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10.00
I came here on the same day as my friend Ellen, but I was the one who got picked to spend the day with insects. Justin is in charge of the insectary, he supplies (i.e. breeds) all the insects for the scientists trials and experiments, |
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plus occasional orders from film companies and all sorts! The first thing we did was a tour of the many rooms where the insects are bred, to check they were all OK and none of them had got out!
The heat, light and humidity controlled rooms smelled like 25 hamster cages which hadn't been cleaned out for a month and the hamster had died. Which was a nice smell compared to the cockroach room! Here's me wondering just what on EARTH I'd let myself in for!! We toured round quite a few of these rooms looking at tiny little weevils and beetles, all safely breeding away in their jars and tanks. |
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11.00
Then, as a special treat, Justin introduced me to his two favourite inmates. Here's Dudley. I'm really trying to smile here!
11.30 And just when I thought it was safe to venture into another room, hiding in the corner was...DORIS!
Justin keeps Doris as a sort of lab pet and obviously loves her a lot even though she's too scary to put his hand in to touch her.
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She's a Salmon Pink Bird Eating Spider from South America. Here's a close up! She's only half the size she'll be when she's finished growing! She earns her keep by travelling to schools with Justin to teach kids the difference between spiders and insects.
Here's a collection of the skins she has shed as she's grown. Check out those venomous fangs!
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12.30
And then - thank goodness! - lunch in the Central Science Laboratories canteen. The CSL has thousands of scientists all beavering away studying plant disease for farmers, and new crops, and insect pests, and all sorts. It had loads of clean empty white corridors and if Justin hadn't shown me the way I would have been lost!
After lunch Justin put me in a visitors lab coat and lab specs (glamorous eh!) and introduced me to lab technician Damien Demarzo. |
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13.15
This is the Saw Tooth Grain Beetle. I'm working with or Oryzaephilus Surinamenis to give it its proper name! The 'culture' (breeding line) of some of the CSL insects have been in the lab for 30 years or more, so are very valuable to scientists because they have never been exposed to any pesticides.
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coming on. The aphids are being bred on pea plants to feed to the Ladybird larva in the lab (ladybirds are great at pest control). There are loads of separate greenhouse rooms leading off lots of greenhouse corridors, and each greenhouse room has a controlled environment. I had a really interesting day finding out about how to breed the insects that scientists use to carry out their work to help crops and human health. |
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