Earwig
Every evening, when the blanket was pulled up to our chins, our mother said we ought to plug our ears with wads of cotton-wool because of the many earwigs. Little brownish vermin with almost transparent bodies, ugly forcipated hind claws (that could not have been claws), with black antennae and legs they used to move very fast across the carpet - usually we came too late if we wanted to mash them under the heel. They were creeping everywhere, outside, in the living room, in the kitchen or in the children's room. After they had been in contact with the chemicals our father had strewn into the chinks they looked white, "like albinos" we laughed, my sister and I. Every evening I had to look out for them and to kill those I found. It filled me with loathing but the thought to get into bed together with the earwigs haunted me even more - this thought was horrifying and quite unbearable for my young mind. Gratefully I took the wads of cotton-wool, that would stick not even until midnight, out of my mother's hand and plugged my ears.
(Published in German in: Wissen und Kultur Aktuell, Vienna 1986)