Smithsonian Institution has a Serious 'Bug Problem'

What do you do when you have 250,000 bugs but nowhere to put them? That's the problem the Smithsonian Institution currently faces. An entomologist who generously left his life savings and massive bug specimen collection to the Smithsonian is now giving the museum some grief.

When Carl J. Drake, who spent his life studying bugs, died in 1965, he left specific instructions in his will that are making it hard for the institute to put his life's work to best use, The Associated Press (AP) reported.

Drake wanted his money to be put towards buying more bug collections. According to the Smithsonian's lawyers, they have graciously heeded his wishes over the last 50 years - accruing over a dozen collections - but now doing so has become increasingly difficult due to environmental laws.

Adhering to the will has "become impossible, impracticable, and wasteful," Department of Justice lawyers wrote on the Smithsonian's behalf, as quoted by the AP.

Drake's investment has since grown from $250,000 to about $4 million, and the museum wants to spend some of the money on supplies and scientific research, not just buy more collections of bugs.

Such research would involve Drake's collection and other "True Bugs" that it owns - including bed bugs and other bugs with mouths like hypodermic needles.

The Smithsonian also wants to be able to loan items from Drake's collection, but Drake specifically put a condition in his will preventing them from doing so. His 250,000 bugs are now sitting in cabinets at the National Museum of Natural History with nowhere to go, something the Smithsonian says is straining its "increasingly scarce collection space," according to the AP.

The Smithsonian's request to modify the will, something it's done only once or twice in the last half century, will be presented in front of a federal judge. Until a decision is made, these pests will continue to be a nuisance.