In Episode 395 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger drive down I-95 just south of Providence, Rhode Island, searching for a huge monster who lurks near the highway. This giant creature has been stalking the region for 45 years now. Have you seen it?
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Produced and hosted by: Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger
Edited by: Ray Auger
Theme Music by: John Judd
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
*A note on the text: Please forgive punctuation, spelling, and grammar mistakes. Like us, the transcripts ain’t perfect.
[DRIVING]
RAY: So we’re heading down the highway. Interstate 95 to be exact. Just south of Providence, Rhode Island.
JEFF: Yup. I-95 starts in Houlton, Maine, at the Canadian border, and follows south all the way to Miami.
RAY: I assume we’re not going that far.
JEFF: No, in fact we’re going to be taking the next exit. Which is Thurbers Avenue.
RAY: Okay, that’s coming up soon.
JEFF: We’re taking the highway because it gives us the best view of what we’re here to see. Oh! And it’s coming up soon.
RAY: We’re going about 65 miles per hour, give or take. I hope we don’t miss whatever it is we’re looking for.
JEFF: It’s nearly impossible to miss, Ray. We’ve come to Providence, Rhode Island, to look for Mr. Nibbles Woodaway.
RAY: Nibbles Who!?
JEFF: In fairness, almost no one knows him by that name. Ray, we’ve come to Providence to hunt the world’s largest termite. Folks around here know it best by its other name: The Big Blue Bug.
[INTRO]
JEFF: Hey I’m Jeff Belanger.
RAY: And I’m Ray Auger. Welcome to Episode 395 of the New England Legends podcast. Thank you for joining us on our mission to chronicle every legend in New England one story at a time. Whether it’s roadside oddities, ghosts, monsters, UFOs, or the just plain weird, we love it all. Plus, most of our story leads come from you! So please reach out to us anytime through our website.
JEFF: We’ll explore Rhode Island’s – no the world’s – largest termite right after this word from our sponsor.
SPONSOR
[DRIVING]
RAY: The Big Blue Bug!
JEFF: Yup.
RAY: I see it right there off to our right.
JEFF: That’s it!
RAY: I’ve passed this thing countless times over the years.
JEFF: We all have. This roadside oddity belongs to Big Blue Bug solutions of Providence.
RAY: It’s a pest control business.
JEFF: That’s right. Okay, take the Thurbers Ave exit up here.
[BLINKAH]
RAY: Got it.
JEFF: And we can stay to the right off the exit to come back toward the Big Blue Bug building.
RAY: So this giant bug off the side of the highway has been here for as long as I can remember.
JEFF: Me too.
RAY: And I haven’t just passed it in person many times. The world has seen this thing. This iconic roadside oddity showed up in two of the most important films in modern times.
JEFF: You’re right!
RAY: I’m off course talking about Dumb and Dumber and Dumb and Dumber To.
JEFF: Classics both of them. When you see the arial shot of that doggy-looking van cruising down the highway passing the Big Blue Bug, you know that was a nod to Rhode Island.
RAY: No doubt. AND the Big Blue Bug was also seen in one of the most important television series in modern times.
JEFF: Family Guy.
RAY: Family Guy! Peter drives by the Big Blue Bug in one of the episodes. Though in the animated series, the business was called Quahog Pest Control. So we’ve even seen this thing animated.
JEFF: To find out how it got here, let’s head back to the year 1980.
[TRANSITION]
RAY: It’s June of 1980 here in Rhode Island. Jimmy Carter is president of the United States, J. Joseph Garrahy is governor of Rhode Island, Buddy Cianci is mayor of the city of Providence, and “Funkytown” by Lipps Incorporate is the number one song on the radio.
JEFF: The 1980s are just beginning. High inflation and interest rates have had the economy in a bit of a recession, but we seem to be moving out of it right now. Between the music and the culture, the 1980s are already looking like a time when things are going to get loud.
RAY: There’s a lot of media trying to command our attention. TV ads, billboards, radio ads, magazines, newspapers, you name it, someone is trying to sell us something.
JEFF: That’s true. Which means standing out in a crowd is even harder than it used to be. So earlier this year a company called New Egland Pest Control moved its operations moved its headquarters to a commercial building on O’Connell Street, just south of the city. The building will give the business more room to grow and has a parking lot big enough for their employees and their company vans and trucks.
RAY: It’s a good space. New England Pest Control has been in business since 1935. They’re well-established, and growing. Business is good.
JEFF: But it could always be better.
[HIGHWAY TRAFFIC NOISE FADE IN]
JEFF: We’re standing here on the roof of the New England Pest Control building. Stephan Goldman is up here with his dad who started the business.
RAY: The Goldmans are looking around at their rooftop and gazing out at interstate 95 just a short distance away. There’s an awful lot of traffic out here today.
