Housefly and drosophilia can be reared in a wooden or metal framed box, covered with a fine mesh or netting. The above mixture should be put into small bowls and introduced into the cage. Adult houseflies and drosophilia should be captured and put inside the cage and left there to lay their eggs. 3. Thrypodium larvae: adults are found in rava and maida. A special bucket should be kept with an aeration hole and the maida or rava in the bucket, sprinkled with a little bit of water every day. A strainer can be used to strain out the larvae wherever necessary. 4. Cockroaches: need a bucket with many big aeration holes, covered with a fine mesh. A few rolls of paper can be placed vertically inside the box for the cockroaches to climb on. Chapter 10: Crocodile Dundee December was the most eagerly awaited month of my one year sabbatical. All decks had finally been cleared for my long awaited trip to the Crocodile Bank at Mamallapuram. Nearly three months earlier my dad had written to Romulus Whitaker the legendary snakeman who now runs the Croc Bank asking whether I could spend some time there. There had been no reply largely because Rom travels quite a bit but also because, as I discovered, writing replies to letters is about the last thing these animal-dedicated persons have time for. I was in fact beginning to feel quite frustrated thinking that my trip would not work out when Srilata Swaminadhan (with whom we stayed in Jaipur) told my father that her sister lived at Mamallapuram and would help out. Phone calls back and forth and finally it was all organised. I was overjoyed when my dad's phone call came to Uncle Mano's house saying I could go. Babu, Uncle Mano's nephew, reached me by bus to the Croc Bank on the 9th of December and I spent one glorious month there, the nearest I got to living in the wild. Although I was supposed to return home for Christmas I begged to be let off and was in the seventh heaven when my parents agreed. In fact I enjoyed my stay so much, that in March, I returned to the Croc Bank again (for a brief while), as that was the breeding season for crocodiles. The Croc Bank is situated at Mamallapuram which is about 37 kms from Chennai. It is a huge place with a beach just behind it. Croc Bank is home to thousands of crocodiles, all of them housed in pits of varying sizes with sloping walls to enable water to collect at the centre so that the crocs can sunbathe on the upper part of the slopes. Some of the huge crocodiles have individual pits but usually the species is kept separately, male and female further separated from each other. A large enclosure divided into several sections houses the baby crocs.