Ohhhhh my ga I freaking HATE bugs so much. I always say it’s one of the questions I have for God when I get there a long time from now lolz. “WHY DID YOU MAKE THEM SO HORRIBLE?!” While this is NOT a bug it still freaks me out to this day… it was my first big singing gig and I moved out to Nashville with my friend. We found a great little apartment, trees ALL around just outside of town. My bathroom was just down the hall and one night I walked down to use the restroom and didn’t turn on the lights but “felt” my way down the hall… as I came out of the bathroom (the light was still on) I saw on the wall A HUGE TARANTULA. 😭😭😭 HUGE. Coffee can give.
I started screaming and my roomie came out to yell at me and she started screaming… the apartment manager heard us and came running. 😆
He got that critter out so fast (he didn’t kill it, told us it was good for killing other bugs… ummm OK) and we didn’t sleep well for days. Lollllz.
Great story and I kinda wanna know more about renting a room in a big mansion in Jamaica but def NOT in the bush lol.
OH MY GOD Karen! I would lose my shit if I came face to face with a tarantula! Spiders are IT for me. My hair raised just reading that LOL!!
And about renting a room in a mansion, I kind of got lucky with this one because I met Kemar through a friend and it just happened that he had 9 empty rooms in this monster place he inherited. However, there are houses like this all over the island and this is a way of life for them...sharing huge villa-style homes, each person has their own huge room and they share the common space. In fact, the very first local I ever met in Jamaica was a police officer who lived in a large room with a bathroom and a fridge in a gigantic house. They shared the common space. It's just how they live.
Oh yes. We lived in far north Queensland for many years. A tree frog fell on my face while I was asleep one night. A cockroach did the same to my husband. We had a saltwater croc in the main street last year. My 19yo daughters sent us a pic last week of the python they evicted from a grown man's cupboard - he called them because he was too scared to deal with it. And that's not even starting on the spiders...
Welcome to Australia! Although I still think we're lucky, we don't have bears, mountain lions, or anything except crocodiles that see us as food. And they're quite easy to avoid.
I guess I never realized cockroaches fly. Dive bombing roaches are a terrifying thing to contemplate. Fortunately, Hawaii is the only place I ever encountered one,and it didn’t come after me. I got to look fierce and brave to my roach-phobic husband when I killed it.
I’m hoping whatever inspired a bunch of us to share our roach stories ends here 😂 glad I never had to encounter one on vacation yet. It would be the end of it. I hate being the man in the house who’s suppose to deal with them. Sigh
Lol you know what? I've always wondered how men felt about being the expected hero in all situations 😂 Whether it's cockroaches or murderers in the basement, you guys are always the ones who have to sacrifice!
Gurl! I've never lived in a tropical location, but I can tell some cockroach stories from time spent in the Florida Keys and Hawai'i. Big, honkin' cockroaches, like the kind that might walk out with your new XBox. Despite my years as a farmer -- dealing with wasps and spiders and slugs -- I never grew enough spine for cockroaches. 😬
I so wish I could attach photos here. Thank you for inspiring me to revisit my Ugandan archives from 2008. I have a disturbing number of cockroach pictures--one with a ruler (60mm!), another with a matchbox, a close-up of cockroach releasing her endless egg capsules....that one is followed by a photo of the fried grasshoppers I had for lunch (wrapped up in some kid's math homework sheet). I had to share those grasshoppers with the cat. And the housekeeper who preferred to warm hers in the microwave. I know someone here is having a fur ball reading this but, cockroaches are a part of life. Just like Beverly Hills 90210, you can't deny it. Thanks for taking me down a weird and buggy memory lane!
If you need additional cockroach footage, ever, send me a SOS. I'm also well-stocked in toads, frogs and snake coverage! Thanks for the vintage LMFAO...
I’ve lived in Arkansas most of my life, and while the roaches aren’t that big (thankfully), they are everywhere. When I was little, my babysitter had a HUGE roach problem. I’ll see them occasionally pop up in my own home now, but it doesn’t bother me *too bad* after that - there is definitely a difference in the occasional visitor and a problem😅😬
Your cat-sized rat story did remind me of a trip from high school. A club I was in took a trip to this place called Heffer’s Ranch, where you basically try to experience what people from 3rd world backgrounds live like for a week. My friends and I went exploring the woods one night, and came across this massive rat - also cat sized, which tried to jump off a tree limb into this wooden hut we found with us. No one believed us though until the next night, when one got in a group’s hut and all we could hear was squealing. There were lots of sorry’s the next day😂
OMG I soooooooo love the comments this post is bringing out of you guys. I COULD NOT live another day if a rat that size jumped out of anything and into my space LMAO! The one that went under my couch, I never saw it again so I have no idea what actually happened to it.
