Career Options
The yuckiest job in townIt's enough to drive some people buggy. Debby Carlson spends all day surrounded by thousands of insects but the Selkirk woman wouldn't have it any other way. ADAM CLAYTON |
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 [ 2007-02-21 ] |
© 2007 Jupiterimages Corporation.
Through her business, Canadian Made Crickets, Carlson breeds bugs and worms used to feed reptiles and other exotic pets.
Carlson said she's been fascinated by insects since she was a child.
"I was always playing with them, putting them in my pockets, tearing them apart and trying to figure out how they work," she said.
"When I was growing up my mom would call me the bugologist."
Carlson decided to go into the bug-breeding business after working for a company that sold exotic animals, including reptiles, and had to import bugs from the U.S. for them to eat.
Since acquiring a breeding stock, Carlson has been producing all sorts of creepy critters, from crickets -- her main product -- to maggots and flightless fruit flies.
Although the pet industry is her main market, Carlson also breeds worms for fishing bait. Meanwhile, some horticulturists actually buy insects to eat other insects.
"I have ladybugs that kill the aphids instead of using pesticides," said Carlson.
Most people are floored when Carlson tells them she works with bugs all day.
"They just think it's odd, especially being a woman," she said. "Some people get quite grossed out by some of the stuff that I do here."
Carlson says she's not squeamish about being surrounded by bugs all day.
"The only time it bothers me is when a cricket gets into my shirt or up my leg or something," she said. "It bothers me because I don't want it there, but it never really freaks me out."
However, there is one insect that makes Carlson's skin crawl -- the wood tick. She's been afraid of them since an incident that happened in the Interlake.
"I walked into Oak Hammock Marsh in one of those fields where they were just rampant. From my knees down you couldn't even see the colour of my jeans," she said.
"It just bothered me. I'm kind of squeamish about those things."
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