15-june-2006 EHB

15/6/06

This week I accepted another dare.

And it was to do with eating.

No, not another lame jerky dare.

Yes, raw chewy dried meat is lame now.

I'll give you some background to lead up to the crux.

I work at the department of agriculture (and food).

I work in biosecurity in the European House Borer (EHB) response program.

EHB is an introduced pest which ONLY EATS PINE.

No, it does not eat jarrah.

No, sheoaks arent pine trees.

No, it will not hurt your children.

Unless your untreated pine house becomes so heavily infested the roof falls on them.

But that is improbable.

At this stage

Working for the European House Borer Program has pro's.

And con's.

Pro: I get paid to play with bugs.

Con: every time my boyfriends Grandad sees me, he asks if I

Still have that BORING job?!?"

The family thinks it is hilarious every time.

To give you some knowledge about the boring beetle, it lays its eggs in dead pine.

(ONLY PINE!)

The tiny little larvae hatch out and eat and eat and eat.

Sometimes they eat for ten years before turning into beetles!

They dont have to fit in swimsuits every summer.

When they are a beetle,

They come out and leave a little oval hole going with the grain of the wood.

And that's how you know they are/were there.

My job often requires me to do field work in the Gnangara Pine Plantation.

On Friday, I was there with Mark, a molecular biologist.

We were chopping up wood to collect larvae (grubs) and their excrements.

Mark dared me to eat one.

So I did.

I didn't chew it straight away though.

I let it wriggle in my mouth for a while before I gained the courage to bite into it.

I felt a little like Simba in the Lionking,

And could only hope EHB would prove to be

“Slimy, yet satisfying”

I bit.

It covered my tongue in goo.

I spat it out.

It was slimy.

It was not satisfying.

It did not taste like chicken.