Bugs

A city boy by birth and upbringing, I dislike things with exoskeletons. My hope was that with Korea’s often-chilly climate and my location in its second-largest city that these creepy-crawlers might not be a problem. No such luck…

Even here in the heart of Busan the bugs are thick. I am constantly battling mosquitoes. Although slow, this breed is persistent and intelligent. It’s taken weeks to rid my apartment of the suckers and I was only able to do so after resolving to keep the windows fully closed all the time; somehow they were still getting in when there were only screens. Worst of all, the monsters would wait until I went to sleep. Sure I might kill half-a-dozen before bed, but throughout the night I’d wake with a buzzing in my ear and find bites all over any exposed skin (including my face) in the morning. While I may have finally exterminated them from my apartment (at least for the time being) the battle left its marks across my home. There are tiny bloodstains on almost every wall, reminders that I wasn’t able to smash the devils until after they’d devoured me.

There are spiders too. Big spiders the size of a woman’s hand, and probably just as deadly. They create massive webs in trees almost everywhere including around my school. Yesterday I was dumping some coffee grounds out the window and a crumb fell onto a spider’s web. She bolted for what she probably assumed was dinner with bear-trap speed.

So if anyone reading this has some spare DDT they can send me I’d greatly appreciate it. Or if you’ve got a suggestion of a new soap or type of rotten fish I should bathe with to make me unattractive to the bloodsuckers, I’d love to hear about it.