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Waddington, Massena and the Great Bug Attack

We weren’t particularly inspired on Victoria Day, so we decided to simply take a drive to the U.S. And instead of heading to Alexandria Bay as usual, we went east towards Massena.

The weather was gorgeous, and so was the light. We crossed the international bridge easily, stopped at the usual supermarket in Ogdensburg to stock up on whatever is cheaper in the U.S. (some cosmetics, food, etc.) and took the NY-37E.

We immediately commented on how smooth the road was—our roads in Canada can be bumpy, especially after a cold winter.

And that’s when we witnessed the Great Bug Attack.

We felt a bug hitting the car, then two, three, four, five… within minutes, dead bugs were dotting the windshield. They were bigger than mosquitoes but smaller and thinner than flies—no idea what they were, and I had never seen that many.

Twenty miles later, we stopped in Waddington, or rather a small campground right before the town.

The bugs followed us. We could see the swarms clearly now that we were driving slowly. They were just about everywhere: hovering above the grass, the water, resting on cars… It felt like being in a bad horror movie—and you guessed it, Feng and I were probably cast as the two dummies on a short road trip who stumble upon a new deadly species of mutant bugs engineered by the NASA and the CIA.

“I want to take a picture!” I begged.

Yeah, well, like I said I was trying to act like the dumb actress who dies first in horror flicks.

We carefully stepped out of the car and stood on the shore, facing the St Lawrence and Canada.

“Look, it’s not so bad,” I said. “The bugs don’t actually bug us—okay, yes they do, shit they do!”

We ran back to the car and paused for a minute to make sure the bugs didn’t follow us.

We drove away.

Once in Waddington, we figured it was safe to park and we decided to inspect the car. The front, including the license plate, was covered with dead bugs. They were even inside the hood, close to the engine!

Unbelievable. I don’t know where all these bugs came from, but we had never seen that, including in the Tropics!

Waddington was lovely though—a small sleepy town with many churches and friendly people. We drove all the way to Massena, a much bigger place than Waddington but with a small town feel as well.

And you’ll be happy to know that we didn’t bring any mutant bugs back to Canada, except for the dead ones on the license plate.

See the swarm of bugs?
Dirty Windshield
The Front of the Car
Bugs Everywhere…
American Flag
Town Clock in Massena
Waddington
Waddington
Waddington
Waddington
Waddington
Waddington
Waddington
Waddington
Waddington
Going to Massena
Massena
Massena
Massena
Massena
Massena
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Zhu

French woman in English Canada.

Exploring the world with my camera since 1999, translating sentences for a living, writing stories that may or may not get attention.

Firm believer that nobody is normal... and it’s better this way.

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