Of course there are roaches!

Hah! You thought moving to Hawaii was all sand and surf? Not so, my friend. This, as people like to remind me, is the tropics. That means bugs... big bugs... nasty bugs. On the East Coast, roaches are the sign of bad hygiene and low moral fiber, but here, even the nicest places can have them. DH and I have spent a lot of time at open houses and looking at rental options and inevitably, if the place has been empty for any length of time, there will be a dead roach or two, belly up in the corner. And I don't mean the little critters that scurry away when the lights go on. I mean big, honking brownish red things as big as your thumb that fly when they're alive.

Aaagh!

We went out looking for rentals with a very high end realtor who was a friend of a friend. She took us to a very nice town home in a fancy complex, hoping that by being nice to us as renters we would go back to her when we were looking to buy. There we all were in a lovely three bedroom when I spotted one of the thumb-sized carcasses on the carpet. When I stopped shuddering and could speak without squealing, I mentioned it. The realtor just shrugged.

"Oh, they get inside now and again."

If the bleached blond, high-end, high maintenance house seller thought nothing of it...

Another time, we looked at a place that had little tiny carcasses in the cabinets and when DH asked the owner about any bug problems, the woman was also very calm.

"Oh, we spray regularly, but of course there are roaches."

To make matters worse, this particular house had neighbors that were a bit too interesting. On one side, the family had a flock of chickens roaming the yard. On the other side, the family had a tribe of cats. We found one of them in the backyard. Cute as a button and no doubt full of fleas. We passed on the opportunity, overwhelmed by the livestock and wild life.

As time has passed, I haven't gotten any more used to the idea of large roaches or the slugs we see after the rain, but I don't mind all the geckos that dart here and there outside and sometimes dart around our walls. I know they won't turn and start talking to me with a cute little accent, but that insurance gecko has convinced me that little lizards are cute, not nasty. And besides, a lizard is just too big to swat. The yuck factor is way too high. I'd rather live and let live, at least in the gecko's case. The roaches are another matter entirely.