Mar 15, 05
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Originally Posted by mystique
Brownbanded Cockroach
The brownbanded cockroach, Supella longipalpa, is not as common as the German cockroach in California and accounts for only about 1% of all indoor infestations. This species seeks out areas that are very warm most of the time, preferring temperatures of about 80°F, about 5° to 10°F warmer than what German cockroaches prefer. Favorite locations include near the warm electrical components of appliances such as radios, televisions, and refrigerators. Brownbanded cockroaches prefer starchy food (e.g., glue on stamps and envelopes), are often found in offices and other places where paper is stored, and are more common in apartments or homes that are not air conditioned. They also infest animal-rearing facilities, kitchens, and hospitals. Adult males sometimes fly when disturbed, but females do not fly. Females glue light brown egg cases, which are about 1/4 inch long, to ceilings, beneath furniture, or in closets or other dark places where eggs incubate for several weeks before hatching. Each female and her offspring are capable of producing over 600 cockroaches in one year.
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Fuck, you really are stupid.
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/food/tacobell.asp
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Logistically, though, this one falls down flat on its face. Even if the medical details were correct (and they're woefully wrong), how would the teller know that the roach had come from a Taco Bell taco? Had the poor girl eaten nothing else for the previous several days? There's no mention of her saving the remnants of her meal, much less of anyone's examining them. Even if the victim had retained some taco scraps, since she allegedly ate the roach along with the taco, what evidence would be left behind to discover?
How did the eggs manage to get out of this "pregnant roach" and into the girl's salivary glands? Expectant roaches carry their eggs in a largish brown sac called an ootheca, a firm-walled egg case attached to Mama Roach's posterior. A roach ootheca is about the size of dried bean, not something that could be worked into anyone's gum line.
Did mama fortitously lay her eggs a split second before the grinding of a hungry girl's teeth shuffled Mrs. Roach off this mortal coil? If not, how did mama's eggs amazingly survive the crush of masticating molars that did her in? And how could the eggs enter the salivary glands, from which saliva (of course) is generally flowing out?
Our horrific little story also stars a doctor who prescribes a topical cream for a swollen jaw supposedly caused by an "allergic reaction," and who "removes a couple of layers of inner mouth" to get at an obstruction in the salivary glands. Maybe we're wrong to classify this one as a contaminated food or insect infestation legend — it sounds more like a scary indictment of our medical system.
A related "roach eggs" scare that began circulating in 2000 involved envelopes rather than tacos as the means of transmission:
If you lick your envelopes . . . You won't anymore!
This lady was working in a post office in California, one day she licked the envelopes and postage stamps instead of using a sponge.
That very day the lady cut her tongue on the envelope. A week later, she noticed an abnormal swelling of her tongue. She went to the doctor, and they found nothing wrong. Her tongue was not sore or anything. A couple of days later, her tongue started to swell more, and it began to get really sore, so sore, that she could not eat. She went back to the hospital, and demanded something be done. The doctor, took an x-ray of her tongue, and noticed a lump. He prepared her for minor surgery.
When the doctor cut her tongue open, a live roach crawled out. There were roach eggs on the seal of the envelope. The egg was able to hatch inside of her tongue, because of her saliva. It was warm and moist...
This is a true story . . . Pass it on
Everything said about cockroach eggs earlier still applies. This incarnation of the tale is every bit as much a hoax as the taco one.
In May 2000 someone thought to add further snippets of implied credibility to the e-mail quoted above, namely:
This is a true story reported on CNN.
Andy Hume wrote: Hey, I used to work in an envelope factory. You wouldn't believe the things that float around in those gum applicator trays. I haven't licked an envelope for years.
This is a true story . . . Pass it on
First of all, the story was not reported on CNN. Pasting such authoritative-sounding taglines into the text of hoaxes circulating on the Internet in an effort to give them credibility is commonplace, and this is just another case of some nameless prankster doing just that.
Second, no one knows who "Andy Hume" is, so why give his supposed comments about working in an envelope factory any credence? It ain't all that tough to make up a comment and a name to go with it. If "Andy Hume" works for CNN, it's news to them. Searches of news databases for any reporter of that name turn up one who writes for The Ottawa Citizen, and wider searches turn up a British sports figure who also carries that name. There was also a Washington reporter, Sandy Hume, who killed himself in February 1998. But there's also no reason to assume any of those folks penned the comment circulated to bolster the credibility of the "envelope" e-mail.
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