A Buggy Good Time

So this past Saturday was the opening of the Creeping, Crawling, and Carnivorous Show at work. We spent several weeks prepping the showroom for this event, creating an amazing bog as the centerpiece, and decorating the Asian statues with cobwebs, not to mention bringing over many of our critters, as well as some snakes from the zoo. On Saturday, however, the public was treated to the chance to eat some bugs. Openly available were a selection of mealworms and superworms, which taste like pork rinds, according to those who have had pork rinds. Bleh. Still, they were fried and crispy, and almost good, if you could get past the fact that you were eating a bug. Waxworms, the candy bar of the lizard world, tasted a bit like popcorn. They also had scorpions, which ran out quickly, though Megan was kind enough to save me one. I really don't remember much about it, save for it was very exo-skeletony. Oh yeah, and you have to remember to take the stinger off. I managed to sting myself with it while it was in my hand. Nice. I'd tried a dragonfly a few weeks prior, and those are crispy and good, almost like softshell crab. Finally, they had lubber grasshoppers, gigantic grasshoppers that they'd give you a soda for if you'd finish it. I was pretty squeamish and picked off the legs (as you're supposed to do). Then I pulled the head off with the intention of eating it separately. People watching ran off in horror as some of the guts came out along with the head. I have a strong stomach, but that was a bit much. So I stuffed the guts back into the body and tossed the whole thing in my mouth...that's the worst part...not the fact that it's a bug, but that you're eating all the guts, too. And who knows what else...in fact, my grasshopper was oozing stuff I don't want to think about. Anyway, I shoved it in the side of my mouth and slowly gnawed on it for about 10 minutes before I finished it. Thank goodness for that soda - you need something to wash that down! Bleh!!!! Luckily, it, too was a lot like softshell crab, and if you tossed it in some rice, it wouldn't have been that much different from sushi.

So opening day was basically a big party. My coworkers and a number of volunteers I knew were there, and it was just a fun day full of positive energy. It was a huge hit with the public, too, and we got a great deal of compliments. Our next bug eating event is on Nov. 7th - I can't wait to see what they'll have in store for us then!

Eyes to the Skies

It started out as a typical Wednesday morning. I was doing my chores in the lab when I discovered I needed to replenish the raspberry plants within the stick insects' enclosures. I headed over to the Heritage Farm to cut some raspberries on this crisp morn. After gathering a nice haul, I started to head back to the lab when I glimpsed something amiss in the sky. There, to the north, over the open fields, I saw a large black line. It was a solid object, there was no doubt in that. It was just incredibly thin. It was nothing I could identify, as it drifted within two miles of my location, occasionally curving in on itself. A hot air balloon was nearby, as well, and some commercial aircraft flew by, too. It was so hard to decipher size or distance, even moreso, as it drifted further away, toward the NNW. Panicked, not wanting to be the only one witnessing this, I was relieved to hear rustling behind me. It was one of the Heritage Farm gardeners, Paula. I called her over, saying, "Hey, check this out!" and she sluggishly came, expecting me to point out some odd bug or something. I pointed at the line and asked her what she thought it was, and she was just as baffled as I. She made a few calls, and eventually about 6 of us converged on the farm, including the curator. I also called Ralph, the curator of arthropods and my boss, and Megan, who swung by as quickly as she could.

We watched it drift away, getting smaller, joking that maybe it was just being pulled back into its original dimension. While watching it, it also changed from black to silver at times, probably reflecting sunlight as it moved. There were absolutely no defining details other than a line...no basket, no bumps or nodules, but it was certain that this was a solid object, easily longer than a hot air balloon is tall. All I could think of was that it may be some sort of experiment from Kirtland Air Force Base, but who really knows! The cool thing was how, for the entire day, I could bump into any other employee around the Bio Park and vaguely say, "Did you see it?" and they ALL knew what I was talking about and DID see it. No one had any idea what it could be, though. We were certain it had to have been spotted by more people, but were baffled how it wasn't mentioned anywhere (despite the UFO sighting in NY being on the news that same night...HELLO, this is LOCAL!!). So I made some calls and emails, to no avail. Talk about some major weirdness, though! I'm so glad I was lucky enough to see it - and for 50 minutes, no less!! What an extraordinary experience.