World's Largest Bug
Providence, Rhode Island
While giant cockroaches may be biding their time in a bid for world domination, America has been infested with other giant bugs for a long time; a huge praying mantishere, a humongous horse flythere, a titanic killer beeway down there. And shocking numbers of VW beetle "spiders"scuttle in the margins.
But for decades, Providence, Rhode Island has been home to the biggest creepy-crawler of all.
The "Big Blue Bug" of Providence is a termite, 58 feet long, which is 928 times actual termite size. It was built at a cost of $20,000, made of steel and fiberglass, and weighs two tons.
The termite nests on the roof of New England Pest Control (which renamed itself Big Blue Bug Solutions in 2012), as if SCANNING neighboring Massachusetts for something large, tasty, and wooden. The termite was originally painted purple, the color of a swarming Reticulitermes flavipes. Then the paint faded to blue and everyone started calling it the Big Blue Bug. This had a catchy ring, and New England Pest Control wisely began referring to itself as "Home of the Big Blue Bug" and repainting the termite a vibrant blue every few years. In 1990 a local radio contest rechristened the bug "Nibbles Woodaway" -- a clever name, but most folks in Providence still call it the Big Blue BUG.
David Pontes, general manager of New England Pest Control, told us that 35,000 people a day drive by the termite, which is only a few feet from an elevated section of Interstate 95. "The bug is what brings the business in," he said. "We do way over a million dollars a year in termite work alone."
What's perhaps most impressive about the bug is that it's acquired the status of a national celebrity. It's made appearances on Oprah! and in the movie Dumb and Dumber. It's featured on a big map of wearily familiar attractionsat the airport in Denver, Colorado. David told us that fans from around the world have requested (and received) over 50,000 8x10 publicity photos of the big bug.
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