Unwelcome Guests

Our family has definitely had our share of "unwelcome guests" in our house and church. Some of them are small and pretty much go unnoticed since we're so used to them, but other ones demand immediate action. I'm going to share with you the top 5 household pests that we've had.

Many people envision missionaries as living in little huts with no running water or electricity. They also assume we practically live with all sorts of spiders and snakes. Well, I can't speak for other missionaries in more remote places, but for us this is a big misunderstanding. These are the top household pests in our house in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

1. Cockroaches

We have lots and lots of cockroaches. We have really big ones sometimes, but usually we have average sized ones. I hate them when they're alive. I hate them if I have to kill them. I also hate sweeping up a dead one. I do not feel sorry for them though! I really hate the ones that fly!! I know there are cockroaches in just about every country of the world, but this is the top insect in our house and church. 

In 2014 the missionaries were having a get together for July 4th. The weather wasn't great that day and it was raining off and on almost the whole day. It even rained later in the day while we were trying to do sparklers. :( When it rains it's not uncommon for a cock roach or even a rat to run in your house if you live on ground level. The rain floods their homes in the ground so they try to go somewhere safe. During the service all of us teens got up to sing some songs. Right in the middle of the song a huge cockroach came casually strolling up the middle aisle toward us. It kinda sauntered over to Abby Freeze who tried to kick it away but it ended up going to the back row of boys. One of them kicked it back obviously trying to get rid of it as well. We kept right on with our song during this whole episode. :) I think it got kicked around a couple more times before Blake Ruppel reached over and tried to crush the whole thing under his foot (I can't remember if anyone was wearing shoes since we were inside). Well he got part of it then kicked it right back towards the door. That poor thing limped out of there probably deciding to never step foot into a missionary gathering again! Take that! :)

2. Common House Geckos

If we were still living in our old house I would've put these as number one. Oddly enough, since we've moved we have not had many of these. For all the years that they've been around our old house all the time, I felt like they deserve at least second on this list. 

I believe that the proper name for them is gecko, but our family has always called them lizards. I'm not even sure why. Maybe it sounds less threatening. At our old house we had porches around three sides of the house. There was a light on the front porch and several on the side and back porches. Every night there were tons of lizards around each light waiting to eat the bugs that were attracted to the light. Lizards aren't even worth being scared over. It's pretty fun to scare them away. :)

There are way bigger ones in some places in the city, but mainly in the province. Those geckos are big and ugly, yet strangely attractive. We've had some at our village ministry in the past and even recently. 

3. Mice and Rats

Because of so much garbage and flooding, mice and rats were a big problem at our old church. I don't think I mentioned this before, but our old place was a big villa. We lived on the top floor and the church was on the bottom. The stairs going up to our house were not in the building, but they were on the outside of the house.

Once again, since we've moved we have not had any mice or rats. We rarely had anything bigger than a mouse in our old house, but the old church has had plenty of rats! Big ones! The rat problem got so bad at one point that my dad and the landlord put out rat poison every night in the courtyard around where the rats were coming from. We never knew how big the rat colony was, but within a couple days the whole property began to stink of dead rats. It was gross. There must have been more rats than we had realized!

To deal with mice and rats we've used all sorts of traps. We've used the regular mouse traps that snap shut. We've used glue trays. We've even used big rat cages which catch the rats alive and then we drown them. :( Kinda sad to think about. During this time when the rats were real bad, my dad used to put out glue trays in the church throughout the week and would send us downstairs to check on them. 

One Sunday morning I was the first one to go downstairs for church. I had just unlocked the door and was about to step inside when I noticed something. A glue tray was full with not one, but three rats!  I would've stepped right into it had I not seen it! The biggest two were obviously dead and the smallest one was barely alive. It looked up at me with sad little eyes begging for help. At first I was surprised, then disgusted, then I kind of felt bad, but in the end I decided that rats are nasty and don't belong in our church. The site was rather pitiful. Apparently those three amigos had struggled quite a bit before two of them gave up the ghost, because one of the rugs we keep at the door was all stuck in the glue. The glue tray was originally set out in the hallway, but ended up by the front door. My guess is that the first one got stuck and the next one came to help only to get stuck himself. By then the tray might've been halfway to the door. Then the littlest one probably came along to help only to create more of a struggle which ended in disaster and eventually death for all three. Dad took care of it. 

4. Centipedes

Centipedes here are very common especially in the bathroom. I've never been bitten by one, but I've heard that it is very painful and stings a lot. Centipede bites can sometimes cause more serious issues. I clean bathrooms in the church every Saturday and have come across a lot. I usually drown them with toilet cleaner until they die, then spray them down the drain. Works every time. I don't have any interesting stories about centipedes, but I definitely think they make this list.

5. Spiders

This is at the bottom of the list because we don't have big spiders very often being in the city. We have had several though. We don't always get a picture of every spider, but I found one. This thing was as big as my mom's hand and the body was really big, too!

My sisters and I visited our friends, the Freezes, in the province a couple years ago. While we were there, we encountered four huge spiders! They were all the same kind. The first one was in the pool room, but ran off before we could do anything about it. One was in the school room where we had all our blankets and pillows. Luke came to the rescue and killed it. :) I had a difficult time sleeping that night though! The other was in the bathroom. Luke killed that one, too. The last day we were there, we stayed up the whole night. Around 3 a.m. most of us were in the kitchen playing a game. Then out of nowhere a huge spider suddenly appeared on the wall. I screamed (obviously)!! In 2 seconds flat we were all in the living room on top of furniture. :) We sent Elizabeth to wake up Luke who was nice enough to get up at 3 a.m. and kill yet another spider for us. Thanks, Lucas! 

In conclusion, we have had lots of unwelcome guests in our house over the years. Sure, we have the usual ants, flies, and mosquitoes, but these ones are a bit more exciting! If we lived in the province like the Freezes we would probably have more spiders and beetles and such. I'm so glad we live in the city! :)

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