Envelope lick/paper cut on tongue/cockroach eggs
Craig Lueck
Just today secretary at work told us abt the friend
of a friend who:
Licked an envelope, cut her tongue, tongue got grotesquely
infected and swollen; off to the doctor, opens up tongue to
find swarms of newly hatched cockroaches. The eggs were
supposedly on the envelope...
Now I laughed and told her that was an urban legend, and I
could prove it. So I went to the archive but could not find
this specific tale. In fact, listed a scientifically proven
true were the cases where insect eggs have been known to hatch
in wounds (e.g., spiders.)
Help me out.....has she been hoodwinked or do I eat crow???
Luke in San Jose, Ca
Jill A. Snider
Craig Lueck <luk...@ix.netcom.com> writes:
>Licked an envelope, cut her tongue, tongue got grotesquely
>infected and swollen; off to the doctor, opens up tongue to
>find swarms of newly hatched cockroaches. The eggs were
>supposedly on the envelope...
[snip]
Anyone who has lived in central Texas (or, from what I hear, New York
City) has seen cockroach eggs. They are about 6 to 8 mm long, 3 to 4 mm
wide and 3 to 4 mm deep. No one would "accidentally" lick that on an
envelope!
Pat "Not if they were sober enough to be at work" Larkin
if replying, please use 74246...@compuserve.com, not the iglou address
--
Ben Walsh
Craig Lueck wrote:
> Licked an envelope, cut her tongue, tongue got grotesquely
> infected and swollen; off to the doctor, opens up tongue to
> find swarms of newly hatched cockroaches. The eggs were
> supposedly on the envelope...
Cockroaches don't do that sort of thing. We've had that recently.
Besides, how could a large number of cockroach eggs hide in a small cut
in the tongue? Or on the envelope?
> Now I laughed and told her that was an urban legend, and I
> could prove it. So I went to the archive but could not find
> this specific tale. In fact, listed a scientifically proven
> true were the cases where insect eggs have been known to hatch
> in wounds (e.g., spiders.)
Spiders aren't insects. Yes, insect eggs are occasionally laid in living
human tissue. No, not cockroaches and no, it did not happen in this
case. She's the one with the crazy story, so she's got the burden of
proof.
> Help me out.....has she been hoodwinked or do I eat crow???
Keep the crow in the fridge for the moment.
ben "that's good eatin'" w.
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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-- Irish News | benw at iona dot com
| http://bounce.to/heretic
Judy Johnson
On Wed, 12 Nov 1997 23:50:41 -0800, Craig Lueck <luk...@ix.netcom.com>
wrote:
>Just today secretary at work told us abt the friend
>of a friend who:
>
>Licked an envelope, cut her tongue, tongue got grotesquely
>infected and swollen; off to the doctor, opens up tongue to
>find swarms of newly hatched cockroaches. The eggs were
>supposedly on the envelope...
>
>Now I laughed and told her that was an urban legend, and I
>could prove it. So I went to the archive but could not find
>this specific tale. In fact, listed a scientifically proven
>true were the cases where insect eggs have been known to hatch
>in wounds (e.g., spiders.)
>
>Help me out.....has she been hoodwinked or do I eat crow???
She needs to rip that hood off if she's planning on driving, and you
need to order up pizza.
The eggs of cockroaches are enclosed in large cases (known as
ootheca). Having one inserted into one's tounge is not something that
would go unnoticed. The eggs are not designed to be incubated within
the tissues of mammals.
There is some possibility of maggots resulting from eggs laid in a
wound, but I have a hard time imagining this happening on someone's
tounge.
Judy "so when did maggots morph into roaches?" Johnson
Drew Lawson
In article <EJLCM...@iglou.com>, jasn...@iglou2.iglou.com (Jill A.
Snider) wrote:
> Craig Lueck <luk...@ix.netcom.com> writes:
>
> >The eggs were
> >supposedly on the envelope...
