Expat Community > Belize

mgammo
Joined 2016
Posts: 661

Quelling my phobias of snakes, scorpions, and tarantulas...

8 years ago

When my youngest son and I first went to scope out Belize a huge tarantula scurried across the highway in front of my car. I thought, I dunno bout this!

I had been warned that the Lasher snakes were out in my hood. A lasher snake is black and bites from the front and stings from the back...hence the name..Lasher. I always walked with my then dog, Tanee'...She was a fabulous Mastiff-Pitt mix. She would grab those snakes by the neck and chew their heads off. according to the guy that sold me the dog.I never saw a Lasher on my walks, but I always walked with her.
I went down into a lagoon after rainy season with a gov't official and two other guys. The gov. guy had a glock and the lead guy had a Mashette..They call it a mash-ette....I had consulted an old E. Indian man and he told me to puree garlic and smear it on my boots and the snakes would flee. We went deep into the lagoon bush that day and I did not see one snake. I would get powdered garlic and shake it all around the base of my wall. I never had an issue with snakes except a brown one came in before my wall was up. I even had my main man chop down a big tree which hung over my back yard so no snakes would drop in..lol....I want to be there when they burn the cane fields, they say all kinds of things exit the fields. Even big snakes. I would like to see that.
I have a palapa out back and my man told me we would need to spray to keep scorpions from nesting up in it. That totally wigged me out. I dispatched him to Prosser's to buy the pizin as he called it. I never saw a scorpion but I was very wary at first under that palapa. I finally got used to it, I NEVER stuck my hand in a boot or under anything with out sweeping it or shaking it first. I had been bitten by a Recluse up here..OH NO! I just avoid arachanids at all cost.
Then they have these things called Docta flies.. If you get bitten it could send you to da [email protected] was bitten twice.. It was like being bitten by a Horsefly on steroids. The locals use Vicks Vaporub to take out the sting. I HIGHLY suggest taking a prescription, high power steroid cream down there.
My neighbor got Denege fever up in the Cayo. I figured if I got that I would just get it. An old Belizean told me, it won't kill you but it will put you through it....
I wore one of those coil bracelets which was treated with insect repellent ..it worked really well..
All in all my phobias were basically quelled and I became used to Belize and I love it.
It is always wise to be cautious however and not court disaster as Daddy used to say....
There was also a little toad that would come in. My man would always get the broom and get rid of them. If the dogs eat them they can get poisoned..
It;s a different world down there....

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Quelling my phobias of snakes, scorpions, and tarantulas...

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