There wasn’t anything dangerous about this assignment. I wasn’t being charged by a hippo, as I had been on my first trip for EXPLORER. My life wasn’t dangling by a thread, or rather a half-inch rope, as it had been in Texas when I swung over the edge of Devil’s Sinkhole to rappel into a bat cave. There were no poisonous or carnivorous creatures to handle. We were behind the scenes at the insect wing of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., to tape the host segments for an episode all about insects. So at worst, I might get a small sting or bite, but nothing serious. Still, I don’t think there’s ever been a day of shooting that I was more relieved to see end.

My job was to pick up some ants and a few exotic bugs, including cockroaches, and talk about them. Let’s face it, insects are never going to be the life of the party, but I thought we could help their image a bit.

The trouble is, there’s just not much that can be said on behalf of the cockroach. Oh, maybe you can admire their survival skills. No amount of hammering, stomping, smashing, spraying, or poisoning can kill them all. And humans have been giving it their best shot since the first cockroach scurried across a dinner plate.

In spite of, or perhaps because of, their repulsive reputation, cockroaches were the stars of this day’s taping. Not just any little, tiny-bread-crumb-stealing roaches, but big, intimidating I’ll-take-your-whole-entree-and-your-dessert-too Madagascar hissing cockroaches. And there weren’t just one or two of them—we were dealing with a cockroach condominium. To get one shot, I had to keep sticking my arms elbow-deep into the cockroach condo.

This wasn’t the first time I’d picked up a cockroach, so I wasn’t bothered by touching them—once. But we had to keep doing the shot over and over. The roaches, wanting no part of the bright lights, would run for cover. I needed to scratch my nose and brush the hair out of my eyes, but I didn’t dare touch my cockroach-covered hands against any other part of my body. All I could think about was how desperately I wanted to take a shower. I ended up taking two that night and one the next morning. For a couple of days afterwards, everytime I’d touch food with my hands, I’d wonder, “Are they really clean yet?”

You can see the results of my Madagascar hissing cockroach encounter on the EXPLORER show “Insect Invaders” on August 11. I must confess, as filthy as the cockroaches were, I didn’t worry as much about my hands with them as I did when I was hand-feeding sharks a few months later. But that’s a story for another time.