> Anyone who has lived in central Texas (or, from what I hear, New York
> City) has seen cockroach eggs. They are about 6 to 8 mm long, 3 to 4 mm
> wide and 3 to 4 mm deep. No one would "accidentally" lick that on an
> envelope!
Maybe everything really *is* big in Texas, but I believe you are describing
an egg pouch. The eggs are signifigantly smaller, and more numerous
<insert Carl Sagan numbers>.
Drew "though the story is still crap" Lawson
--
Drew Lawson | Most North American consumers are smart enough
| to know the difference between a store and an
dr...@furrfu.com | infection.
http://www.furrfu.com/ | -- Greg Franklin (in alt.folklore.urban)
rha007.tco...@ohsu.edu
In article <346AB1...@ix.netcom.com> Craig Lueck <luk...@ix.netcom.com> writes:
>From: Craig Lueck <luk...@ix.netcom.com>
>Subject: Envelope lick/paper cut on tongue/cockroach eggs
>Date: Wed, 12 Nov 1997 23:50:41 -0800
>Just today secretary at work told us abt the friend
>of a friend who:
>Licked an envelope, cut her tongue, tongue got grotesquely
>infected and swollen; off to the doctor, opens up tongue to
>find swarms of newly hatched cockroaches. The eggs were
>supposedly on the envelope...
>Now I laughed and told her that was an urban legend, and I
>could prove it. So I went to the archive but could not find
>this specific tale. In fact, listed a scientifically proven
>true were the cases where insect eggs have been known to hatch
>in wounds (e.g., spiders.)
>Help me out.....has she been hoodwinked or do I eat crow???
>Luke in San Jose, Ca
I saw a special on The Learning Channel - roaches lay eggs in dark places
where they are rarely found - the back of a stove or refrigerator, under the
sink and behind drawers. If there were eggs on the envelope, she would have
noticed. No way on an envelope - no food for them to scavenge, no place to
hide - unless she dug it out of a garbage that had been sitting for a while.
Yuch!!
Patricia
GrapeApe
>>I saw a special on The Learning Channel - roaches lay eggs in dark places
where they are rarely found - the back of a stove or refrigerator, under the
sink and behind drawers. If there were eggs on the envelope, she would have
noticed. No way on an envelope - no food for them to scavenge, no place to
hide - unless she dug it out of a garbage that had been sitting for a while.
Yuch!!<<
Cockroaches as most Merkins know them carry their young in a suitcase. That is,
Mama Roach has a big old extention to her abdomen that can fall off anywhere,
more often than not this falls off in the Roaches safe place where they are
nesting, that has low traffic and light, but she can drop this bag anywhere.
Your granola mix, etc...
This is a little hard cased chiclet about a centimeter square and about half as
thick. When it breaks open, many tiny roaches pop out, not larva.
Individual eggs or any baby roaches in a wormy larval stage are never seen.
These cases would have difficulty fitting in any opening smaller than the hole
in a piece of three ring binder paper.
Rush Strong
Liz Knuth wrote in message <64l4us$l...@ash.computing.csbsju.edu>...
>: No way on an envelope - no food for them to scavenge,
>
>I've known cockroaches to eat paper. Who knows, they might think the
>glue was yummy too.
IIRC, I heard from a FOAF (who read it in Ann Slanders, who was quoting Paul
Harvey) that a 'family' of cochroaches can live for a week on the glue from
a postage stamp.
- Rush "but don't quote me on that" Strong
Judy Johnson
On 15 Nov 1997 20:10:18 GMT, grap...@aol.com (GrapeApe) wrote:
[snipparella]
>Cockroaches as most Merkins know them carry their young in a suitcase. That is,
> Mama Roach has a big old extention to her abdomen that can fall off anywhere,
> more often than not this falls off in the Roaches safe place where they are
> nesting, that has low traffic and light, but she can drop this bag anywhere.
> Your granola mix, etc...
Actually, the German roach (Blattella germanica) is the only common
pest roach that carries the ootheca in this manner. Other domiciliary
species (American, Oriental, brownbanded, etc.) do not. Ya see lotsa
smallish roaches with brown thingies sticking outta their asses, ya
knows ya gots Germans.
