The Cockroach War

I just couldn’t take it anymore. I had been living at my house for less then a week, but the thought of living the next two years in fear was too much. I had a serious cockroach infestation in my latrine. Every morning I dreaded those familiar pangs in my gut. I would make the long walk to the latrine, open the door and count how many roaches I saw. It was day light weren’t they supposed to run away from the light like little vampires? Depending on how many I saw I either go a fast as I could or I hold it. On this particular day I saw five roaches when I opened the door. It was just too many; I shut it and just walked back to the house. I told my post mate Stephie that when we went to the market that day we would pick up some spray. Stephie was living with me at the time because her house wasn’t ready when we got to post. At least there was someone else experiencing my pain.

When we went to the market we found this stuff called “Super Powerful Bug Spray”, or something equally as promising. The front had pictures of dead bugs, and right front and center was a picture of a cockroach dead on its back. On the back, along with the directions, there was a claim that stated; “will kill all bugs in a room with just one spray”. It appeared that this was what we were looking for. I am sure we got ripped off on the price, but I was willing to pay whatever was asked if it got rid of my roach problem.

When we got home I had to try out the bug spray right away. I went to the stall and sprayed the first little bugger I saw. It was dead almost instantly. It worked. One flew at me a few seconds later. I screamed! Stephie stood a safe distance away speculating. Just then a neighbor boy was walking by, he asked us what we were doing and why we were screaming. He took the spray and got to work. It is kind of a Beninese thing to do stuff for your elders. It has been something that I haven’t quite gotten used to but in this case I had no problem. He knocked down the wasps nests for me too. Every once in a while a roach would fly at him. Maybe we should have taken it as a forewarning of what was about to happen. He had already become Stephie and mine’s hero, but I had one final favor to ask him. I asked him to spray down the latrine hole. He did, and he did it well. This proved to be a very bad idea, especially considering the fact that I did not have a lid.

Like something out of a horror movie, the latrine hole was pouring out cockroaches. Within five minutes the walls of my latrine were lined with roaches. Stephie and I just watched in disgust. Our hero keep reassuring us that the roaches would leave. The only thing we could do at that point was walk away, and hope the roaches did the same. About fifteen minutes later we herd this whipping sound on the side of the house. I went to go and check it out. It was a group of cow herding boys killing the roaches which were climbing on the walls of my house.

There were cockroaches everywhere. They were crawling in the lawn. Some dead turned on their backs. Others were flying in the air. My latrine had more roaches on it then it did just minutes before, and they were still coming out of the hole. They were climbing on my house. Of course the cockroaches would leave after being sprayed with poison, they haven’t survived for millions of years with out picking up a few survival skills. They needed some place to go after their rude eviction and my house was the next best place.

I grabbed the can of spray and started spraying the walls along with any roaches that were crawling on it. I ran around screaming and swatting them away from me. I was high on adrenalin and freaking out at every second. Stephie came over to see what was going on and might have been more horrified then I was. The cow herders continued to kill the roaches or would just pick them up off the house and throw them. Our new found hero joined the battle and was killing the roaches with rocks. He kept telling us that they wont do anything.

Perhaps Stephie and I were being a little overly dramatic running around screaming and batting at each other with disheveled hair. At least we were entertaining; they boys just watched us in amazement when we had a particularly close run in with a cockroach. Sometimes I would scream and tell Stephie this was just making us stronger.

Stronger or not, we both tucked out mosquito nets in extra good that night. Over the next week it was only proven to us that I had created an infestation. There were cockroaches in the house before but I had multiplied them. We would wake up every morning and kill five or six. Slowly the number started to taper off. Some days I won’t see one roach, other days I will see two or three. I may never get to the point where I could just pick up a cockroach and throw it, but I don’t freak out anymore. I calmly run for the spray and kill the little sucker. I have become stronger.