That house though! Unbelievable. I’d love to see a post about the real estate you’ve inhabited. I was just thinking about that ghosts in that place and you mentioned them.
I could do an entire post about this one house alone. It was a monstrosity with 9 suites, 2 kitchens, etc. Kemar and I ended up making money here by renting rooms to my blog readers when they traveled. I did the same thing with my little apartment the first time I moved there. Rented it out to travelers (this was before Airbnb existed)
Hilarious, Kristi! When my older son was about 3 or 4, he invited a friend over to celebrate his birthday. In anticipation, we cleaned the house and made his birthday cake the night before. That was the year he was into pink, so the cake had pink frosting. In the morning, we awoke to find a cockroach sitting on the cake eating the pink frosting. But that was Tucson, not Texas or Jamaica, so it wasn't a huge roach, and it didn't have wings! And thankfully, it wasn't a rat! Or, God forbid, a scorpion!
😂 We did get rid of the whole cake. I briefly thought about just trashing the corner the roach was on, but then I wondered how much of the cake it had walked around on. The picture we have of him with the cake still shows pink frosting, but I don't remember if that was taken the night before, or if we had all the ingredients to completely duplicate it. My only regret is we don't have a picture with the roach in it! 😂
Ooooh I've heard all about the spiders in Australia lol. I also had a cousin who worked in Sierra Leone for a while and his stories of spiders were horrendous!!
This made me laugh. I remember being afraid to go retrieve our laundry from the shared laundry rooms at night when I lived in the Cayman Islands because of the flying cockroaches!
There was also the time that I opened the door and a lizard fell on my head. And the time I opened the door and an enormous frog jumped right into the house like it had been waiting to be let in. And the time an iguana in the tree above me pooped (a lot of unpleasant iguana poop) on my head. Ah, Caribbean memories.
Oh boy. The first time I saw a flying cockroach was on our honeymoon in Bora Bora. The island made up for it.
Before we were married we went to New Orleans Marti Gras with a bunch of friends. We stayed at Jenny’s Guest House. Infestation!! The door jam had a row of crushed roaches. Uuggghhh. I slept horribly. I will never forget that place.
OMG New Orleans! No way! 🤮 I wouldn't sleep either if I'd seen what you saw. The more of these stories I hear in the comments the more I appreciate Canada LOL. It's too cold for too long here to get roaches.
Cold weather is great for many reasons. Termites can’t survive either. When we were living in LA every house had to be tented as part of the sales agreement. Paid for by owner.
Forgot to mention that my mom lives in FL. The alligators are real. She once accidentally ran over one. She thought it was a speed bump. No she didn’t make a purse.
Alligators were a thing in south Jamaica as well. They'd just lounge around in ponds and once in a while, on the road lol. I've got so much footage of those things from when I lived down there.
I made this little video of my bayou alligator tour in Louisiana. I'm not gonna lie, I envisioned this sucker jumping into the boat and killing me! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAAuQwphAIY
Ohhhhh my ga I freaking HATE bugs so much. I always say it’s one of the questions I have for God when I get there a long time from now lolz. “WHY DID YOU MAKE THEM SO HORRIBLE?!” While this is NOT a bug it still freaks me out to this day… it was my first big singing gig and I moved out to Nashville with my friend. We found a great little apartment, trees ALL around just outside of town. My bathroom was just down the hall and one night I walked down to use the restroom and didn’t turn on the lights but “felt” my way down the hall… as I came out of the bathroom (the light was still on) I saw on the wall A HUGE TARANTULA. 😭😭😭 HUGE. Coffee can give.
I started screaming and my roomie came out to yell at me and she started screaming… the apartment manager heard us and came running. 😆
He got that critter out so fast (he didn’t kill it, told us it was good for killing other bugs… ummm OK) and we didn’t sleep well for days. Lollllz.
Great story and I kinda wanna know more about renting a room in a big mansion in Jamaica but def NOT in the bush lol.
OH MY GOD Karen! I would lose my shit if I came face to face with a tarantula! Spiders are IT for me. My hair raised just reading that LOL!!