>This is a little hard cased chiclet about a centimeter square and about half as
> thick. When it breaks open, many tiny roaches pop out, not larva.
>Individual eggs or any baby roaches in a wormy larval stage are never seen.
> These cases would have difficulty fitting in any opening smaller than the hole
> in a piece of three ring binder paper.
Roaches are insects with simple metamorphosis, which means the
immature stages look (pretty much) like miniature wingless adults, as
opposed to those insects with complete metamorphosis, where the
immature stages look very different (usual wormlike) than the adults.
Usta be that we called the immature stages of those buggers with
simple (or gradual) metamorphosis 'nymphs' and those with complete
metamorphosis 'larvae', but nowadays we have some sorta unified field
terminology so all they both get called larvae.
My point, and I do have one, is that in modern entomological usage,
the baby roaches that hatch outta the ootheca are technically called
larvae. They just happen to look very much like adult roaches and not
like caterpillars, grubs or maggots.
Judy "oh woooooudn't it be larverly" Johnson
John Varela
>Actually, the German roach (Blattella germanica) is the only common
>pest roach that carries the ootheca in this manner. Other domiciliary
>species (American, Oriental, brownbanded, etc.) do not. Ya see lotsa
>smallish roaches with brown thingies sticking outta their asses, ya
>knows ya gots Germans.
When I was a lad in New Orleans there were these huge insects that we called
roaches. They could fly, but clumsily.
Some years later I became aware that in Florida they called these insects
"palmetto bugs." I figured that name was just something invented by the real
estate and tourist industries to avoid offputting potential customers.
Within the last decade or so it has come to my attention that even in New
Orleans they have taken to calling these creatures palmetto bugs.
So what I would like to know is, is "palmetto bug" as I suspect just a
euphemism for "roach"?
John Varela
(delete . between os2 and bbs to e-mail me)
jaj...@lightspeed.net
In article <64n9m6$7c0$1...@news1.mnsinc.com>,
j...@os2.bbs.com (John Varela) wrote:
>
> When I was a lad in New Orleans there were these huge insects that we called
> roaches. They could fly, but clumsily.
>
> Some years later I became aware that in Florida they called these insects
> "palmetto bugs." I figured that name was just something invented by the real
> estate and tourist industries to avoid offputting potential customers.
>
> Within the last decade or so it has come to my attention that even in New
> Orleans they have taken to calling these creatures palmetto bugs.
>
> So what I would like to know is, is "palmetto bug" as I suspect just a
> euphemism for "roach"?
Yep. I did a quick search for "palmetto bug" 'cause I couldn't find it
listed as a common name in Ebling's 'Urban Entomology' and found it in
the glossary of a Florida Real Estate site. They defined it as a
"Florida euphemism for roach."
A little more digging around told me that the name is usually applied to
the American roach *Periplaneta americana*.
Judy "three cheers for the red, white and buggy" Johnson
-------------------==== Posted via Deja News ====-----------------------
http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Post to Usenet
Alice Faber
In <64oa1e$8f6$1...@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> gil...@uts.cc.utexas.edu (H Gilmer) writes:
>Alice Faber (afa...@panix.com) wrote:
>: In <64n9m6$7c0$1...@news1.mnsinc.com> j...@os2.bbs.com (John Varela) writes:
>: >So what I would like to know is, is "palmetto bug" as I suspect just a
>: >euphemism for "roach"?
>: Palmetto bugs, sometimes also called tree roaches, are 5-6 inches long,
>: can fly, and stink something awful if you crush one. Regular roaches (what
>: I think other folks call German cockroaches, on the basis of the
>: descriptions elsewhere on this thread of their egg sacs) are under an inch
>: long, can't fly, and, insofar as I remember, don't smell particularly bad
>: when crushed.
>OK, what about the Israeli roaches that are an inch or two long, fly,
>and don't smell like anything? Do we have a roach continuum?
