31st Big Blue Bug lighting marks start of RI’s holiday season

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — If you’re driving down Interstate 95 and see an enormous glowing termite, you’re not hallucinating.

That’s Nibbles Woodaway, a termite sizing in at 58-feet-long, nine-feet-tall, and weighing in at around 4,000 pounds — and a sign to Rhode Islanders that the holiday season is officially underway.

2023 marks the 31st year the team at Big Blue Bug Solutions lit up Nibbles for the holidays. They say they’re not quite sure how it became such a tradition, but they’re all glad to be a part of Rhode Island’s history.

“So originally when it started 31 years ago, they thought it would be a cute idea, maybe do it once every few years, and it got such rave reviews, they’re like ‘This has to be every year, this has to be the way we signal the beginning of the holiday season in our area,'” Big Blue Bug Solutions CEO Brian Goldman said.

Nibbles Woodaway stays lit up all night and it’s quite an honor to be brought in to flip the switch that lights Nibbles up, with a celebrity guest doing the deed this year.

“Well, it’s a centerpiece of Providence, the Big Blue Bug. It takes a lot of imagination and a lot of creativity to come up with that symbol. And so I think we give thanks to the owners of the Big Blue Bug and particularly for their generosity,” said retired Chief Judge Frank Caprio at Monday’s lighting ceremony.

 The kickoff draws a crowd too, families gathered in the parking lot for the celebration.

“It’s wonderful. I love the fact that we get — they get to experience what I was able to experience. I love that we’re actually able to come here and do it in person whereas before, it was just watching it on the TV, on the news, watching the countdown –being here is a lot more fun,” said Kay Hulley, who grew up watching the Bug lighting and now brings her family.

Woodaway will be lit up for the next few weeks, making Providence’s Big Blue Bug a beacon, beaming brightly over the brisk winter nights on I-95.