Sometimes, when I used to think of the tropics, I thought of bug hell. (Or rather, bug heaven, if you're a bug. Bug hell if you're the rest of us.) The relatively dry two-to-four-seasoned South Dakota, where I grew up, has its share of mosquitos and spiders, but doesn't have to deal with scorpions, cockroaches, or these no-see-ums.
Great news about Panama: we're not dealing with a lot of those things, either. I've seen one cockroach and zero scorpions since I've been here, and the bites on my legs aren't from mosquitos. They're from the no-see-ums.
A clever name, because it's true: I've occasionally heard them called sand fleas, but whatever you call them, you don't see them bite you. You just wake up the next day itching like mad.
During my first week here, I actually woke up in the middle of the night scratching my legs, and I ran to the bathroom to douse the red bumps in vinegar (one of my many anti-itch treatments), which relieved it enough for me to go back to sleep.
At one point, I actually questioned whether or not we could stay here, because the itching was so bad. Then I noticed something:
No one else around me was scratching. I had to ask: What the heck?
They shrugged. "I've been here for years -- haven't had a problem," one guy said. Another added, "Yeah, after the first few weeks, they never bugged me again."
Hm.
Now, three months later, I have to say, those guys might be on to something. I'm no longer battling the bites. Occasionally one will turn up on my ankle, but for the most part I've forgotten my bug spray every day, and I no longer have a problem.
What I'm saying is this: don't get discouraged. Maybe it's this weird initiation the bugs put us through to see if we really want to be here. I don't know. But it will get better. It did for me.
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