I don't remember encountering roach-like critters in the year I lived in
Jerusalem. Of course I was young and naive then...On the other hand, I do
recall people using the Hebrew word for cockroach as an insult.
Alice "la cucaracha" Faber
Mike Holmans
On Sun, 16 Nov 1997 18:51:27 -0600, jaj...@lightspeed.net wrote:
>A little more digging around told me that the name is usually applied to
>the American roach *Periplaneta americana*.
>
I wonder why "Americans all round the planet" is a name given to
creepy-crawlies.
Mike "they do - I've got one in my flat" Holmans
El Sig does the creeping and crawling. Signorina wouldn't have it any
other way
Sean Willard
> In article <8797274...@dejanews.com>, jaj...@lightspeed.net wrote:
>
> > Yep. I did a quick search for "palmetto bug" 'cause I couldn't find it
> > listed as a common name in Ebling's 'Urban Entomology' and found it in
> > the glossary of a Florida Real Estate site. They defined it as a
> > "Florida euphemism for roach."
Drew Lawson <dr...@furrfu.com> wrote:
> And if the Florida Real Estate site isn't a valid disctionary, I don't
> know what is.
Hey, if Jill Jackson supplies a bug cite, I ain't gonna argue with her.
> Palmetto bugs are roash-ish in appearance, but are quite different in
> preferred conditions and other things. I, for example, have never seen
> german cockroaches swarming out of a storm drain.
Those sound like what in my youth in Phoenix we called "sewer roaches".
Drew, keep in mind that colloquial names for creepy-crawlies have
nowhere near a one-to-one mapping to any sort of etymological taxonomy.
Sean "daddy-long-legs, anyone?" Willard
Judy Johnson
John Varela wrote:
>Yeah, those are roaches, too. During WW II when you couldn't buy insecticides
>(petroleum products went to the war effort) they were out of control.
Hmmm....Synthetic organic insecticides (those that are produced by the
petrochemical industry) were born in the midst of Dubya Dubya Eye Eye.
Prior to that, the only chemicals available for pest control were
inorganics such as arsenicals or botanicals like rotenone or
pyrethrin. I'm not sure if the war-time shortages in the petrochemical
industry would have had any effect on pest control. However, since
pyrethrins were produced from chrysanthemums, and I don't believe the
mums used for this were grown in the US, its possible that the war
interferred in the trade of this pesticide.
I'll need to check some of the older sources available to me at work
to answer this properly.
Judy "mums the word" Johnson
GrapeApe
>What about the bigger roaches that run like hell, called waterbugs in
>Baltimore (about 1-1/2 inches long)?
I've seen people call silverfish waterbugs before.
I think the point was made earlier that regional folk etymologys/entemologys
differ from the scientific to a good degree.
What I think most Merkins probably consider the prototypical cockroach is the
German. Palmetto Bugs and others are also considered roaches by these folks,
but they dont necessarily call them COCKroaches. (make up your own joke about
size here)
Stephen Robert Norris
In article <347132ad....@news.lightspeed.net>,
jaj...@lightspeed.net (Judy Johnson) intoned:
> John Varela wrote:
[ Snip of WWII causing insecticide shortages? ]
> However, since
> pyrethrins were produced from chrysanthemums, and I don't believe the
> mums used for this were grown in the US, its possible that the war
> interferred in the trade of this pesticide.
Pyrethrins come from, appropriately enough, Pyrethrum daisies. I can even
dig out the botanical name of them if someone really wants it.
What does "...I don't believe the mums used..." mean? In Australia, "mums"
== "mothers".
Stephen
Sean Willard
> John Varela wrote:
>
> >Yeah, those are roaches, too. During WW II when you couldn't buy
> >insecticides (petroleum products went to the war effort) they were out of
> >control.
Judy Johnson <jaj...@lightspeed.net> wrote:
> Hmmm....Synthetic organic insecticides (those that are produced by the
> petrochemical industry) were born in the midst of Dubya Dubya Eye Eye.
