Bugs

Louisiana is full of insects but this day was buggy even for here. First, I had trouble opening a gas cylinder. Then, my coffee was not very good. It wasn't so much the grounds or the water or the machine as it was what was in it. To round things up in the afternoon, I found a great big beetle, but it got away.

It took Dr. Scott, my boss, and me about fifteen minutes to get the protective top off a compressed gas cylinder this morning. I first tried turning it with my hands without success. I then tried to pry it with a screwdriver, but the screwdriver started to bend. Next, I got a crowbar but was unable to keep the bottle from turning. Dr. Scott saw me and got a pipe wrench. Once again I was unable to keep the bottle from turning while he tried to turn the cap. We finally managed to hold the bottle still by putting it against a wall where I stood on top of it.

After positioning the bottle I took the cap off and found a good sized wasp nest and the remains of it's builders. Someone had poisoned them and the poison and their bodies had corroded the threads. They had formed a neat little ring in the bottom of the cap, one inch thick and one inch tall. The nest, on top had molded.

Pain over, I decided to make some coffee.

Something was not right when I poured the water into the coffee machine. Something was out of place. I looked without understanding and saw something black. There were insect feet sticking out of the water grate. "It can't be," I thought and looked closer.

They were ugly little feet that turned into legs and, as the legs grew longer, I knew that it was a roach. The roach was alive and the water had rescued him by lifting him. Antennae followed the legs and the roach desperately twitched them all trying to find a way out. Like a fire, it moved a little this way and that until it finally squeezed through a slit. Then there it was, running triumphantly around the top of the machine, a healthy young adult American Cockroach.

I disposed of the coffee and cleaned the machine with some glacial acetic acid that Dan, a radiation safety officer, gave me.

This afternoon, I took back a broken meter to Vet. Radiology. It was a strange trip.

On the way, I found a great big beetle on the side of the road. He was all bloated, but dried up on the side of the road. Though his body was about 2 inches long and fat, he weighed less than an ounce. I put him in my basket and went on my way.

Mama bird was a pleasant surprise on the way in. A little brown and white bird had built her nest right next to the road way. She had arranged some pebbles and grass in the shade of a laurel tree. I thought for sure that the lawnmowers would have ruined her eggs, but there they were. She sat there and peeped at me, "Go away!"

To balance this surprise, the research dogs were gone. They generally bark at me when I visit. Today there were no hound dogs. The Vet. Radiologist said that they had probably gone to various disposal sites.

When I got back here, my beetle was no longer in my basket. I think that it fell out on the way.