This article is one of a series on life in the campo, or country living in Costa Rica, as my wife and I* experienced it on our visits and after moving to Costa Rica. Each is a sort of time capsule, the stories evolving with us as we have lived more experiences and delved deeper into the culture.

Did you know that in the tropics the life form with the most biomass is ants? We confirmed this firsthand in the campo.

We’d heard that the normal way of dealing with the swarming of army ants through one’s home is to leave the casa to them for a couple of days and come back to a virtually bug-free home. Unfortunately, the option was not available to relocate a houseful of guests, so we used Raid to good effect when the black horde came out of the walls.

The fire ants were the real problem—they are everywhere, even on the grounds of the 5-star Costa Rica Marriott. My family sustained some painfully itchy bites, the most troublesome being on the tender skin between the toes. My wife was soon to be found pouring a one-to-one laundry detergent and water mixture into the anthills that ringed the casa, followed by a generous dousing with boiling water.  (The hills multiply quickly—the first one spotted should be eliminated immediately.) When the owner of the property saw this, he approved of the boiling water method, commenting that it is effective, cheaper than insecticide, and not toxic. We aren’t sure if the detergent made any difference, but it did make the ants come streaming out so that the boiling water could get to all of them.

We’d already learned on a previous trip to never, ever let food stay on clothing. You can lose a favorite garment to roaches that way.

We noticed that some families keep their toothbrushes in the fridge, and everybody keeps the sugar bowl in there because of the sugar ants (or “hormigas locas,” for the way they zigzag around). Fruit flies are also prolific. We were both raised in the country and so are not bothered much by bugs of such benign nature as these.

*We are Fred and Amy Morgan, originally from the US. We bought a dairy farm in Costa Rica to plant trees in its pastures, then later caught a dream of turning all the land we can to permanently protected, sustainably maintained forest once the plantation trees have been harvested for profit. Along the way, we made it possible for our former partner to realize his dream of starting a business of his own in his native land. He is featured in many of the earlier stories.

To read more about Finca Leola S.A. and how you can also invest in trees and at the same time help with reforestation, go to Own Trees with Us.

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