Luky
ONE OF THE JOYS OF LIVING IN A HOUSE RECENTLY BUILT WAS THAT THE COCKROACHES AND THE ANTS HAD NOT YET DISCOVERED WHERE WE LIVED.
I'm philosophical about goggas.
Living in South Africa, you have to be.
That's not to say I don't wage a relentless battle against them, but I have no hard feelings about them.
They cannot help being alive.
If I were a cockroach I'd feel about Mrs Whittle the way Mrs Whittle now feels about the cockroach, namely, that it is the least prepossessing creature in the world.
No foxholes
In our new house there were not yet cracks and holes into which insects could crawl and hide themselves.
Any battles which were waged between us were carried out on open ground, no trenches anywhere about.
Armed with my detergents, disinfectant and spray insecticides, I'm a formidable opponent of any cockroach or ant rearing its head.
And so, they skulk off, leaving for fresher pastures where the lady of the manor isn't so fussy.
One intruder
The only kind of insect we did encounter in our new house was a species with which I had not previously been personally acquainted, the fish moth.
If you don't know this chap, you may wonder how it looks.
If so, stop wondering and keep your fingers crossed lest you ever find out.
For no sooner will you set eyes on your first fish moth than you will realise "This must be it."
And once a fish moth has decided he fancies your place, he and his progeny (numerous progeny, I should say) dig their heels in and stick around.
Small fry
We had an occasional spider too, but those I fixed without a worry, having had my baptism of fire in Zambia.
The spiders there were as big as the palm of your hand and crawled up the wall, gazing at you balefully as you tried to punctuate their existence with a full stop.
They had solid little legs which ran left as you swiped right and vice versa.
After them, Welkom's skinny little specimens failed to frighten me.
Effective staff
We had discovered a brand of insecticide which spells death to the fish moth and we kept a container in each room.
Some winter mornings I have been known to spray some on my hair, drowsily believing it to be lacquer.
But no matter, I'm still not bald.
The effect upon fish moths, however, is instant, and I love it for that reason
I don't like the fish moths to suffer, feeling mean enough as it is for killing them, even though without inflicting pain.
Action stations
We had developed what was tantamount to a firedrill.
Someone would spot a fish moth and yell: "Fish moth!"
My husband would yell back, "Insecticide, insecticide!"
Even when the stuff was close at hand, he didn't see why he should feed a wife and six children and still have to go looking for insecticides himself.
The children would run in, hand him the insecticide which he proceeded to spray, fish moth died, and everyone would troop out.
Sudden death
One day he wasn't in when my youngest daughter spotted a spider.
She ran for the insecticide and brought it to Catherine Nicolette who was reading a book.
"Quickly, a spider spinning woobs", she announced importantly, and led the way to the unsuspecting member of the class arachnida.
Briskly she directed operations as Catherine obediently sprayed and exterminated the spider.
Catherine went back to her book, but by now my youngest had entered into the spirit of the chase.
Pointing at a black dot, she said: "There's a baby spider, kill him too."
Sermonette
Catherine could see it wasn't a spider, and anyway she hated to see her godchild turning vindictive, so she said, "No, shame, I won't kill the baby spider.
Why do you want me to kill a little baby like that?
I can't believe it."
If she hoped to shame her sister, she failed miserably.
My youngest yields to no-one in her mastery of any situation, whether advantageous or the reverse.
Turning horrified eyes upon her sister, she accusingly replied: "So why did you kill de fahder, den?"
Catherine Nicolette
The sequel?
When my little sister challenged me, I was struck to the heart.
I looked at the sad little remains of the spider who had so inoffensively tried to run for safety, and felt as heinous a taker of life as ever there could be.
Why had I killed it?
Because that was what I knew.
I then thought: what if I was the little spider?
How scared would I have been?
Subsequently I came into contact with friends of the Hare Krishna and Jain movements.
They have utmost respect for the sanctity of all life, from the smallest to the largest.
Jainism is a religion which prescribes a path of non-violence towards all living beings without exception.
Suffice it to say that I no longer number insecticide among my household cabinet necessities.
* goggas - insects
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