And about renting a room in a mansion, I kind of got lucky with this one because I met Kemar through a friend and it just happened that he had 9 empty rooms in this monster place he inherited. However, there are houses like this all over the island and this is a way of life for them...sharing huge villa-style homes, each person has their own huge room and they share the common space. In fact, the very first local I ever met in Jamaica was a police officer who lived in a large room with a bathroom and a fridge in a gigantic house. They shared the common space. It's just how they live.
That’s kinda cool! I wonder if it could be short term too like a coupla months. I bet we could find that. Yayyy… and ummm TOTALLY RE SPIDERS. 🕷️ 🛑👎🚫🙈😩
Yeah I'm sure you could find it short term. Although, Airbnb probably has that market sewn up unless you know someone who knows someone.
Oh yes. We lived in far north Queensland for many years. A tree frog fell on my face while I was asleep one night. A cockroach did the same to my husband. We had a saltwater croc in the main street last year. My 19yo daughters sent us a pic last week of the python they evicted from a grown man's cupboard - he called them because he was too scared to deal with it. And that's not even starting on the spiders...
OH MY GOD!!!!!! Okay, you WIN for the most disgusting things in one lifetime!!!
Welcome to Australia! Although I still think we're lucky, we don't have bears, mountain lions, or anything except crocodiles that see us as food. And they're quite easy to avoid.
I guess I never realized cockroaches fly. Dive bombing roaches are a terrifying thing to contemplate. Fortunately, Hawaii is the only place I ever encountered one,and it didn’t come after me. I got to look fierce and brave to my roach-phobic husband when I killed it.
Hahaha as long as you looked like a badass, that's all that matters 😉
Yes! 😆
Not fun to deal with but a great story for a Uk based person to laugh at! My apologies :-)
Haha no apologies necessary! My purpose in life is to make people smile 😃
I’m hoping whatever inspired a bunch of us to share our roach stories ends here 😂 glad I never had to encounter one on vacation yet. It would be the end of it. I hate being the man in the house who’s suppose to deal with them. Sigh
Lol you know what? I've always wondered how men felt about being the expected hero in all situations 😂 Whether it's cockroaches or murderers in the basement, you guys are always the ones who have to sacrifice!
I hate it so much. My wife and I have agreed, I’ll do the smashing and she’ll pick it up. I can live with that. 😂
😂😂😂👌
Gurl! I've never lived in a tropical location, but I can tell some cockroach stories from time spent in the Florida Keys and Hawai'i. Big, honkin' cockroaches, like the kind that might walk out with your new XBox. Despite my years as a farmer -- dealing with wasps and spiders and slugs -- I never grew enough spine for cockroaches. 😬
😂😂 I just died over the Xbox!!! Well I'm safe and sound back in cold ass Canada now but yes...I will never say I don't flinch!!
I so wish I could attach photos here. Thank you for inspiring me to revisit my Ugandan archives from 2008. I have a disturbing number of cockroach pictures--one with a ruler (60mm!), another with a matchbox, a close-up of cockroach releasing her endless egg capsules....that one is followed by a photo of the fried grasshoppers I had for lunch (wrapped up in some kid's math homework sheet). I had to share those grasshoppers with the cat. And the housekeeper who preferred to warm hers in the microwave. I know someone here is having a fur ball reading this but, cockroaches are a part of life. Just like Beverly Hills 90210, you can't deny it. Thanks for taking me down a weird and buggy memory lane!
LMFAOOO!!! And believe me, I haven't used LMFAO in a long time but this? It was worthy!
I never dreamed a cockroach story would attract as much attention as this one did. It is universal!
PS: I soooo wish we could attach photos in comments.
If you need additional cockroach footage, ever, send me a SOS. I'm also well-stocked in toads, frogs and snake coverage! Thanks for the vintage LMFAO...
Where I live we have giant flying cockroaches in the summer. They're completely harmless but they're the grossest thing ever.
That's the funny part. We KNOW they're harmless but we're scared anyway 😁
Texas has some big boys too. Dancing on the ceiling. Don't care the time of day. Dive bombing. Oh! My! Gawd!