JEFF: There is.
RAY: That’s a lot of eyes that would see something like a billboard on this roof. Could be a great place to advertise the business.
JEFF: It could. But the Goldmans know if they put up a billboard it would be just another billboard in a sea of billboards. Look down the highway. There’s already a bunch.
RAY: That’s true. If they want to stand out, they’ll have to try something different.
JEFF: And so they do. They hire the Avenia Sign Company out of North Providence. They fork over $20,000 dollars… and work begins.
[SAWING AND HAMMERING]
JEFF: The plan is to make something that will stand out.
[SAWING AND HAMMERING FADES]
RAY: Look at that!
JEFF: I’d say mission accomplished.
RAY: It took months, it’s made of fiberglass, wire mesh, and steel. The final assembly took place on the ground…
[CRANE SOUNDS AND TRUCK BACKING UP BEEPS]
RAY: Okay, it’s being lifted into place by a crane. (PAUSE) And gently set down on the roof. What we’re looking at now is 9 feet tall, 58 feet long with 40 foot-long wings, 7 feet of antennae, 11 feet of legs, and weighs in at 4,000 pounds, or two tons! It’s painted purple, and is modeled exactly after an Eastern Subterranean Termite. Even the purple color is authentic to the termite. This is what they look like under a microscope, it’s just that this one is 928 times larger.
JEFF: A Rhode Island roadside oddity was born. And that brings us back to today.
[TRANSITION]
RAY: We didn’t travel back in time for very long.
JEFF: No, we didn’t. But there is a lot more to say on this one. In those early days, New England Pest Control just wanted to stand out. Tens of thousands of eyes pass through this section of I-95 every day. This giant bug quickly became a landmark.
RAY: As we mentioned, the original bug wasn’t blue, it was purple. But spending all of that time in the hot sun faded the purple to a light blue pretty quickly. In 1990, they held a contest to name the giant termite. The winning entry was Geraldine Perry of Tiverton, Rhode Island, who came up with Nibbles Woodaway. But as we said, no one really calls him that, and even locals don’t know him by that name. Locals have always called him the Big Blue Bug.
JEFF: This oddity quickly became an icon in the state. And New England Pest Control really got into the spirit. Around Halloween, the bug may don a witch’s hat and a mask. He’ll wear red, white, and blue for Independence Day, bunny ears for Easter, and of course at Christmas, he’s covered in lights and sports a big, glowing red nose like Rudolph the red nose reindeer.
RAY: I’ve passed by all of those versions over the years. (BEAT) Back in 2002, the Big Blue Bug was removed from the roof for the first time in over two decades so it could be refurbished and repainted. Some regular I-95 commuters panicked when their favorite mascot was missing for a few weeks. The fixed up bug showed up in a few local parades before being set back in is rightful place, restoring order to the universe.
JEFF: As we mentioned earlier, the Big Blue Bug made cameos in Dumb and Dumber, Dumb and Dumber to, Family Guy, but also the Today Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and The Daily Show.
RAY: The bug was even featured in a Rhode Island Lottery scratch off ticket. You know you’ve made it to the big time when you’re on a scratchy.
JEFF: Though the mascot had the name Nibbles for decades, back in 2012, New England Pest Control decided to rename their company: Big Blue Bug Solutions.
RAY: You can only swim against the tide so long, I guess. Plus, at this point, if you said: Big Blue Bug Solutions, I know exactly what you’re talking about. I’m not sure I would have equated New England Pest Control with anything specific.
JEFF: Back around 2012, the general manager said in an interview that they do over a million dollars a year in termite extermination business alone.
RAY: So that $20,000 investment in 1980 seems to have paid off.
JEFF: I’ll say it has. This Big Blue Bug has survived multiple hurricanes, plus all the other weather New England could throw at it, it’s even survived gunshots. When you come around that bend on I-95 just south of Providence, seeing the bug is kind of like seeing an old friend. It’s familiar. You know where you are when you spot it. Call it gaudy if you like, call it camp, but this oddity has been around long enough that it’s become part of Rhode Island’s identity.
[OUTTRO]
RAY: And that takes us to After the Legend where we take a deeper dive into this week’s story and sometimes veer off course.
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To see some picture of the Big Blue Bug, click on the link in our episode description, or go to our website and click on Episode 395.
If you’ve got a weird story you think we should check out, please email us anytime through our website. We love when you get involved. And please take just a minute to tell a friend or two about our show. You are how we grow and how we continue to find new legends. We appreciate being part of this big family of legend-seekers with you.
We’d like to thank our patreon patrons, thank you to our sponsors, and our theme music is by John Judd.
Until next time remember… the bizarre is closer than you think.
