beastie
pronunciation: biːsti
noun SCOTTISH humorous plural noun: beasties
an insect or other small animal.
Personally I do not like beasties (even though I hail from the place where the word “beasties” come from), especially the ones that wriggle eg maggots.
I recently opened a food recycling container – apparently all the food waste is used to make fuel. The foxes had managed to knock the container over and somehow unlocked it. Big mess on the grass… Days later I could smell something nasty in the kitchen. Took the container outside, opened it and there were hundreds of disgusting maggots inside.
Now when I told a friend about this she said that maggots are used to clean wounds. What?! But it’s true. But wait a minute what about eating maggots?? In cheese?
Casu marzu (rotten cheese) is a traditional Sardinian sheep’s cheese notable for containing live maggots. I’m sorry but I have my limits… I just would not go there. But Gordon Ramsey did. If you want to see him squirm (pun intended), watch him eating Casu marzu in this YouTube clip.
So what’s all this got to do with building and design?
Well beasties LOVE to eat building materials. According to Recognising wood rot and insect damage in buildings you need to be equipped to look for those pesky pests, including using a pair of binoculars.
Beasties also breed like rabbits – plenty fodder for the casu marzu I suppose…