible that within a few years we may see a private school in Coronado. So at the moment you'd better be prepared to home school if you want to live in El Valle with children. You might consider a combination of public school and home schooling.
   
4. Insects. This is the tropics, and in a mountain town like El Valle you feel it. The battle against the six-legged kingdom is never ending. Be prepared to live with mosquito bites and noseeum bites, and to take extraordinary measures to keep ants out of your food. Other insects such as beetles, termites, spiders and cicadas can be a bother but are tolerable.
5. No quality grocery store. This is a minor complaint. There are several local chinos (Chinese-owned mini-markets), but they don't carry higher-end or gourmet items. For those kinds of things you must go down the mountain to El Rey in Coronado (45 minutes away), or for real specialty items to the Riba Smith stores in Panama.
6. Higher construction costs. I have no direct experience with this, but I've heard that construction costs can be higher here because materials (and often crews as well) must be trucked up the mountain.
7. No paying jobs. Again, not an issue for me since I work over the internet from home. This is a small town. If you are not retired or rich, then you must have a source of income or be prepared to start a business. I do believe there are business opportunities here (I've been saying for ages that an ice cream shop would do well here, and we'll see since the owners of Pinocchio's Pizzeria just opened one last week).
8. Life is slow. Everyone is different and I happen to enjoy the easy pace of life here, and like I said I work full time and that keeps me busy. I like going to the market and talking to the vendors, going out to eat, and taking long walks in the evening. But some may find life here to be dull. The important thing is that you have something to occupy your time and enrich your life, whether that is volunteer work, writing a book, or starting a business.
   

If any of you readers live here in El Valle and can think of anything I left out, please chime in.

Lightning Bug, Ani, Voicebox, Heavy Pack, Stars

Last night there was a bug thrashing on the bedroom floor, apparently dying. I didn't know what kind of insect it was but I stepped on it with my sandal. Suddenly it began shining light and I realized it was a lightning bug, and then I felt bad about stepping on it, as if it were somehow a beacon or a lamp and I were a dark giant.

Ani came by today to get her pay for last week. We won't be needing her services for now, so I gave her a month's severance pay. I could see she'd been crying, whether because she is out of a job or because she misses Salma, I don't know. Perhaps both. She has been Salma's part-time parent since Salma was six months old. I told her that Salma loves her, and that she (Ani) will always be a member of the family, and that when Salma returns I will call her to come back to work.

I decided this evening to go for a walk. I enjoy listening to my iPod as I walk. When I picked up the iPod from the kitchen counter the cord was tangled up with some small plastic box, and the little box suddenly began emitting a loud crying sound. I stared at it in alarm and confusion before I realized that it was the "voicebox" for Salma's doll. She has a doll that used to "cry" when you squeeze it, but for some reason we had removed the voicebox and here it was. The noise was startlingly loud in the large, silent kitchen.

That got me thinking about Salma and how much I miss her. It's very hard, but I know that my bond with her is strong enough to weather this absence.

Just for fun, I decided to put a couple of dumbbells in a backpack and wear that on my walk, to make it tougher. I wrapped two 30 lb dumbbells in a towel and stuffed them in the backpack, then set off on my walk, listening to a novel called "The Traveler" on the iPod. The pain in my shoulders and the hammering of my heart quickly reduced the length of my planned walk from a long circuit around town to a few blocks, and then just around the one block.

A few local dogs befriended me and walked with me, every now and then nuzzling my hands to be petted. One was a large black puppy, and the other was a fat old dog with a limp. They followed me all the way home. By the time I returned home the weight of the shoulder straps had cut off the circulation to my arms and my hands were tingling. Elapsed time: 20 minutes. I don't know how they do it in the army. Don't they have to run 10 miles wearing 100 lb packs, or some crazy thing?

There's no moon tonight and the stars are incredibly bright. The sky is packed with them, stacked on top of each other like apples at the market. SubhanAllah. This is a beautiful place, beautiful people, in the crater of a volcano nestled beneath the stars.

Here Comes the Rain; La Estancia; Darién

Invasion of the Bugs

Well, we're gearing up for another rainy season. The humidity has already kicked in, and the insect population is burgeoning as it always does at this time of year. The house is full of flying brown beetles, and small moths, and out in the yard the cicadas are stuttering and droning like little air raid sirens. Fireflies appear at this time as well. Sometimes a firefly gets into the living room and I can see its glowing eyes milling about at night. Last but not least, the sugar ants are making their first forays into the house, sending out scouting parties into every room.

