JEK
Moderator
Reged: 01/20/04
Posts: 11011
Loc: Northern Virginia
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<<<It's the tropics ! Bugs come and go >>>
Yeah, this is sorta like the people that were bitching about the fish...in the ocean...at Gouvernour...
Like, what WERE you expecting?
Next it will be the humidity. Gee, my hair frizzes down there in Saint Barths!
-------------------- Carnaval 2009: Mardi 24 Février 2009!!!!
JEK
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Island Visitor
Reged: 12/19/02
Posts: 10396
Loc: Retraité
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Quote:
Next it will be the humidity. Gee, my hair frizzes down there in Saint Barths!
Or "I got too much sun in places that dont usually get sun."
Gee, uh, ya think?
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JEK
Moderator
Reged: 01/20/04
Posts: 11011
Loc: Northern Virginia
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Or, the every popular: "Every time I go to the beach for nude sunbathing I come home with a sandy monkey"
-------------------- Carnaval 2009: Mardi 24 Février 2009!!!!
JEK
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Island Visitor
Reged: 12/19/02
Posts: 10396
Loc: Retraité
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Let me put this in perspective.
We have all seen those movies about plane crashes or ancient civilizations that "over time" were buried in the flora of the tropics.
Well, I am here to tell you that is GARBAGE.
There isn't any "over time" in the equation. It is immediate.
In 2005, we saw a property in the tropics. Lovely hillside place, completely cleared, not a plant on it, having been freshly scraped by the bulldozers. The driveway was cut out of a hill and essentially solid rock. Wow. Way cool.
We went back 11 months later. Where was the place? Geez, it was BURIED by trees and plants and flowers and cacti and shrubs and green stuff such that there was not even one little glimpse of rock to be seen anywhere. Could hardly even find the driveway which was also equally buried. AMAZING.
Long story short is this: In the tropics, you fight and fight and fight and obtain temporary advantage but you never win.
As such, there will ALWAYS be critters around a villa, any villa, unless it has been sprayed relatively recently. Request that your villa be sprayed before you get there and things should be fine.
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Island Visitor
Reged: 12/19/02
Posts: 10396
Loc: Retraité
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Quote:
Or, the every popular: "Every time I go to the beach for nude sunbathing I come home with a sandy monkey"
As Timothé is apt to say: Somebody's gotta do it!
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NYCFred
Reged: 01/06/04
Posts: 6347
Loc: NYC
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actually, I mis-spoke..(wrote?)
the people i was referring to were bitching about the SEAWEED...in the ocean...at gouvernour....
guess it was the pool boy's day off....
-------------------- I go for the Q-tips.
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Mike R
Reged: 05/26/03
Posts: 15972
Loc: Stinson Lake - New Hampshire
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there are people out there ( surprise surprise..mostly in America) who live completely sterile lives...everything is neat and orderly and homogenized and that which isnt is eliminated or mutated into a form which is .......they want crystal clear chemically preserved pools where no life exists in the chlorinated soup...they want a bug free living environment which is insured via massive doses of carcinogenic chemicals routinely sprayed in their homes, and they will pay any amount to insure they get it that way....they want to overdose themselves with antibiotics at the first sign of a malady, much to the delight of big pharma, to make themselves better quicker, rather then let their immune system work at its own pace...and thats all well and good except....most of the rest of the world is not that way...so when they leave the comforts of their biospshere lives.....it becomes quite disturbing to them that these little horrors not only actually exist in the world but that scores of populaitons actually accept it as such and live in conjunction with it all....I read an artcle a while back that basically said we in America are living such unnaturally sterle lives, and to such a degree, that a viral attack or any form of germ warfare on us by an enemy would be far more effecitive then any other means, because our immunities have become so compromised through our unnaturally sterile standard of living.....
and the nice people of St Barts, as well as other tropical communities are really trying their best to not only accomodate our need for sterile perfection, but are also trying to understand it
its the tropics for God sakes....germs...viruses....bacteria...and insects all not only exist but flourish...get over it....or book a nice vacation in Anartica
Dorothy put it best.....lions and tigers and bears....oh my!!!!...LOL
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infi
Reged: 09/01/06
Posts: 649
Loc: California
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Mike
I don't always agree with you :) but on that comment I have to say a resounding here, here! I thought I was a voice in the wilderness on that position.
