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08 December 2009

I'm Dreaming of a White. . .

. . .cockroach?

No, that's the stuff that nightmares are made of. And that's exactly what I saw today at school, in the bathroom, crawling all over the paper towels.

With the help of another teacher, we smashed it and then sprayed it with bleach. Not the most humane approach, sure, but what else is one to do when confronted with such a clear case of good v. evil?

At first I believed this roach to be an albino, and I really hate albinos. (I think it's leftover emotional baggage from watching The Firm as a kid.) Of course, I did see an albino alligator at a zoo once, and that was pretty cool.

But then I read this tidbit that I thought was interesting.

"Every once in a while, you might find a white cockroach. If you do, you're seeing one in transition. As cockroaches mature, they discard their skin and grow a new, bigger skin. In the nearly 12 hours it takes to shed and then grow new skin, the roach is white."

Now you know.

And just think, those of you whom I envy because of your wintry wonderlands, these babies wouldn't show up in snow.

4 comments:

  1. Oh god! This is horrible.

    Once when we still lived in our apartment, I woke up in the middle of the night with a cockroach CRAWLING ON MY FACE.

    I still have not fully recovered.

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  2. AHHHHH! That's horrible!

    Did you ever listen to the This American Life where the woman had cockroaches in her ears?

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  3. Nope. But now my ears feel funny. Ewwwww!

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  4. OK, I was reading your Christmas post, and for some reason, this was the suggested "You might like" post....

    I was going to tell you that it probably just molted, I know because we have pet crickets (I told you that, right??) and one of them molted and it looked almost as gross. Not quite so gross, because its a cricket, named Mario, and he was contained in his cricket house. But, I can totally empathize with the pit-in-your-stomach-OH-MY-GOD-I'M-GONNA-PUKE feeling!!!

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