don't touch!

The millet fields a few weeks ago...tall and green

Harvested millet field

Millet harvest season has come and with it have come bugs.  Lots and lots of earwigs that swarm up walls, cover doorways, and somehow seem to make it inside your mosquito net at night. Thankfully, our house is in the middle of the compound and is somewhat protected from the influx of earwigs that occurs during millet harvesting.  Another interesting bug we find occasionally around here is this:

That is a blister beetle...if you startle or squeeze them, they secrete a powerful substance called cantharidin which causes blistering. Luke had his first encounter with one several weeks ago and got some painful blisters on his arm. Interestingly, cantharidin from blister beetles is used medicinally in the USA to remove warts! I don't think I will try extracting it here anytime soon, though. :)