> Prior to that, the only chemicals available for pest control were
> inorganics such as arsenicals or botanicals like rotenone or
> pyrethrin. I'm not sure if the war-time shortages in the petrochemical
> industry would have had any effect on pest control.
Old farts can and will step in here to correct me, but given 'Merka's
abundant petroleum resources (hint: Penn State, Quaker State, black
gold, Texas tea, Colorado Kool-Aid^W^W "I get allERgic smelling hay" -
oops, sorry, wrong '60s sitcom - and oil wells in L.A.), and given the
sudden unavailability of, say, rubber from Southeast Asia, I thought
DDEE was when Merkin chemists really began to explore the non-fuel,
non-lubricant possibilities of petrochemicals. I'd say that if
anything, DDEE would have *driven* the development of synthetic organic
insecticides (if only as spinoffs from development of goodies like nylon
and neoprene). In the meantime, as I recall, German chemists struggled
to come up with economical ways of synthesizing gasoline from, or
running cars on, coal (which latter was certainly accomplished without
resort to steam - sorry, Artie).
Sean "not sure how gas rationing fit into all this" Willard
Andrew Welsh
s...@fn.com.au wrote:
: What does "...I don't believe the mums used..." mean? In Australia, "mums"
: == "mothers".
This is a USAism used to fool foreigners. Instead of shortening Chrysanthemum
to Chrysanths like the rest of the civilised world, they shorten it to "mums".
Very peculiar when your local grocery store is advertising "Top Quality Mums -
99c".
andrew "my top quality mum's worth more than that" Welsh
--
Andrew Welsh (and...@panix.com/ http://www.panix.com/~andreww)
Opinions expressed above are not necessarily endorsed by my employers.
"Who's the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks?"
"Shaft!" - Isaac Hayes
jaj...@lightspeed.net
s...@fn.com.au wrote:
> Pyrethrins come from, appropriately enough, Pyrethrum daisies. I can even
> dig out the botanical name of them if someone really wants it.
According to Ebling's *Urban Entomology* "Pyrethrins are extracted from
flower heads of *Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium* and *C. coccineum*,..."
I know these plants by the common name of 'chrysanthemum', perhaps
another common name is 'pyrethrum daisy'.
> What does "...I don't believe the mums used..." mean? In Australia, "mums"
> == "mothers".
Way back in my salad days of grad skool, I worked in an entomology lab
that dealt with insect pests of ornamental plants. Our main project was
on a leaf mining fly that came damn near to ruining the So Cal
chrysanthemum industry. Day after day, nothin' but chrysanthemums. I
planted chrysanthemums, I watered chrysanthemums, I pinched leaves off of
chrysanthemums, I counted mines on chrysanthemums. I ate, drank, talked,
and slept chrysanthemums.
One special day, my fellow chrysanthemum slaves and I decided to save
ourselves alot of syllables by calling the wretched things....MUMS!
Judy "you see, we were in COLLEGE" Johnson
Stephen Robert Norris
In article <8799162...@dejanews.com>,
jaj...@lightspeed.net intoned:
> s...@fn.com.au wrote:
>
>> Pyrethrins come from, appropriately enough, Pyrethrum daisies. I can even
>> dig out the botanical name of them if someone really wants it.
>
> According to Ebling's *Urban Entomology* "Pyrethrins are extracted from
> flower heads of *Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium* and *C. coccineum*,..."
> I know these plants by the common name of 'chrysanthemum', perhaps
> another common name is 'pyrethrum daisy'.
Well, that'll teach me for not looking up the botanical name for them :)
Stephen
Charles Wm. Dimmick
Sean Willard wrote:
> > Hmmm....Synthetic organic insecticides (those that are produced
> > by the petrochemical industry) were born in the midst of Dubya
> > Dubya Eye Eye. Prior to that, the only chemicals available for
> > pest control were inorganics such as arsenicals or botanicals
> > like rotenone or pyrethrin. I'm not sure if the war-time shortages
> > in the petrochemical industry would have had any effect on pest
> > control.
