1,001 Facts That Will Scare the S#*t Out of You: The Ultimate Bathroom Reader (104 page)

782

FACT :
In 1979, the Linondoll Pest Control Company of Schenectady, New York had the honor of treating
the world’s largest cockroach infestation
: 3 million roaches inhabited the walls, ceilings, floors, attic, and basement of a two-family dwelling.
Sounds more like two families inhabited a 3-million-roach dwelling.

Mark L. Winston, Nature Wars: People Vs. Pests (Harvard University Press, 1999).

783

FACT :
There are 4,000 species of cockroach in the world,
95 percent of them
able to survive completely independent of humans.
We’d get along just fine without them, too.

Jerome Goddard, Physician’s Guide to Arthropods of Medical Importance, 5th ed. (CRC Press, 2007).

784

FACT :
A cockroach can survive
for several weeks with no head
.
Yes, but it spends those weeks bumping into walls and screaming, “Where the FUCK is my head?!”

Jerome Goddard, Physician’s Guide to Arthropods of Medical Importance, 5th ed. (CRC Press, 2007).

785

FACT :
Cockroaches can crawl through astonishingly small spaces. Young cockroaches need just
a dime-sized crevice
while adults males can squeeze into a space the width of a quarter. Pregnant females require the width of two nickels.
If they all try to squeeze through at the same time, they’ll need a space about the size of a half-dollar coin. Those are pretty hard to find these days, which is why roaches usually just go through holes one at a time.

Jerome Goddard, Physician’s Guide to Arthropods of Medical Importance, 5th ed. (CRC Press, 2007).

786

FACT :
In Africa, cattle bitten by the
O. savignyi
breed of tick may die of toxicosis
in just one day
.
Right before the animal dies, it makes a horrible grimace that researchers call the “O. savignyi Face,” or “O Face” for short.

Jerome Goddard, Physician’s Guide to Arthropods of Medical Importance, 5th ed. (CRC Press, 2007).

787

FACT :
Hundreds of pets and livestock are injured or killed by tick paralysis,
a result of bites from certain breeds of ticks
. The severity of the paralysis depends on the number of female tick bites received by the host.
Of course it does. Weaker sex, my ass.

Jerome Goddard, Physician’s Guide to Arthropods of Medical Importance, 5th ed. (CRC Press, 2007).

788

FACT :
There are
1,250 species of scorpions
in the world, on every continent but Antarctica. Their toxic stings can result in abdominal cramps, blurred vision, partial paralysis, abnormal eye movements, priapism (persistent erection), hypertension, tachycardia, convulsions, and death from respiratory paralysis.
Aside from the priapism, scorpion bites sound like a drag.

Jerome Goddard, Physician’s Guide to Arthropods of Medical Importance, 5th ed. (CRC Press, 2007).

“Priapism,” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary,
www.merriam-webster.com
.

789

FACT : The United States is home to just one dangerous species of scorpion
,
C. exilacauda
, or the Arizona Bark scorpion, but beware: its sting can cause respiratory failure, metabolic acidosis, and death.
Other scorpion species exist here, but the Bark is much worse than their bites.