Stuart
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Mike R
Reged: 05/26/03
Posts: 15972
Loc: Stinson Lake - New Hampshire
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GASP!!!...you dont always agree with me?????????????
what do I do now?????...LOL
its okay...I'm used to it..but its nice to see on this topic I am not alone
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infi
Reged: 09/01/06
Posts: 649
Loc: California
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What are you to do? Stir up more controversy so we can all get snippy with each other.
You're being quiet this morning and if I didn't know better I'd be almost tempted to accuse you of being busy working!
Seriously though too many people try to create a life in a sanitized bubble hoping they'll some how live forever. I'm more of a live it fully (including the gritty and not so nice elements of it). I want to slide into the grave absolutely spent but knowing I did everything I could to experience it all. If I slide into the grave fit, stressed but with amazingly low cholesterol...I'm going to feel cheated! I died all the same. Might as well make it fun, huh?
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Mike R
Reged: 05/26/03
Posts: 15972
Loc: Stinson Lake - New Hampshire
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Quote:
What are you to do? Stir up more controversy so we can all get snippy with each other.
You're being quiet this morning and if I didn't know better I'd be almost tempted to accuse you of being busy working!
Seriously though too many people try to create a life in a sanitized bubble hoping they'll some how live forever. I'm more of a live it fully (including the gritty and not so nice elements of it). I want to slide into the grave absolutely spent but knowing I did everything I could to experience it all. If I slide into the grave fit, stressed but with amazingly low cholesterol...I'm going to feel cheated! I died all the same. Might as well make it fun, huh?
when my wife lived in France with her aunt out in the countryside near Toulouse.....they used to go mushroom picking all the time....and when they got back to the house Wendi would start to instinctively, as she was taught here, scrub the mushrooms in the sink..her aunt would go bonkers on her and yell at her telling her how Americans are paranoid about germs and when you wash a mushroom you take away all its flavor....and just to pat the dirt off with a paper towel or a rag.....
when I had my little bistro/deli, if I displayed my food the way they do in Rotisserie in St Jean ????..the Board of Health would have closed me down....LOL...meanwhile...last time I checked, no one is gettng sick from eating a chicken that has been in room temperature all day in Rotisserie..or any of the other meats they have out uncovered at room temp for that matter
we re just a bunch of pansies.....LOL
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rob
Reged: 05/07/03
Posts: 354
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I think there is some middle ground here. If the place you stay each summer in SBH had an abundance of roaches, you might be fine with it, but what about the Mrs? Would you return each year and gladly share the place with the bugs? Or would you be inclined to say something to the owner? My wife would not stay at a place with a bug problem. We have stayed at a number of SBH villas as well as Guanahani over the years and never saw more that a roach or two. That is to be expected in the tropics. I know as a fact that my wife would not return to a villa where she even perceived there was a bug problem, however. There are too many gorgeous places to rent in SBH.
Yes, anyone who has lived in the tropics or has spent much time in the warmer latitudes knows bugs are a part of life. But anyone who has lived in the tropics also knows some houses tend to have more of a bug problem, especially rental homes- I have a friend who works for a pesticide company who confirms this. Rental owners have less control over the bug situation because some tenants are sloppy, leave unopened food out, dont clean, etc. If bugs are attracted to a certain house/villa, they tend to stay as long as they have reason- as in different tenants each week, most on vacation, some potentially not as studious in regards to cleaning up- "the maid comes every day- she will do it.".
I do agree on the overuse of pesticides, antibiotics, etc. But if the problem is roaches, bug killer with plant extracts (no pesticides) is now available (in the States, anyway). As for SBH, boric acid is a suitable answer for those of us who are bug-leary. It is only dangerous to humans if swallowed, in fact it has been used in the past in the medical field as a gentle antiseptic. It does, however , kill roaches.
Bottom line- the poster had no reason to "lie" as accused. He or she saw roaches, normal to the tropics, and mentioned it, not in a particularly derogatory fashion, just as a matter of fact. We pay money to stay at any given villa. We should be able to speak freely and mention both the good and the bad.
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