Bugs in Costa Rica! The Baddies and the Beauties. Part Two

Our conclusions on bugs in Costa Rica? All a steep learning curve but save for the ants, few cause us grief, and even the odd tarantula is a welcome entertainment and easily dispatched – like the scorpion, usually at the end of John’s boot, into the great beyond to live another day.

Some are best avoided and others need strategies.

In the photograph above leaf-mimicker so aptly named, the flower mantid and a touch of the Hitchcock… I think this might be a katydid of the cricket/grasshopper family… another harmless critter but doesn’t he look ferocious?

My elder sister, a stalwart of tropical living, sent us a very useful book – Tiny Game Hunting – Environmentally healthy ways to trap and kill pests in your house and garden’ – which other residents might find useful. (Potato traps for cockroaches do work!)

Equally fascinating is the Fulgorid above – also called a ‘peanut’ bug because of the bump on its head, or a ‘lantern bug’ because two eye-spots on its hind wings can be flashed to deter predators. We found him lying dead on the patio one morning; now in our bug ‘collection’, he’s been much admired, including by Tico friends who’ve never seen one.

Strangely, I used to get sugar or fat ants on any splash on the cooker, which these tiny pests could detect from yards away. But the white cooker had to be replaced, we bought a black one and we never get ants on it – why not? – there’s probably a PhD out there somewhere!

Though our reference material is improving, we’ll have to buy endless tombs to succeed in identifying half of what we find. Thanks to organizations like INBio – the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad, – more books are becoming available, but it’s a constant search and some day, we’ll need to spend some time searching on the net.

For now, we’ve developed a fascination with our more beautiful bugs, and I hope you’ve enjoyed them too. Any accurate identities would be much appreciated.

So too with this collection of harlequin or shield bugs; metamorphosed into much duller colours and off they flew. Sapsuckers, this branch never did recover from their gorging.

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Written by VIP Member Sheelagh Richards. Sheelagh is originally from Scotland and her husband John who is from Wales are two inveterate British travellers who fell in love with Costa Rica, the beauty of the Talamanca mountain range and the perfect climate of the Rio General valley where they have established a small Bed & Breakfast called Casa de Los Celtas. You can see a free online video interview with John & Sheelagh Richards here.

You can see more about John and Sheelagh’s very affordable B&B outside San Isidro here and photographs and prices here.

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Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.