Another odd one for your pleasure.
Years ago I was a survey technician, you know
theodolites, plans,
chains & pegs.
Anyway, in a small suburb there was this new housing development, so many new housing blocks, and we (I) had to (literally) bang in all the pegs in is red heavy compact soil. Really hard work, yes even for a young (and fit from the work) chap as I was then.
One of the the hardest tasks here was to open sewer manholes on the perimeter of the estate, 4 to 6 from memory, and in order to take the correct levels of the pipe works we (now read I, as I was the youngest of the crew) had to enter the dark, damp and smelly chambers, some 3 metres (10 feet) deep.
I still remember the damp and rusty rungs on the internal ladders...
The only problem was they were so cockroach infested. It was a true nightmare..
Obviously you spent as little time in there, but as you exited the hole you were still brushing off all manner of the these cockroaches
I remember another incident in the same job.
We were near a swamp in pretty thick scrub. Really damp under foot as I recall. Anyway I went ahead of the surveyor, running out the measuring chain (steel tape) and I got to this area where I was attacked by mosquitoes.
Now I am not talking 10, 20 or 100. It was like walking into a wall or the wall was enveloping you. The mosquitoes were so thick in the air I could barely breath. Near panic, I pulled my shirt to my mouth/nostrils and headed back to my boss. He was in the sunshine and they didn't seem to like that, initially at least.
They seemed to follow me; guess they had the taste for blood. Now they were seemingly everywhere around us and increasing in numbers.
Short is, the boss said let's abandon today and come back tomorrow, perhaps they'll be gone. We jumped in the work van and it must have taken us some time, even at speed to escape and empty the van of the mossies.
I remember those days
so clearly
It was like the Hitchcock, 'The Birds' movie..
