To set things up, you need to know that a week or so before, I had killed a centipede in the house. Centipedes are probably Vanuatu’s most dangerous pest, except for maybe malaria and dengue fever carrying mosquitos. There are two varieties - unscientifically known as “big” and “small” .... haha. We had seen a few small ones in the house over the past year, but this was the first big one. And let me just tell you, they are intimidating suckers. This one was about 6 inches long, and you can actually hear their legs hitting the ground as they slither along - gives me the willies just thinking about it! I am not sure whether they bite or sting, and don’t really want to find out. If they do get you on the leg (most common), you will swell up and limp for a few days - very painful.
Anyway, all that to say that we were especially vigilant that night since Titus and Rensly were sleeping on the floor. Maybe this stuff goes on every night and we just don’t realize it? Either way, we did realize it on November 24.
First was the sound of the cat chasing something, then eventually catching it, and then crunching the bones ... it was a mouse (the cat has caught no less than five in the house in the last month - she is definitely earning her keep). A few hours later we woke up to a good-sized mud crab walking along the floor. In a bit of a daze, I hopped up and grabbed a stool and corralled it out the door. Once outside, I scooped it up and flung it as far as I could into the bush. Trying to get settled back into bed, I heard an odd scratching sound coming from “the kitchen.” Shawnda said she’d been hearing it all night, but didn’t know what it was (I am not sure she slept at all the entire night). I got back up to investigate (the cat was very interested as well).
It soon became evident that the noise was coming from underneath our gas-powered refrigerator (about the size of a “bar-fridge”). The open space underneath is only accessible from the back side, so I maneuvered it around as quietly as possible, as the boys were asleep only a few feet away. I finally got it turned around, pushed the cat out of the way, and hesitantly shined my light inside. As soon as my light came on, the sound stopped. At first I couldn’t make out anything underneath, so I turned my light off to wait for the sound to return. It did, and I quickly turned on my flashlight. The noise stopped, but I finally noticed a shell in a jumble of wires at the very back of the cavity. Now that I knew where to look, I again extinguished my light and waited for the noise. When the scratching resumed, I quickly shined the same location in time to see legs and antennae sticking out - a hermit crab had crawled back in there and gotten stuck. He was a pretty good sized crab, with his shell halfway between the size of a golfball and a tennis ball. There was no way to get him out without taking the fridge apart, so I resigned myself to the fact that we were just going to have to endure the scratching for the rest of the night. At least we knew what it was, and that it wasn’t going to do any harm.
After what seemed like only a few precious minutes of sleep, I heard the sound of something creeping along our bamboo wall. My first assumption was that the crab had gotten loose and was attempting to leave the house, but upon looking with my flashlight, I couldn’t see a thing along the entire wall. That meant that it was on the outside, and since there is a gap between our walls and our roof, it meant that it could be something on its way inside. So, I mustered up the will to get out of bed yet again to see what it was and attempt to keep it outside. It turned out to be another mud crab. I assume it could have been the same one as before, but this one seemed to be a bit bigger (8 or 9 inch wingspan). They are really fast, and very timid, so as soon as he realized I was there, he came scampering down the wall. I was able to pin him between a cardboard box and the wall before he made it behind our 50 gallon drum of rain water. Problem was, what was I going to do now, as I sure wasn’t going to grab him with my hands - his pinchers were clicking frantically. I really didn’t want to kill him, but I DID want to make sure he was going to leave us alone. I must have loosened my grip as I was trying to decide what to do, as he came free and fell to the floor behind the drum. He must have felt safe down there, because he didn’t move for several minutes. He was boxed in on three sides (two walls and the drum), and I was growing impatient. I grabbed a lead pipe and skewered that dude, and flung him out into the bush. I accomplished my goal: he wouldn’t be bothering us again that night (or any other night).
A few hours later, at the slightest hint of a sunrise, the boys were awake - talking and giggling not-so-quietly. Oh, what a night! But, we’d do it all over again because Titus thought his first slumber party was way-cool.
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