Big Blue Bug is Rudolph again for Xmas

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - You know Dasher and Dancer, Prancer, Vixen and most of the others, including the most famous, Rudolph -- but every year, about this time, another reindeer with a decidedly arthropodic aura shows up next to I-95: Nibbles Woodaway, with lighted antlers and a big, blinking red nose.

Tuesday night, New England Pest Control held its eighteenth annual holiday lighting of the Big Blue Bug, honoring the Toys for Tots charity program. The pest control company threw the switch at 5:00 p.m. atop the headquarters on O'Connell Street. Blue lights adorn the termite's thorax and abdomen.

The Bug got a new paint job back in July. In addition to a red Rudolph nose, he's gone down in history sipping a Newport Creamery Awful Awful, after previous summers where he'd sported sunglasses and a cup of Del's Lemonade. He's also worn an Uncle Sam red-white-and-blue hat and white beard for the Fourth of July, and a witch's hat and broom for Halloween. When the musical Annie came to town, he got a red curly wig to match the orphan.