Insect problems are surprisingly absent from this part of Thailand, contrary to my years ago image of what Southeast Asia was like. There is nothing to correspond to the yellow jacket plague in various parts of the U.S. when you try to eat outdoors. Everyone eats outside here nearly all the time. The kitchens and eating areas for the new houses we are building in Opportunity village will be outside.
Something did happen last night. There is some kind of small beetle, dark brown and shaped like a ladybird beetle but a quarter or less the size, that is mating, breeding or otherwise celebrating some part of their life cycle. This part appears to be to find a light and fly around within a foot of it until you die. This is a picture of my front porch. I had the porch light on for movie night and forgot to turn it off until later. They look like coarse brown dirt. This is the second and probably last die off I have seen this year. The first time I had five or more times as many insects. I should have taken a picture of my porch then. It was quite impressive. I did not realize what the “dirt” was and just started sweeping it away. They sweep up easily.
Few came in last night because there was no inside light to draw them (movie night, remember?). Thai houses don’t seal that well, and the night of the first time I did not understand what was happening. My inside, as well as outside, lights were on and a few got in. I was reading directly under a light and five or six times a little beetle just fell onto me. It could be dead or still crawling a bit. They don’t bite and you can’t feel them except when they first fall and hit you. When I was cleaning up next morning I noticed they were only on the dining and coffee tables in the house, nowhere else. The two lights were directly over these tables.
So if you are eating your evening meal at an outdoor restaurant (about the only kind we have) in Nang Rong and start getting bombed by tiny beetles, just move to a table between two lights, and you should not have any problem.
