Since this is a thread about pests, I just had to share what happened to Alan and I yesterday when we went to Kings Plaza Mall in Brooklyn.

Our podiatrist is located in the mall. So we had a few minutes to kill so we decided to walk around the mall. Well, I never in all my life saw such exhibits.

Every once in a while, someone will set up a display of art, or of jewelry, or SOMETHING from another country and you can view it or purchase it.

Well, Alan and see this tremendous exhibit and you will never in million years iimagine what the guy was exhibiting!!!! INSECTS!!! From various parts of the world, like Rain Forests, Afraica, Central America, you name it, there was a creature on exhibit. And I'm not talking your average two inch creature here. Each specimen was encased in glass. They were preserved. After I realized what I was actually looking at, I just stopped dead in my tracks and said "Alan, get over here, you have to see this giant Beetle". He walks over and there we both stood mesmerized, looking at the biggest beetle in the whole world. Must have been over 10 inches long. All the creatures had amazing names. I never saw things with wingspans like these things. They had something called a stick creature (or something like that). It looked like ordinary twigs but it was an insect. And it was over a foot long. And they had scorpions, dragonflies the size of something you would see on the SciFi Channel.

But nothing prepared me for when I walked to the other side of the exhibit. When I saw what I saw, I started to back away (and remember, these things were DEAD....... There was a guy in another stand selling cosmetics and I whispered to him "Do you know what is directly behind you?" and the guy whispered back to me "You mean the centipede, the one that's 3 feet long"??? Then he said "I am NOT TURNING AROUND".

So Alan comes around to where I am standing and he is face to face with the biggest bug you ever saw and he has his nose pressed up against the glass and I simply said "Alan, just glance down and look to the right". You never seen a man jump so high in your life. He said "Holy *****". What is that thing, a centipede???" There were two specimens and one was bigger than the other.

I simply moved backwards and said "let's get out of here, these things are giving me the heeby jeebies. Then I run into the guy who is showing the exhibit and I say "where on earth did you get these things?" Are you ready for his answer???" He said "Why, we grow them on a farm". I said "You do WHAT????" Do you mean you grew these things on purpose?" and he said "oh of course". and I said:... "in a lab"??? And he said: "No, on a farm". And I said "AND YOU DO THIS WHY?????" and he laughed and said "for scientific purpose and teaching". I just looked at him and said "you do know these big flying things must be descendants of the teradactyls??? The guy burst out laughing.

I grabbed Alan and ran out of there. When we got to the podiatrist, when Alan got in the chair, I said to Dr. Baird. "There's an exhibit in the mall that is right up your alley (because he grows plants in a hothouse, I figured he would be fascinated, right). Well, he goes, "Melody, if you are talking about the giant bugs in the mall, NO THANK YOU, I DON'T LIKE BUGS, ALIVE, DEAD OR BEHIND GLASS.

I mean, if anybody can get to Kings Plaza, the exhibit is on the first floor.

Bring some smelling salts. I almost needed them myself.

Heebe Jeebies, believe me!!!!