Raid and the Roach

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This little idea started out innocently enough. I had seen a cockroach in the bathtub trying to crawl up the porcelain sides. Normally this cockroach would have become chow for the black widow in the backyard but I wasn't in a particularly hospitable mood that day. So I went and got the RAID can.

According to the can RAID is:

Propoxur: A Carcinogen and a Cholinesterase Inhibitor. Cholinesterase is necessary for the function of the nervous system; so Propoxur, being an inhibitor of said enzyme cause paralysis at higher doses. Toxic to everything with a nervous system.

Piperonyl butoxide: This stuff is pretty safe. Causes diarrhea and vomiting. Might cause cancer, but I couldn't find enough information to suggest that it can. It doesn't cause birth defects and is used primarily as a lice killer.

Pyrethrin: Natural insecticide made from chrysanthemums. Inhaling this stuff can cause asthmatic breathing, sneezing, nasal stuffiness, headache, nausea, tremors, convulsions, facial flushing and swelling, and burning and itching sensations (as recorded by http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/profiles/extoxnet/pyrethrins-ziram/pyrethrins-ext.html). But don't worry! It's natural. It can, however, kill rats.

That little bloody cockroach was still trying to crawl up the sides. Its little legs were not doing a very good job at getting it any further up the tub considering how spiny roach legs are. This roach was an Oriental Cockroach. I could tell by the wing stubs. Because they were the longer wing stubs it must have been male.

There are primarily five pest species of roach in the US of A.

American: Large and yellowish.

German: Small, likes to get into things like televisions and eat the wires.

Smokey Brown: Hard to control because they tend to come into homes from the outside. New members are always showing up to replace the old ones.

Oriental: They tend to smell.

Brownband: Came from Africa to the states just after World War II. They also like televisions.

According to The Complete Cockroach a cockroach is:

Antenna (2): Long whip like sensory organ.

Compound eye (2): Multiple lens light sensory organ.

Thorax: Middle section. All limbs are stuck to this.

Legs (6): Locomotion device. Cockroaches stand on three legs at all times, even when running.

Cerci (2): Air pressure sensory organ. Likes to detect dangerous falling objects like feet.

Misc. Parts (Labial Palp, mouth, labrum, sobqesophageal ganglion, pharynx, antennal nerve, brain, ocular nerve, sympathetic nerve, aorta, esophagus, salivary glands, front wing, hind wing, salivary reservoir, crop, malpighain tubes, heart, testis, vas deferens, rectum, claspers, anus, penis, stylus, ejaculatory duct, accessory glands, hind intestines, nerve ganglia, mid-intestine, gastric caeca, gizzard, trochanter, femur, tibia, tarsus, coax, fat body.)

I sprayed the cockroach. Did it without thinking too. I was upset and the insect had to die. Simple.

BookReader has poisoned Cockroach. Cockroach takes 450 points of damage. Cockroach is dead. BookReader gains 1 XP. He needs 49 more XP to reach level two.

Except not really. I do a quick spurt because I hate the way RAID smells. It comes in Country Fresh, Outdoor Fresh, and Fragrance Free but they all smell terrible.

The roach runs around as if it was a soldier who just got a whole helping of Agent Orange dumped on him. Now it is franticly trying to run up the sides. It takes all of two minutes to tire out and start walking along the edge. It does this in a rather jerky weaving manner. Soon it is just walking in circles. It finally stops moving and I get bored and leave.

Now, later, I am looking at the thing in the tub. It is still alive, but its fat body is bloated. It has somehow managed to flip over. The thing looks at least twice as big as it did before I sprayed it. If prodded, it moves feebly trying to flip itself off of its back. The antenna jerk erratically.

Raid 1: Roach 0

Disgusting. I crush its head with my boot heel, stepping in the tub to do so.

It's still alive. I have to mash the entire insect just to kill it. I should have just stepped on it. It would have saved me the trouble and the guilt.

Sources!

http://www.killsbugsdead.com