usvi-on-line
I have a "critter" question (kinda gross)
FRUIT RAT! Agh, you just brought back a repressed memory. One house we rented had a stupid fruit rat that came by every night at 8:30 PM to try and get into the grill. If it was a FRUIT RAT, why was it trying to get into the grill?? I have a high tolerance for critters, but I cannot abide rats in any form, fruit rat or Boston harbor rat, they are all the same to me. John of course was assigned to "fruit rat" deterence duty. If it was up to me he would have figured out some way to squish it, but he settled for just shooing it away.
It's like looking in your soup and finding a whole different alphabet.
Okay, I'm sure you all remember our horror stories after checking into our villa on Virgin Gorda last year - huge banana spider upon my head and a very hairy tarantula in the kitchen. I thought I had landed in the middle of a Stephen King novella!
My scariest critter tale on St John involved the terrace of our villa overlooking Fish Bay and a papaya tree. We were sitting out on the terrace enjoying the romantic atmosphere provided by a lovely full moon, when suddenly we were swooped by birds (or so we thought) These crazy flying creatures were swooping, swooping and swooping us. Finally after much irritation, we gave up and went indoors. DH declared, "maybe those aren't birds but rather bats" The next morning we noticed htat the almost ripe papayas were nearly gone. Fruit Bats, perhaps?
I am very happy to report no critters here at Sailview in Coral Bay.
My scariest critter tale on St John involved the terrace of our villa overlooking Fish Bay and a papaya tree. We were sitting out on the terrace enjoying the romantic atmosphere provided by a lovely full moon, when suddenly we were swooped by birds (or so we thought) These crazy flying creatures were swooping, swooping and swooping us. Finally after much irritation, we gave up and went indoors. DH declared, "maybe those aren't birds but rather bats" The next morning we noticed htat the almost ripe papayas were nearly gone. Fruit Bats, perhaps?
I am very happy to report no critters here at Sailview in Coral Bay.
Patr
~~Longing to be back on St. John~~
~~Longing to be back on St. John~~
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StJohnRuth
- Posts: 1989
- Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2006 8:42 pm
- Location: St. John, VI
Liamsaunt,
We had a rat of some kind hanging out in our grill for a while also. I completely forgot about him until I read your post. It was more like he was there all day, though, and we had to chase him away at dinnertime.
Whenever it was time to cook, we'd throw pebbles at the grill and he'd run out the bottom. I never looked though, I always closed my eyes. Ick. I wonder where he went?
We cook more at certain times of the year, so maybe he moved on to greener pastures when we started getting busy and eating frozen dinners for a while. I think maybe he started hanging around here because he read about us on the forum, then was kind of mad when we quit feeding him. I can just picture him sitting out there listening to the microwave going "Beep. Beep. Beep." and saying "Oh, no, not THAT again!"
-Ruth
We had a rat of some kind hanging out in our grill for a while also. I completely forgot about him until I read your post. It was more like he was there all day, though, and we had to chase him away at dinnertime.
Whenever it was time to cook, we'd throw pebbles at the grill and he'd run out the bottom. I never looked though, I always closed my eyes. Ick. I wonder where he went?
We cook more at certain times of the year, so maybe he moved on to greener pastures when we started getting busy and eating frozen dinners for a while. I think maybe he started hanging around here because he read about us on the forum, then was kind of mad when we quit feeding him. I can just picture him sitting out there listening to the microwave going "Beep. Beep. Beep." and saying "Oh, no, not THAT again!"
-Ruth
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nothintolose
- Posts: 1960
- Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2006 10:36 pm
- Location: New Orleans, LA
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silverheels
- Posts: 890
- Joined: Thu Aug 10, 2006 10:18 am
- Location: The Nutmeg State
A few years back when I was staying in our condo alone for the first time and sitting out on the deck I kept seeing things flying by in the dark. Scared the dickens out of me. They were noisy and persistent. Come to find out later that they were tree bats. Another time a neighbor way below us had guinea hens that flew from their place up the hill to the condos en masse. Of course there were the ever present goats that feasted on the condo shrubery. We always had the place exterminated but some buggers always managed to survive. I used to keep everything in the refrig and freezer after opening.
