9 Beetle-Mania!

Chapter 9 BEETLE-MANIA! Andrew fought off the springtails and crept to the edge of the doughnut. "Jeepers creepers!" he whispered as he checked out the scene on the ground. Shiny beetles twice as big as Andrew were hurrying about on thorny legs like bizarre armored vehicles. Some of them were burrowing into underground tunnels. A giant-headed black ant was hauling a dead bug on its back. A dozen tiny red ants had circled a green Froot Loop and were carrying it away. "It's like the dismissal bell rang in bug world!" said Andrew. Beneath the beetles, the ground was a squirming carpet of wormy things big and small.

Beside Andrew's doughnut, a heap of little white worms wriggled over a fish head. meep… "Baby blowflies," said Thudd. "Mother blowfly lay eggs on dead meat. Egg hatch into maggot. Maggot look like worm. Maggot never eat living stuff. Only eat dead meat." "HELP!" Judy was screaming. "I'm coming!" yelled Andrew. As he was about to climb down the doughnut, he turned back and grabbed the peanut shell. "We might need this," he said, tossing it onto the ground. It landed on the maggots.

When Andrew reached the ground, he dragged the peanut shell away from the maggots. Some of them stuck to the shell. He pushed them off. "These guys feel like a squishy toy," he said. Andrew balanced the peanut shell on his back the way he would carry a canoe. He chuckled. "I'll bet I look like some kind of weird beetle." meep… "Peanut beetle," said Thudd. Andrew tried not to step on worms, bump into bugs, or fall into beetle holes as he clomped toward Judy's screams. As he hiked past the mouth of a ketchup bottle, he spotted Judy. She was skidding and sliding over a slice of moldy meat.

A rough brown ball, two times as high as Judy, was rolling behind her. A beetle was behind the ball, pushing it. The strange beetle ball was about to run Judy over! meep… "Dung beetle!" squeaked Thudd. "Huh?" said Andrew, scrambling toward Judy. meep… "Dung is poop," said Thudd. "Dung beetles live on poop.

"Male dung beetle find poop. Give it to female dung beetle. Female dung beetle roll poop into big ball. Roll ball into tunnel. Lay egg in poop ball. "Egg hatch into little wormy thing. Worm called larva. Larva eat poop. Grow up. Become big, strong dung beetle." A silver trail glistened just ahead of Andrew. He was about to cross it when Thudd squeaked, "Noop! Noop! Noop!" "What's the matter, Thudd?" asked Andrew. meep… "Shiny stuff is slime," said Thudd. "Slime from giant banana slug. Sticky, sticky, sticky! Like glue! Drewd step, Drewd stuck." "Hmmm…," said Andrew. He looked around, found a leaf, laid it across the slime trail, and hurried toward Judy. Just as Andrew got to Judy, she slipped on the slimy slice of meat. The poop ball was touching her toes! In a split second, Andrew grabbed his peanut shell and used it to give Judy a big shove. Andrew held his breath.

The globe of poop rolled past. An un-squashed Judy was lying next to a plastic spoon. "Super-duper pooper-scooper!" cheered Andrew. "That stupid dung beetle almost ran me over with its stupid poop ball!" said Judy, sitting up on the edge of the spoon. "You know about dung beetles?" said Andrew. "Of course," said Judy. "Grandpa gave me tons of great stuff from his beetle collection. I know everything about beetles." Judy tried to scrape meat slime off her jacket. "Yeuw!" she said. "Now I smell even worse." meep… "Good thing about bad smell," said Thudd. "In little while, nose not smell bad smell so much. Nose stop sending signal to brain." "Stuff a stinky sock in it, Thudd," said Judy, scanning the ground. She snatched a bread crumb away from three small red ants and wiped meat goo off her face.