Buggin'

Tonight is the last of my current batch of night shifts. They have been, largely, uneventful. Early this morning I saw a little boy with abdominal pain, his father was concerned it was appendicitis, it turned out to be a poo!
I have been amazed by the creatures of the night; round about midnight the ugly bugs' ball begins and the nurses' station (or any place in the hospital where a light is on) becomes a mecca for multi-limbed critters. Of course last night when I took my camera with me there was not the variety but I papped a couple of cute insects:

This is a stink bug, beautiful looking but he only needs a brief flick and he emits the smell of rotting socks. DO NOT SQUASH!

I call these 'brainless beetles' because they refuse to learn and accept that they can't climb vertically. There are long lines of them down the corridor all endeavouring to scale the walls.

Perhaps attracted by the smorgasbord, frogs bounce down the corridors in the early hours. They are very sweet, little chameleon-style frogs, the girls have also found and played with them in the pool.

More sinister at the moment are the march flies, little flies with a big bite. Apparently there were no march flies last year because there was no rain in the wet season but this year the big rains have brought a big problem. The bites are painful and itchy, some become cellulitic and require antibiotics, others are subdued with antihistamine; unfortunately there have been a couple of anaphylactic reactions (where swelling compromises the patient's airways), so its not just the snakes that we have to worry about!!