On Bed Bugs

(mattress)

In walking home through an alley I witnessed this.  There is something of a debate as to whether things will decompose in the desert.  That is: I have heard: "Compost works really well here because it's so hot" and "Things don't compost here, the heat preserves them."

The image above illustrates that bedding at least starts to decompose. It should be noted that there are a plethora of bugs (possibly bed bugs) that come out at night.  They might be working on this mattress too.  

None of which explains why there is always a small collection of dead bugs scattering the floor in the morning.  They are always lying on their backs, which leads me to guess that the cause of death is an inability to get back on their feet.  But how do they get flipped over to begin with?

Maybe in the course of eating mattresses and things they get so full that they have to take a nap.  It is only once they have lain down that they realize they are too top heavy to get back up. This speculation is kind of saddening.  Perhaps there is another cause of death I am overlooking: like bug poison.

I do like the bugs that come out at night.  They crawl around on the warm concrete while I sing them slow songs on the guitar.  Then they either go to the alley to gorge on mattress, or come into my house to tempt a fate of bug poisoning.  Or perhaps they just run around until they are too tired to go on.  Maybe they have very busy short lives that end well only if they are on their backs looking up at the sky.

In any case I am going to try to do some composting.