Saturday, January 17, 2009
Insects and creatures of Lipat Kajang.
A dragon fly (not of Lipat Kajang but can be found in Lipat Kajang if one looks diligently among the grass of the padi fields)
The first thing you will notice as you walk (walking or getting out of your vehicle) into Lipat Kajang are the mosquitoes. There is plenty of them. And if you were to walk in the rubber land you will find that there are hundreds of them following you and trying to such your blood.
And the next thing you will notice are the flies, of all shapes and sizes. Where do they come from? I don’t really know. Dirty environment? Probably. Or that these flies are just there. Some just follow you around just to bother you and others come when you are opening your food and trying to eat. Blue bottles . well there are a few but they hardly disturb you. But the worse are the ‘rengit (a sort of sand flies). They bite you and the bites are very itchy. And in the hot humid climate, you are really bothered.
But other insects are beautiful creatures, such as dragon flies. These dragon flies are found where there is water. Their breeding grounds I am told. They are of various varieties and they fly about in the morning and early afternoon but as soon as the sun inclines towards the west they will mostly rest on twigs, and very much aware of their surroundings …..when you get too near to them they just fly away. The other are butterflies. There are also a variety of them flying around especially when there are flowers and fruits around or when there are trees bearing young leaves. They are beautiful creatures. But there are also many of them on cow dungs and in places where dirty water collects.
When I was younger we used to see a lot of praying mantis especially during the padi harvesting season. Now that the kampong folks do not plant padi anymore you hardly see them.
Ants, there are plenty of them. Normally harmless ants, ants in troops and in bulky line moving from one spot to another. Ants of all sizes. But he worst ants are the ‘kerengga’ whose nest is a colony, especially on fruit trees, and when you try to get to the fruits they will attack you ……. quite painful bites, as they bite and spray a sort of acid on your wound. And they do not attack in ones but in as many as they can gather themselves, and they are very aggressive.
Other insects are not so prominent but if you care to watch you may see strange insects flying around or even resting.
Creatures in the kampong are not that frightening except when for the first time you see them There is the harmless millipede of all sizes, and I have seen millipede of a child's arm size but most of them are pretty small , probably about 2 or 3 cm in diameter and about 3 inches in length. You touch this millipede and it will roll into a tyre shaped being, protecting themselves I suppose.
The dangerous creatures are scorpions and centipede. Scorpions are mostly black in colour and may be 4 inches long with 2 pincers infront and a stingy raised up tails. They bite when disturbed and the sting can be fatal. The other dangerous creatures are the centipede. The redder they are in colour the more dangerous they are. Flat shaped and they come in different sizes, depending on their length or vice-versa. I have seen centipede as long as about 9 inches but small one may be just 3 inches long. They attack when they get in squeezy situations. And they have poisionous teeth which bite and they inject a sort of poision (most likely) and the poison may paralyse the victim and may even lead to death (which I have not heard of to date).
The other creatures are leeches, they are a nusiance really, especially the samaller ones. They are mostly found on damp ground, rearing their heads expecting to stick to victims to suck blood from. But the worse leeches are the big ones found in swampy areas such as in the padi fields. They move about, swimming in the water looking for victims. They can be as long as 6 inches in length (I am not lyng). When they get to you they quickly make puncture in your skin and suck you blood. When full they will still cling to you but easily removed (and killed). Buffaloes are their normal victims. In areas where there are plentiful of them you may find buffaloes bathing in such waters will have 2 or 3 of such leeches all blood full hanging to the underbelly of these buffaloes.
The creatures of Lipat Kajang are strange but not very dangerous, unless you carelessly handle them.
Lipat Kajang people (or decendents) are encouraged to participate& contribute (Orang Lipat Kajang, atau keturunan, di jemput memberi sumbangan idea)
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uiltmosquitoes are plentiful, more plenty at night and in darkness, you can't sleep peacefully without shielding yourself with a mosquito net, or simply cover your whole body hair to toe with a thick blanket until you become suffocated; these mosquitoes breed very fast in the thousands of (rubber) latex cups in the rubber plantations which collect rain water and become small pools of water where the mosquitoes can easily lay eggs,
ReplyDeleteand there are too many small puddles of rainwater all over the village, plus stagnant parts of the swamps and paddy field - all these are mosquito breeding grounds,
and if you go to or pass by the houses in the village, you can clearly see the dirty surroundings and rubbish all over the place with all kinds of smell that can clog your nose and throat - and this is the reason for all the flies that you can find in and around almost every home,
added to that are the filthy smelly cow dungs and the buffalo dungs and the chicken droppings which all invite flies to feast and breed
too many mosquitoes and too many flies certainly do not augur well for the village, and must have been rid off long time ago, but whatever shoud have been done have never been done,
and all the other insects and small invertebrates are laughing their stomachs out every day, and every night especially, "talking" and singing their own classic tunes, watching at the "tidak apa" (couldn't care less) attitude of "these humans" towards those relatives of theirs - the mosquitoes and the flies,
they "sing" every night but we cannot recognise which kind of insect singing what tune what melody because there are too many of them singing too many tunes
you have to tolerate them in oder to be able to live beside them, and at times also be at the mercy of those blood-sucking ones, the mosquitoes
we do not live in the kampong, so we do not understand the mentality of the kampong folks. they are happy as they are even with all the rubbish under their houses and all (1000S) mosquitoes flying about. they must be immune by now. dengue fever they know not. what the latest fever? Cheng....... something something, I cannot say the words.
ReplyDeleteAt night cricket (they call them 'kelirik') sings all night long "Cacing menyanyi" they say.Cacing= worm, they do not even know that its cricket.
Flies? Do they ever notice that?
we do not live in the kampong no doubt but we can understand the mentality of our folks, because we are part of them, and we can perceive things better, compute in our brains all the inputs via our senses can (because we can think better than them) and we can mentally draw conclusions about the lifestyle they live and the habitat they are in, the only thing that we have not done (yet) is to go back to them and electrify their dormant brains with some simple basic rules of life, not what they are practising or what they are used to but what can help to drastically change their living conditions, and their standard of living; we have been busy looking at ourselves only
ReplyDeleteAziz Yatim had been in touch with me over a project he wants to proceed with. kolam ikan I think.
ReplyDeletewith Aziz Yatim I can get through to him, he was my kampong days best friend. but he has not heard yet on what have been discussing ....... and I believe that he can be made to be on our side quick enough.
i think not only aziz yatim will swupport our initiative, many in the kampong will come out to agree with us and to support what we want to do
ReplyDeleteperhaps there may some scumbags (small contemptible bigots) who will resist, but then "movement" always comes with "resistance" naturally, nothing to be afraid of, gunakan pelincir yang sesuai to get rid of frictions, talk some sense into their ......