Bugs

Bugs

Today was an exceptionally dirty and dusty day.  Another steamer at 94; lots of sweat to boot. It was definitely time for a nice cold shower to wash off the grime.

I’ve been told to keep an eye out for uninvited ‘guests’ in the shower room.  The building is open to the outside; has wooden walls that extend up 7 feet or so with a large air space above that; and then the roof.  They are concrete stalls with a shower nozzle and an on/off valve to start the water flowing from the tanks on the roof.  A swinging ‘bar’ type door is on each of the four stalls.  The showers themselves, though, aren’t all working….maybe three are.

Yesterday I had a visit from the three chameleons that hugged the rafters on the ceiling.  They averaged six or seven inches long including their tales.  They kinda hung around one of the lightbulbs; probably for the heat since it was after dark.  I call them the three stooges since they’ve shown up more than once.  Must be a family.  Moe is the bigger of the three; he’s has primary spot next to the bulb.  Larry, the middle one snuggles up next to Moe.  Shep is just there…kinda always looking somewhere else.  I think he’s challenged.

Part of the rubble crew was cleaning up a corner of the compound the other day.  It was full of skids, rubble and misc. block.  I loaded a skid of materials and moved it across the base.  When I got back I noticed a rather large splotch on the concrete wall that surrounds the base.  Mono encouraged me to take a closer look.  It was a very large tarantula.  Of course, it was a splotch on the wall because it got the bad end of a smackin’ from a rather large shovel.  I suppose it would have measured out around eight inches judging from the length of the pencil sized legs.  Did I mention that it was a rather large splotch? 

That very evening we saw junior.  It must have been related because it was hunting for us during dinner.  Someone noticed him under one of the picnic tables in the dining hall.  He was a little smaller; maybe three inches across.  John, the base manager, showed him mercy.  He put a cup over him, slid some paper underneath; flipped him over and carried him outside.  I could hear the little guy threatening us from inside the cup; his little saber rattling in the round acoustical setting.  I shoulda stepped on him.

There are these little ants down here that I like to call screamers.  They are about the size of a comma, in fact, this comma here (,).  The one in parenthesis; no, not the other two … the one in parenthesis.  Anyway, these little guys travel one mph short of the speed of light; that’s the only reason we can even see them.  And they never stop.  They turn at right angles, not forty fives or twenty twos, just rights….all while not slowing down.  I wonder if they have little red stops signs in their lives?

I’ve been told that there are a lot of geckos.  I guess the only way I can tell them from the chameleons is that they seem to have this airbag under their chin that inflates when they belch.  I suppose they may also inflate just for the heck of it, but I am positive that whenever I hear a belch at the dinner table it is one of them.  Wonder if they flew in on Quantas Air?

I’ve also seen an assortment of plain jane ants, beetles and the sort.  Probably the coolest beetle I saw was a dead one being carried along the bathroom floor by an entourage of ants.  Must have been a few hundred of them.  It was similar to a crowd of people carrying a house.  Later that day I noticed a scrunched up beetle across the bathroom attempting to be stuffed down a hole the size of a large period.  I don’t think he fit; but since he is no longer there I cannot say for certain.

My companion in the shower this evening was a big green Katydid; something real similar to a huge grasshopper.  He didn’t seem to mind me stepping around him as I got in the shower, and didn’t seem bothered I the least as I got out.  For a three inch grasshopper, he seemed awfully content there on the shower floor.  I wonder if he was mesmerized by the screamers?