Amazing bugs

Having one of those random types of conversations that take place when surrounded by teenagers, whether my own kids or my school kids, the topic turned one day this week to bugs. I am not necessarily a fan of bugs, but I don't usually freak out at the sight of bugs, which is good for Michelle and Elizabeth. They both go "buggy" when certain critters show up. Especially the eight-legged kind.

We have some amazing bugs in Arkansas. I could spend hours trying to name them all, but some of my "favorites" are the walking sticks (longest I've seen out here was nearly 18 inches long!) and the variety of moths. We have been seeing Luna moths lately, it is that time of year. They are the big, delicate green ones that can grow to the size of your hand. We have several other varieties that are equally impressive, but I don't know what they are called. I saw one yesterday that had the most beautiful black, red and yellow wings. Several shades of gray also made a beautiful eye-spot pattern, on wings that were EACH nearly the size of my hand!

Now I hear that Arkansas has also added giant Mexican "crab-ticks" to our list of amazing, Maybe even scary bugs. I won't go into what little I know of them. They showed up in a newspaper report about a year ago. And of course we have nearly every species of spider, fly roach, grasshopper, etc., that exist in North America. Arkansas is an equal opportunity residence for bugs.

This made me think, almost fondly, of some of my earlier, "freaky bugs" memories. Two that stand out from my childhood happened at Sierra Junior High. Family may remember them. The "scariest" one involved the biggest black widow I have ever seen. You remember the open building plan of Bakersfield schools, and the covered walks between class buildings ("hallways"). The drinking fountains at the end of the first wing of classrooms as you came off the ballfield is where I got the shock. I had bent down to get a drink, and movement over my head caught my eye. She looked to be about 1-11/2 inches across the body, (not including legs), just hanging there over the fountain, as if she were waiting for just the right moment to drop on some unsuspecting human victim. I would have tried to convince myself since then that I "enlarged" her in my memory, except for the reaction of the first adult we found. I don't remember if it was a teacher or a janitor, but I remember one adult saying to the next adult who showed up, "OMG, that is the biggest d..... widow I have ever seen! Where did she come from?!" My summer of the black widows at the fabric store, years later, made this memory even scarier when I learned how far these things can jump!

The other one happened on a warm spring day, and it involved those great big water roaches so common in Bakersfield. Those familiar with Sierra JHS may recall the Cafeteria building, and the way the "playground" sloped away from the building, with a couple of "ditches" off the corners, (out toward the bungalows). At the building end of this drainage was a small pipe opening. There was an old unused restroom on that corner, had been piled full of old gym equipment, and other useless junk. (I found this out later when one of our school clubs helped do a "service project" cleaning it out.)

One day, as lunch ended, just as kids started responding to the bell by moving toward the classroom buildings, something must have backed up in that restroom, or something. The small pipe that supposedly came off the roof drains, but apparently tied in to the restroom vent pipes somehow, came alive. A huge stream of water roaches came rushing out of that pipe, following the ditch out to the fence, which separated us from a huge field. This cut off the screaming students :) from the classroom buildings. There were thousands and thousands of them. It seemed like they streamed out for several minutes. Girls were screaming and running for the other side of the cafeteria, some of us crazy boys took to dancing our way back and forth across the mass, seeing how many we could stomp, until two boys (thankfully not me) had the misfortune of having some of these roaches run up their pant legs:) :). The rest of us decided we would pass on that fun, although we nearly passed out laughing at the other two.

I am not a huge fan of bugs, but they are amazing, and it is sometimes amazingly fun to watch the way different people react to them.