Author Topic: The Mystery of the Rubber Bugs at Dunlops  (Read 375 times)

Whispering Giant

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The Mystery of the Rubber Bugs at Dunlops
« on: May 03, 2021, 06:49:04 PM »
Back in the 1960s I worked for a fortnight at Fort Dunlop as a holiday job with a gang of students.  The dirtiest job was to go down through a manhole into some square underground chambers called The Pits full of rubber sludge and bail them out.


While I was down there with a bucket bailing away, I heard chirping sounds and my inspection light revealed large orange
cricket-shaped insects apparently living on the sludge.  I shouted up, 'What the hell are they' and an old hand shouted down to me that they were rubber bugs and were harmless. 


Please can somebody who worked at Fort Dunlop tell me I was not hallucinating and these things were real!






Gwladmab

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Re: The Mystery of the Rubber Bugs at Dunlops
« Reply #1 on: May 03, 2021, 07:21:17 PM »
Welcome to the forum Whispering Giant. They may well have been crickets if the area was warm, damp and dark.


I did a lot of work in boiler houses at factories in the 70’s you could guarantee that in any dark corners or in the service ducts/pits there would be crickets and because of the warm, damp environment and lack of predators they grew very large. I suppose like most insects they will take on the colour of there surroundings in some cases.


There was also a story that was told to new lads joining us to watch out for the Steam Bugs when removing lagging from steam pipes. They were reputed to be so large that they could carry your heavy tools for you.


I never saw a Steam Bug but saw plenty of Crickets.


When I worked a Bakelite, they had a Bug Farm, The bugs would convert toxic waste to something less toxic. These bugs though were microscopic.

roy one

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Re: The Mystery of the Rubber Bugs at Dunlops
« Reply #2 on: May 03, 2021, 07:32:31 PM »
wg welcome to the forum  sit back and enjoy




 could this be the little [censored] your on about


each day is a blessing and I bless each day when it comes

mw0njm

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Re: The Mystery of the Rubber Bugs at Dunlops
« Reply #3 on: May 04, 2021, 08:00:18 AM »
there were thousands of crickets living in the steam pipe tunnels. and loads of rubber bugs.eating the latex.i worked on internal transport moving bales about in the mill they would run out horrid looking things.

vamann

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Re: The Mystery of the Rubber Bugs at Dunlops
« Reply #4 on: May 04, 2021, 08:49:00 AM »
Welcome to the forum Whispering Giant. They may well have been crickets if the area was warm, damp and dark.


I did a lot of work in boiler houses at factories in the 70’s you could guarantee that in any dark corners or in the service ducts/pits there would be crickets and because of the warm, damp environment and lack of predators they grew very large. I suppose like most insects they will take on the colour of there surroundings in some cases.


There was also a story that was told to new lads joining us to watch out for the Steam Bugs when removing lagging from steam pipes. They were reputed to be so large that they could carry your heavy tools for you.


I never saw a Steam Bug but saw plenty of Crickets.


When I worked a Bakelite, they had a Bug Farm, The bugs would convert toxic waste to something less toxic. These bugs though were microscopic.
Oil company I worked for had a biowave machine which was like a large shipping container with many large plastic rotating discs. These slowly rotating discs were covered in effluent eating bugs and broke down the detergent etc from the HGV drive through wash before discharge into the Manchester ship canal.  To be honest the thing was useless constantly requiring new bugs at great expense, the failure of the bugs was detected by the River authority when they carried out their monthly sampling.


 

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