Cayo Costa: Kitchen Entomology

Anyone who loves bugs would have a field day in my camp kitchen. Look at the bug in the photo above flickering around in the corner of my kitchen tent. It looks big enough to have been banded by a biologist tracking its whereabouts. I'm not going to pretend to know what most of these visitors are, but they make it easy to find them.
So fellow naturalists, come to my camp kitchen. No walking, netting, or trapping needed. Just have a seat in my Cayo Costa kitchen. Take your shoes off, put your feet up, and watch what comes.


This 4 inch millipede gave me the creeps. It annoyed me even further when it pooped on my chair (or maybe it was annoyed that I wanted to use my chair and released its defense...foul smelling secretions.)
This chair is not the toilet, bud.



Look at this guy eyeing my bicycle through the screening. It made as much noise as gale-swept palm fronds in its attempt to get out.


These ants found my double-bagged homemade granola. I poured the granola on a white plate and shook it like an earthquake. The ants came marching out and I began munching again.
(hey, Cayo Costa doesn't have provisions, and I like my granola!)



Alright, who left the crumbs on my kitchen chair? At least these Palmetto bugs (that's what the Floridians call them...they hate to admit that they are just cockroaches) seem to be keeping the ants away. Damn, don't cockroaches just frequent dirty kitchens? Oh yea, my whole floor is dirt.

Well anyway, would you like to come to dinner next Tuesday?
And remind me to tell you to check your shoes before you put them on again. When I lifted mine, a lizard scurried out.