There are all sorts of interesting lizards, snakes and insects here in Zimbabwe! I have a family of lizards, each less than two inches long and a very plain brown, who live in the valance (what a fancy word—if only you could see it!) of my curtains. They’ve never touched my food, so I figure they eat some of the insects that are around. From my point of view there are too many insects, so that’s good. There’s a fairly large lizard (I’d guess most of a foot long) living in the yard below my apartment. I can see him moving from the third floor, and most of you know that eyesight is not a strength of mine, so I figure s/he’s about a foot long. I’ve tried to get a closer look by walking through the grass, but this critter is shy, and immediately goes down one of several holes s/he’s dug in the lawn, so I’ve never had a good look. There are 3 or 4 other varieties of lizard somewhere between these two in size. All are a bit timid, though there’s one kind out by the front gate that I see regularly and can get close to.
Now, let me tell you about the snakes. So far I haven’t seen one, but I’ve heard some great snake stories I’d like to share with you. The first is that a visiting faculty member who is staying in the farmhouse (the original AU building) is interested in snakes, and has asked the night watchmen to rouse him whenever they see one. He then rouses everyone staying at the farmhouse to go help him catch the snake so he can see what species it is, record its weight and length, etc. There’s a hen house nearby and boa constrictors like eggs (and probably chickens), so there have been several middle-of-the-night escapades there to capture boas. I’m glad I don’t live at the farmhouse. I don’t think I’d mind the snakes (as long as they’re boas) as much as the lost sleep.
Our lab scientist, Wietske, tells of coming into the laboratory one day and finding a black mamba. If there’s one snake I’d never like to run across, this would be my candidate! If one bites you, I understand life expectancy is figured in minutes, not in hours. She didn’t know what to do about the black mamba, so she called security. Some guards came down and started throwing rocks at the snake. This only made the snake angry, and the rocks were breaking laboratory glassware, so Wietska sent the guards away and managed to open a window, through which the snake helpfully went. The only problem is that the snake didn’t go down to the ground, but up to the rafters. It’s probably happily living there to this day. I don’t go to that building if I can help it.
Outside of, and sometime in, the Health Sciences building there’re some creepy crawlies that are either centipedes or millipedes, about six inches long and very black. I keep meaning to try to find a glass jar or take a glass so I can catch one and see how many legs it has per segment, but so far I haven’t managed.
I've seen a wide variety of insects. There are some pretty butterflies and a large number of kinds
of moths, some of which are quite attractive. One of my favorites has a wingspan no more than an inch and is a dark green. It would be practically impossible to see if it were sitting on a leaf. I have lots of moths in my apartment, since it isn’t exactly air tight. They come in, as all moths seem to, when I have the light on in the evening.
Both my apartment and office have occasional wasps or hornets that come in through open windows, but they’ve never bothered me and soon find the windows and fly out again. My apartment is also home to “white ants” (termites), various smaller insects that fly, and an occasional cockroach that’s bigger than any I’ve seen in a long time. Most of the insects seem to be passing through, but there’re several that would like to take up residence in my garbage can. I have to keep all food in sealed containers, and I keep some rather strange things (like flour) in the refrigerator so that nothing can chew through a plastic bag to get to it. Particularly annoying are a couple of species of very small insects that seem to like to crawl up and bite my ankles when I’m sitting in the evening. Their bites don’t itch and don’t leave any welts, but I slap at these a lot. Once my light is out, a variety of insects that have been happily cruising in and out all evening seem to target me for their attention. It isn’t at all unusual for me to kill 8 or 10 that are buzzing around me before I go to sleep.
I’ve seen and killed only two mosquitoes in the whole time I’ve been here, but I occasionally have had a mosquito bite me during the night. I’m glad I’m taking an antimalarial drug so I don’t have to worry about these. A mosquito net would be very uncomfortable during this season, when I often go to sleep in a room that’s around 80 degrees.
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