>
> Old farts can and will step in here to correct me, but given 'Merka's
> abundant petroleum resources [snip] and given the
> sudden unavailability of, say, rubber from Southeast Asia, I thought
> DDEE was when Merkin chemists really began to explore the non-fuel,
> non-lubricant possibilities of petrochemicals.[snip]
My father graduated from Lafayette in 1933 as a chemist, and
spent the first ten years of his career as an organic chemist,
specializing in making things out of petroleum, first for
Ellis Laboratories in Montclair, NJ and later for Standard Oil
of New Jersey. Eventually they sent him to law school to learn
how to patent chemical inventions. One very famous insecticide
was invented in ESSOs labs before WWII, and popularized by
commercials contributed to by Dr. Seuss. See also Carlton
Ellis's "Chemistry of Petroleum Derivatives", written before
the war.
Charles Wm. "quick Henry, the Flit" Dimmick
"...and some rin up hill and down dale, knapping the chucky stanes
to pieces wi' hammers like sae mony road-makers run daft -- They say
it is to see how the warld was made!"
Drew Lawson
> s...@fn.com.au wrote:
>
> > Pyrethrins come from, appropriately enough, Pyrethrum daisies. I can even
> > dig out the botanical name of them if someone really wants it.
>
> According to Ebling's *Urban Entomology* "Pyrethrins are extracted from
> flower heads of *Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium* and *C. coccineum*,..."
> I know these plants by the common name of 'chrysanthemum', perhaps
> another common name is 'pyrethrum daisy'.
Many (though I don't believe all) flowers which are called "daisies" are
some type of chrysanthemum. IIRC, Shasta Daisy is one example.
Drew "give me your answer, do" Lawson
--
Drew Lawson | I will crawl through my past
dr...@furrfu.com | over stones, blood and glass
http://www.furrfu.com/ | in the ruins
John Varela
In <347132ad....@news.lightspeed.net>, jaj...@lightspeed.net (Judy Johnson) writes:
>John Varela wrote:
>
>>Yeah, those are roaches, too. During WW II when you couldn't buy insecticides
>>(petroleum products went to the war effort) they were out of control.
>
>petrochemical industry) were born in the midst of Dubya Dubya Eye Eye.
You're doubtless correct. My memory only goes back to just before WW II and
probably the out of controlness of roaches was the natural state of things,
not something that only came to pass during the war. Now that you force me
to think about it, the roaches were out of control in the late 40s, too.
John "I left New Orleans in 1951" Varela
Bryan Travis
Judy Johnson wrote:
> There is some possibility of maggots resulting from eggs laid in a
> wound, but I have a hard time imagining this happening on someone's
> tounge.
>
> Judy "so when did maggots morph into roaches?" Johnson
Purely as an aside...
One evening last week I left the television on as I was doing
chores in the apartment. It was unfortunate enough to have been
tuned to FOX during one of their tabloid TV specials, "World's
Most Dangerous Swarms." During the piece about maggots, the
narrator mentioned that maggots are sometimes sewed into wounds
because they only eat the dead tissue, leaving living tissue
untouched.
Bryan "I'd rather take my chances with a leech" Travis
jaj...@lightspeed.net
Bryan Travis <brtr...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
[my stuff mercilessly snipped]
> One evening last week I left the television on as I was doing
> chores in the apartment. It was unfortunate enough to have been
> tuned to FOX during one of their tabloid TV specials, "World's
> Most Dangerous Swarms." During the piece about maggots, the
> narrator mentioned that maggots are sometimes sewed into wounds
> because they only eat the dead tissue, leaving living tissue
> untouched.
Maggot therapy for wound debridement has been discussed on AFU in times
past. Actually, only very specific maggots are used. The larvae of some
fly species (bot flies and screwworm flies, to name just a few) are quite
capable of consumming healthy tissue.
For more information on maggot therapy, take a gander at The Maggot
Therapy Home Page, http://www.com.uci.edu/~path/sherman/home_pg.htm.
> Bryan "I'd rather take my chances with a leech" Travis
Eeuuw!
Judy "maggots among us" Johnson