We aren’t the only ones who love Costa Rica’s lush vegetation. Bugs happen everywhere, but tico crawlers take bugdom to a new level. They’re bigger, brighter, and more persistently present. Here are our top five buggy encounters.
Mad Ant Skills
Red ants can teleport from the ground to your naked ankle, even when you’re riding a bicycle. Tico ants get things done. We live on the fifth floor and spray for ants daily, in exactly the same entry locations. They do not care. They run, walk, limbo, slippery slide through the best raid spray, waving their middle fingers whilst carrying away a whole pineapple. We got a chance to watching these mad ant skills up close at a clever display at Los Lagos in La Fortuna. The ants were contained in by a water mote and nothing else. Then there were branches that led from the display to the outside. Clever way to contain them. If only I could figure out how to mote my kitchen.
Centipedes
Every morning I walk to my daughter’s school and the sidewalk is crawling with centipedes. They seem to be goign tot work or walking their kids to school, too. The people at the bus stop are amused as I hopscotch my way down the sidewalk. If I step on one, and the crunch still freaks me out.
Caterpillars
We are used to these wee cuties.
But here they are super sized!
These guys at Neo Fauna are 5-6 inches long and have suction cups on their stomachs and legs toward their heads. Here are five of them.
They blend in with their surroundings and eventually turn into amazing owl butterflies.
Spiders
The spiders here are huge. This particular one was the size of my palm. Our guide threw a small stick into her web to show how sturdy the structure was. She went over there and took it out. Crazy big, strong, scary spider.
Roaches
The creepiest thing we had happen here was when we were sleeping in an open air house in the rainforest. Even though we were sleeping in mosquito netting, one of the girls woke up with a huge roach on her face. It was inches long. Thank goodness there are no pictures. Therapy may be necessary.