Some animals are cute and fuzzy, others are slimmy and just plain ugly. But luckly there's a use and a purpose for each and everyone of them. Here are just a few of those you've seen in your house (and most probably killed) and why are they so important to keep around.
Snakes
They eat rats. This should be enough reason to have a dark corner for your new friend. Rats urinate on pretty much anything, specially on food. To be in contact with rats' urine through your skin, instantly gets in your bloodstream causing Leptospirosis, which can kill an adult human in just 3 days. Please get informed about what kind of snakes are native in your country. Luckily in Puerto Rico, our snakes are not poisonous, they're a boa variety. Let them be, anything that kills/eats rats are good to have around.
Spiders
Like snakes, be sure that you know what kind of spiders are in your country/state. Most of them are not poisonous, they're natural predators and will guard jealously their space preventing any bug of setting nests where she is. Don't be an extremist and leave your house full of spiderwebs! One inside a cabinet is fine.
Lizards
I live in a tropical island, here're lots of lizards. Most of the people are grossed about them and will try any chemical bomb to keep them away. There's at least one in every house looking through the window, haunting us. Let one inside, they eat roaches! True story, my cousin's house was full of roaches, thousands to be specific, now is roach-free thanks to Rambo (named by my cousin, who still can't believe his eyes, after paying hundreds of dollars to an exterminator who couldn't contain the roach infestation).
Frogs
They eat insects, mostly mosquitoes and flies and won't bother you during the day, they like to hang out at night. If you have a yard, get them a small bucket where they can swim and say good bye to those toxic insect repellents.
Earthworms
You don't get to see these often, just when there's over flooding of water in the soil. But these slimy friends work 24/7 creating super duper fertile SOIL. They go down deep, eat dirt, process it with their 6 pairs of kidneys and excretes back fertilized soil full of nitrogen and glucose. There're thousands of types of earthworms, but they all make a fantastic work under our feet. They like moisture and darkness. You'd be amazed to find there's a huge market for compost worms (vermiculture) and can be bought from $15 up to over $40 a pound! Compost worms excrete a dark odorless matter called humus (a.k.a. "black gold" in the farming biz). This humus is used to make a tea (1 tbsp of humus per 1 gallon of rain water, it can be sold for $15-$20 the gallon of prepared tea) and with just one dose, your plants will be loaded with nutrients and millions of microorganisms for up to 6 months!
Now go say hi to your new friends! :)
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