Something nasty in the washing machine!!!

I've referred, in other posts, to many of the pleasures of living in the tropics - the beaches, hot weather, great holiday destinations, the cultural experiences etc., but I haven't mentioned one of the more dubious pleasures - the creepy crawlies.



The thing about tropical creepy crawlies is that they are, for the most part, enormous. We don't always know if something huge, that has just flown in, stings, bites or is harmless and then, of course, there are ...... the cockroaches. Tropical sized, naturally.



Obviously, we see them around, they're part of living here. They will frequently do their best to off-set the pleasures of a lovely holiday by taking up residence in the entrance to our bin shoot whilst we are away, whilst things are quiet in there. If we go away for more than a few days, it's normal to open the bin shoot and find a large, browny black one lurking on the other side of the door in a sort of "yeah, what you looking at?" kind of pose. Usually a few slams of the door and some spray will, these days, deter them, but we did once have a very persistent on that took a good couple of weeks to get rid of. On that occasion, I waged full scale war, regularly creeping up to the shoot, armed with a tin of spray, ready to launch another attack. Sorry, no pictures of that!



We see them sometimes around outside, in the car park, on the tennis court, near the bins or foodcourts etc. They happen and, by Asian standards, whilst they're big here, we see far fewer than in many other countries in the region.


However, image my horror when I returned from the hairdressers this morning, having left a load washing, to find a large dead one lying upside down inside the washing machine at the bottom of the door, in full view through the glass. It had to be removed - by me, and that was a whole lot less pleasant than just seeing one scuttling by.



The question is, how did it get there. Was it lurking in the folds of the sofa throws that I'd just bundled in and, only a few minutes before, had been sitting on? Was it hiding amongst the laundry piled in the basket that I had just picked up and pushed in? Had it flown into the machine whilst it was empty and been sitting in there when I'd been stuffing the laundry inside? (Things do fly in as the window of our utility area because, as is typical here, it has no glass, so is open to the elements and insects).



Ummm. I think maybe it's best not to dwell on this too much, and hope I don't get the pleasure of removing too many more..... strangely, the fact that it was big is a probably a good thing, as it is more likely that it did just fly in to the machine or laundry basket. Apparently, the ones to watch are the babies - that can mean a nest and well, we really don't want to go there!!!