Bubba Onboard

“So these are the little suckers that bit me,” said a sweaty woman in a white tank top, peering at a colony of termites under glass. “Don’t look like much, do they?”

White and mealy-looking, the termites appeared smaller than maggots, bigger than ants. A young, exhausted man in a purple Termidor T-shirt, sitting on a metal folding chair near the mouth, called out, “I’ve never known them to bite anyone, ma’am.”

“Eeeew!” cried the kids.

“Gross!”

Meanwhile, the termites on display chewed their way through brown paper and burrowed through sand.

—Gendy Alimurung