Hi Amy,
 
Sorry about the tragic bug devastation.  I had a similar event with Alky a
few years ago, and since misery loves company, I might as well tell it!  We
had this interactive computer molecular modelling program that had homework
assigments on it - it was for some long forgotten grad school chem class.
Anyway, the thing was, the prof handed out formatted disks to each of us at
the beginning of the semester.  The program could only use these special
disks, and not only that, as each assignment was completed successfully, the
particular score was recorded for that bit of work (big brother making sure
we do our homework, I guess).  We were supposed to hand in these disks at
the end of the semester.
 
Of course, sometime during the last week of class, Alky decided to chew
through the plastic casing of the disk.  I, of course, was in hysterics -
I did not want my future to include repeating this particular class.
Fortunately, my husband was calmer than I, and realized the disk itself was
OK, and that just the plastic was mangled.  So he carefully took apart what
remained of the disk, took another new disk apart, and inserted the nearly
lost floppy into a new, clean housing.  We stuck it in the computer and it
worked like a charm.  Whew - a close call!
 
All was fine until the prof called me into his office to explain why I had
handed in a disk that had a different outside than the on he had given me,
and by the way, why was tape holding the thing together?  Could I have been
cheating to avoid doing the homework?
 
"Oh, no!" I exclaimed.  "You see, it's just that my ferret ate my homework."
I was rewarded with a pair of raised eyebrows.  I told him what had
happened.  He remained unconvinced, so I offered to bring the damaged case
in as evidence.  He replied that my offer greatly amused him, so next
morning, I brought the plastic in question in and dropped it on his desk,
teethmarks and all.  He looked a little taken aback - I'm sure he thought he
was going to catch a cheater red-handed.  After some hemming and hawing, he
took my story; but clearly some part of him deep down inside believed I was
pulling a fast one on him.
 
Fortunately, I never had to approach the man with any more homework
problems.  I'm not sure he would have bought the story twice.  And now I
know to keep Alky and computer disks separated.  Besides, once I safely
passed the class, it became a good story to remember and chuckle about!
 
Hopefully you will be able to laugh about it once you have captured your 52
bugs.  My heart is with you!
 
Good luck!
Liesl
[Posted in FML issue 1894]