Before we get to the worms, I had an unplanned test of my car alarm recently. It has sensors mounted on the dash below the temperature controls pointing into the cabin of the car. Luckily I was there when it happened so I could shut it off.
I was outside my place eating breakfast when all of a sudden the alarm started blaring! This has never happened before so it must’ve been triggered by something. I put my food down, got the keychain, and pushed the button to silence it. That also unlocked the doors.
I opened the passenger door and found the source of the alarm going off. A gecko was trying to steal my car! It was on the gear shift and everything. I tried to catch the thief but it ran into the whatchacallit space below the dash on the passenger side. Ok, buddy. You’re on your own now to find your way out. I hope it did. I’m sure my brother can share tales of finding critters flattened in the inner workings of people’s vehicles.
Now, about the worms. It’s the tail-end of the rainy season here, which means we’re still getting periodic rain showers and the dirt roads turn to mud. Since I drive up and down these dirt roads everyday to and from home, I don’t bother washing my car. This leaves a sprinkling of mud balls on the car, mostly on the runners/floorboards (things short people step on to climb into the car). But yesterday I noticed one in a strange place, and it was smooth unlike the others. It was just below the handle on the passenger door of the car. I found a stick and proceeded to chip it off. To my surprise, a layer chipped off and revealed a bright green scaly ball inside, and it moved! What the heck is that?!!
I cautiously leaned in to get a closer look. Maybe it’s a baby venomous snake after all. I dunno! I had never seen anything quite like this before. I called over one of the grounds staff. Maybe he knows what this is. He took a look. No idea. Hmm. I got my camera and took pictures. Then he continued chipping and they fell on the ground, bright green larvae of something. I’m asking my entomology friend for ID.* There were about 10 in all, a couple short and fat and the rest long and skinny all curled up together.
Who put that there? And who decided that a car door was a good place for it? How long was it going to be before these critters emerged? And how long had they been there anyway? I’ll never know the answer to all those questions, but when telling the story to some local friends they pulled out an insect book. Luckily there was a photo of a mason wasp cramming this exact same type of larva into its mud chamber, a paralyzed larva serving as food for its own offspring. So eventually what would’ve emerged was a wasp, not a moth, butterfly or other more benign type of creature. But for a while, my car had WORMS!
*They were identified as tomato horn worms.
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