St. John critter stories to share:
Rain flies: (termites) after a dry period these critters come out at night after a good rain. They fly directly to any light. Do not know how they get in through the screens but they do in large numbers. After a few minutes they tend to loose their gossamer wings and fall to the floor. If that is not bad enough ... then the ants and lizards come out in numbers and eat them. What a cycle. Now, at first sight of these critters.. I just turn off all the lights and go to bed. That seems to solve the problem.
Scorpions: They seem to like nylon, silky fabric. I once was about to put on a night gown over by head. I stopped to see what I though was a very tiny, little, critter up by the neck. OMG! with inspection it was a whole nest of baby scorpions in my night gown! It still creeps me out to this day. I switched to all cotton but still do the inspection.
Rats: At dusk watch the power lines, I think that is there main highway around the island. They also tend to move in doors around December when the nights become cool and the Christmas winds pick up. At dusk is also the time the fruit bats like to take flight.
Centipedes: Locally called a gungalow. They are a fat worm like critter that leaves a purple slime trail. Just try an kill one. You can cut one in half and it will find it's other half and drag it along. yes, very strange.
Rain flies: (termites) after a dry period these critters come out at night after a good rain. They fly directly to any light. Do not know how they get in through the screens but they do in large numbers. After a few minutes they tend to loose their gossamer wings and fall to the floor. If that is not bad enough ... then the ants and lizards come out in numbers and eat them. What a cycle. Now, at first sight of these critters.. I just turn off all the lights and go to bed. That seems to solve the problem.
Scorpions: They seem to like nylon, silky fabric. I once was about to put on a night gown over by head. I stopped to see what I though was a very tiny, little, critter up by the neck. OMG! with inspection it was a whole nest of baby scorpions in my night gown! It still creeps me out to this day. I switched to all cotton but still do the inspection.
Rats: At dusk watch the power lines, I think that is there main highway around the island. They also tend to move in doors around December when the nights become cool and the Christmas winds pick up. At dusk is also the time the fruit bats like to take flight.
Centipedes: Locally called a gungalow. They are a fat worm like critter that leaves a purple slime trail. Just try an kill one. You can cut one in half and it will find it's other half and drag it along. yes, very strange.
Peace,
bj
bj
At Sunset Beach we would bats come by at night and skim across the water to get a drink It was extremely cool with the lights on. I dig that kind of thing.nothintolose wrote:When we stayed at Hakuna Matata, there was a bat that would fly over the pool whenever we would swim in the evening. Kinda creeped us out but caused alot of laughing as well every time they would dive bomb us
nothintolose
Cheers, RickG
S/V Echoes - Coral Bay - St. John, VI
Ruth, maybe the "fruit rat" moved from your house to my rental after you started making all those frozen dinners!
I thought of another one. Whatever you do, if you are staying in a house that has loose fitting screens, do NOT leave a light on in the bedroom! On our first trip, we stayed in a house that had roll down screens that attached with velcro for the wall that faced the ocean. One night we left a light on in the bedroom by mistake and came back to find the entire wall near the light COVERED with bugs! It was not a termite swarm either, this was a bug cornupcopia. There were brown ones, green ones, black ones, white ones, flying ones, crawling ones, biting ones...argh, just thinking about it makes my skin crawl!! It took about half an hour to squash them all. And no, putting them outside was NOT an option at that point--if we undid the screen to put them out, more would have come in! It was extremely ooky.
I thought of another one. Whatever you do, if you are staying in a house that has loose fitting screens, do NOT leave a light on in the bedroom! On our first trip, we stayed in a house that had roll down screens that attached with velcro for the wall that faced the ocean. One night we left a light on in the bedroom by mistake and came back to find the entire wall near the light COVERED with bugs! It was not a termite swarm either, this was a bug cornupcopia. There were brown ones, green ones, black ones, white ones, flying ones, crawling ones, biting ones...argh, just thinking about it makes my skin crawl!! It took about half an hour to squash them all. And no, putting them outside was NOT an option at that point--if we undid the screen to put them out, more would have come in! It was extremely ooky.
It's like looking in your soup and finding a whole different alphabet.