We returned our friends Gillian and Elliot, who had been visiting us from California, to the airport last Friday and saw them off. We enjoyed their visit and I think they enjoyed themselves as well. They're preparing for a marathon and they spent their days running or hiking in the mornings. One morning they ran the dirt road behind Hotel Campestre that goes to Mata Ahogado and Altos del Maria. I believe they ran all the way to Altos and back. Afterwards they'd sleep or sit in front of the fan eating pineapple, watermelon and papaya, and reading magazines. Gillian would walk over to the market every day and buy the fruits herself, then cut them up for us all to enjoy.

La Estancia

Their flight was very early Friday morning so we actually went back to Panama on Thursday and spent the night at La Estancia. It's listed as an "author's choice" hotel in the 2006 Lonely Planet guide to Panama, but it was not what I expected. True, it's on the side of the forested Cerro Ancon, but it's basically a former apartment building in a row of other apartment buildings. Not exactly the forest hideaway I imagined. The hotel is hard to find, the rooms are quite small, and they could not provide us with a cot or small bed for Salma, so Laura created a makeshift crib out of two chairs and a pile of blankets.

On the other hand, the place has a homey feel to it. There's a common area with magazines on the table, Kuna molas on the walls, a piano, coffee and tea, an internet terminal for guests to use, and a balcony with a nice view of the Bridge of the Americas. In fact, each room has a good view of the bridge, which is lovely at night when it's lit up and glowing. In the morning the owners lead a 6 am hike up to the top of Cerro Ancon, where you may be lucky enough to spot some wildlife. G&E naturally went on this hike, and I naturally did not - not because it's an especially difficult hike, but because it's at 6 am, for goodness sake.

The kitchen staff makes breakfast to order, and Mi Pueblito is just down a trail.

I might stay there again sometime.

The Darién

I've become increasingly fascinated with the Darien, both the province and the forest. I've spent a lot of time looking at maps of Lago Bayano (technically in Panama province, but on the way to Darien), the little towns along the InterAmerican, La Palma, and some of the more obscure small towns along the Pacific Coast near La Palma, like Garachiné and Playa de Muerto (the Beach of Death).

Nico has been saying that he wants to make a trip to Darien to buy crafts from the Embera and W ounan Indians who inhabit that area. I may go with him.

One Mosquito...

... can ruin your whole night. Particularly when you live in a country where it's too warm to sleep under the covers, or even clothed.

Now that the dry season has arrived, the insects have reappeared in force. I am seeing spiders on the floor, sugar ants everywhere, crane flies, moths, and the occasional mosquito. And the dreaded noseeums...

Anyway, by 3 am last night I had a cluster of mosquito bites on my left hip, another on my left shoulder and another on my left arm. I must have been sleeping on my right side.

Enough was enough. I applied this wonderfully effective cream called Systral (active ingredient chlorphenoxamine) to the bites, then I put on socks, jeans, and a long sleeved linen summer shirt. I opened the windows to the night breeze, turned the ceiling fan on the lowest setting, and went back to sleep. I still got another bite on the back of my hand.

But I've learned that mosquitos are to be appreciated and commended for the moderation of their bites. There are much worse buggers out there, like the noseeums, also known as midges or sand flies, shown greatly magnified at right. In Spanish they are called purrujas. These little monsters swarm in the late afternoon and around dusk, and they will drop a cluster bomb of bites on your ankles, legs and arms before you even know what hit you.

These bites are nasty, far more irritating than mosquito bites, and they last much longer. With mosquito bites I slap on a bit of Systral cream and leave them alone, and within a matter of hours I forget all about them. Noseeum bites, however, persist for days, and the itch is maddening. The bites are much more prominent and raised, with a crimson red spot in the center. Systral cream soothes the itch only a tiny bit. I hate these little devils! I always wear long pants now when I go outside, and sometimes I smear on some insect repellent oil. I recently learned that they lay eggs in water and rotting vegetable matter, so perhaps I should reconsider my compost pile and simply burn the waste like everyone else does here.

The University of California at Davis, Calif., a well known agricultural and environmental center (and the one from which my parents graduated), reports that no-see-ums will bite humans, domestic and wild animals and birds. They also may feed on other insects. Voracious!

But they say that God created everything for a purpose, right? And guess what? Noseeums are responsible for pollinating cocoa trees. So, no sand flies, no chocolate! I suppose I can put up with a few bites now and then...