😂😂
I’ve lived in Arkansas most of my life, and while the roaches aren’t that big (thankfully), they are everywhere. When I was little, my babysitter had a HUGE roach problem. I’ll see them occasionally pop up in my own home now, but it doesn’t bother me *too bad* after that - there is definitely a difference in the occasional visitor and a problem😅😬
Your cat-sized rat story did remind me of a trip from high school. A club I was in took a trip to this place called Heffer’s Ranch, where you basically try to experience what people from 3rd world backgrounds live like for a week. My friends and I went exploring the woods one night, and came across this massive rat - also cat sized, which tried to jump off a tree limb into this wooden hut we found with us. No one believed us though until the next night, when one got in a group’s hut and all we could hear was squealing. There were lots of sorry’s the next day😂
OMG I soooooooo love the comments this post is bringing out of you guys. I COULD NOT live another day if a rat that size jumped out of anything and into my space LMAO! The one that went under my couch, I never saw it again so I have no idea what actually happened to it.
You make me laugh !! 😃
That house though! Unbelievable. I’d love to see a post about the real estate you’ve inhabited. I was just thinking about that ghosts in that place and you mentioned them.
Give me roaches over rats any day (I think🤣).
I could do an entire post about this one house alone. It was a monstrosity with 9 suites, 2 kitchens, etc. Kemar and I ended up making money here by renting rooms to my blog readers when they traveled. I did the same thing with my little apartment the first time I moved there. Rented it out to travelers (this was before Airbnb existed)
I'll keep your post idea in mind!
Hilarious, Kristi! When my older son was about 3 or 4, he invited a friend over to celebrate his birthday. In anticipation, we cleaned the house and made his birthday cake the night before. That was the year he was into pink, so the cake had pink frosting. In the morning, we awoke to find a cockroach sitting on the cake eating the pink frosting. But that was Tucson, not Texas or Jamaica, so it wasn't a huge roach, and it didn't have wings! And thankfully, it wasn't a rat! Or, God forbid, a scorpion!
Oh nooooo! Did you have to get rid of the cake? That sucks so bad!
😂 We did get rid of the whole cake. I briefly thought about just trashing the corner the roach was on, but then I wondered how much of the cake it had walked around on. The picture we have of him with the cake still shows pink frosting, but I don't remember if that was taken the night before, or if we had all the ingredients to completely duplicate it. My only regret is we don't have a picture with the roach in it! 😂
Great story to tell him later in life though! 😁
Cockroaches I can deal with.
It's the spiders I have a hard time with.
Saw too many (big) ones in Australia.
Ooooh I've heard all about the spiders in Australia lol. I also had a cousin who worked in Sierra Leone for a while and his stories of spiders were horrendous!!
This made me laugh. I remember being afraid to go retrieve our laundry from the shared laundry rooms at night when I lived in the Cayman Islands because of the flying cockroaches!
There was also the time that I opened the door and a lizard fell on my head. And the time I opened the door and an enormous frog jumped right into the house like it had been waiting to be let in. And the time an iguana in the tree above me pooped (a lot of unpleasant iguana poop) on my head. Ah, Caribbean memories.
LOOOOOL this was the best comment ever! You've got plenty of stories locked away in there, I can tell 🤣🤣
Oh boy. The first time I saw a flying cockroach was on our honeymoon in Bora Bora. The island made up for it.
Before we were married we went to New Orleans Marti Gras with a bunch of friends. We stayed at Jenny’s Guest House. Infestation!! The door jam had a row of crushed roaches. Uuggghhh. I slept horribly. I will never forget that place.
Great piece. 😊
OMG New Orleans! No way! 🤮 I wouldn't sleep either if I'd seen what you saw. The more of these stories I hear in the comments the more I appreciate Canada LOL. It's too cold for too long here to get roaches.
Cold weather is great for many reasons. Termites can’t survive either. When we were living in LA every house had to be tented as part of the sales agreement. Paid for by owner.
Forgot to mention that my mom lives in FL. The alligators are real. She once accidentally ran over one. She thought it was a speed bump. No she didn’t make a purse.
LMAO over the alligator! Poor thing!
Alligators were a thing in south Jamaica as well. They'd just lounge around in ponds and once in a while, on the road lol. I've got so much footage of those things from when I lived down there.
OMG! Alligators freak me out. They are the reason I could never live in the south.
I made this little video of my bayou alligator tour in Louisiana. I'm not gonna lie, I envisioned this sucker jumping into the boat and killing me! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAAuQwphAIY
Gorgeous. Was that a banyon tree? Small alligators but still menacing.
Not sure what those trees are called but they're mesmerizing! It was stunning in there, made me want to go live as a swamp girl!