# It's raining maggots in my house! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 9, 2008, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-raining-maggots-in-my-house/452311 "2008-06-09T09:43:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2008, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-raining-maggots-in-my-house/452311/61 "2008-06-10T23:00:04Z")
I think I need to unsuscribe to this thread. :eek: I don’t know what I was thinking reaqding this thread in the first place. **ITD** , the most squeamish person in the room. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2008, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-raining-maggots-in-my-house/452311/62 "2008-06-10T23:25:16Z")
Oh, cool! Gross stories! I’ll share one of my own and one of my husband’s… We knocked out a sofit ceiling in our kitchen, and the guys were bringing it down when a family of dessicated, mummified rats fell down right on their heads. :eek: No smell, as they seem to have been up there forever. Hubby’s is way more gross- it involves a major chain hotel in San Diego (albeit many years ago). His family was staying there (it was okay but not ratty) and he got up to pee in the middle of the night. By the bathroom light, he saw into the rest of the room and there were roaches _everywhere_- the floors, beds, couch. He woke up his mom and the two of them slept in the car (leaving his step-dad, sisters and brother in the room- hell, there was no more room in the car anyway! 😉 ). It was years before they told anybody… _Gah._ ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2008, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-raining-maggots-in-my-house/452311/63 "2008-06-10T23:53:02Z")
Man, and I thought the black ant the size of my thumb in the bathroom yesterday was bad! When I squished it I heard the crunch of the exoskeleton and the splut of the internal bits and got a bit green around the gills. The worst thing I have ever seen though is when I was living in TX. There was an armadillo that had died in between the lanes of the road by my work. In July. In Texas. Nobody reported it or cleaned it up or anything until someone accidentally hit it with their car after about 3 days of fermenting and unleashed the horror within. It smelled like the worst smell imaginable, like liverwurst and b.o. and shit and burnt hair and all sorts of other horrors, actually causing the bile to rise in my throat. It had apparently housed about a billion maggots, all squirming inside of it that were shining in the sunlight as they wriggled about in the mound of death and smell. ---
**Author:** ![Pixilated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/aeb1de/32.png) [@Pixilated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixilated)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2008, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-raining-maggots-in-my-house/452311/64 "2008-06-11T03:00:22Z")
ok… this whole thread just about made me cry. I just spent the last couple of days putting bay leaves and whole cloves in dresser drawers, closets, and corners because of the ant infestation here. I’m terrified they are nesting in the walls and under the carpet. And they are teaming up with the mice that sneak in. Nightmares. Yeah, time to burn the house. After i check with the SO to make sure he has insurance… ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2008, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-raining-maggots-in-my-house/452311/65 "2008-06-11T03:16:02Z")
Nonono. Ants need - nay, DESERVE! - Terro. All over! Multiple vectors of death! It’s the only way to make sure. Don’t ward off when you can kill. For those wondering, following the the Evening of Roaches four things happened: 1. The dog food was properly moved and contained. 2. The house got thoroughly roach-bombed. 3. Twice. 4. I was “immunized”. A roach here or there didn’t bother me at all; they were just appropriately squished. With glee. But the “palmetto bug” thing…that confuses me. See, down there was another VERY large roach-like bug with an exoskeleton like leather. You couldn’t just step on them to kill them, like you can with roaches; they required a two-step approach: Step, twist. I thought THOSE things were palmetto bugs. But they never swarmed like the “roaches” in the dog food incident did; they just showed up now and again, like the dog-killing toads. What bug was that? ---
**Author:** ![Taters](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/taters/32/2845_2.png) [@Taters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taters)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2008, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-raining-maggots-in-my-house/452311/66 "2008-06-11T03:38:09Z")
Okay, I’m not normally too squeamish a person, but I am well and truly squicked out. But the the thing that got me the most? Roaches…_bite?!_ :eek: Roaches are not common here, in fact, I’ve never seen one here in the PNW. I’ve seen them at the zoo and I’ve seen those big flying roach thingies in Louisiana. In fact, I was totally unnerved by those things. It was the first time I’d ever seen a roach outside a zoo. Sorry, no gross stories to share. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2008, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-raining-maggots-in-my-house/452311/67 "2008-06-11T04:08:54Z")
[QUOTE=chique] … But the “palmetto bug” thing…that confuses me. See, down there was another VERY large roach-like bug with an exoskeleton like leather. You couldn’t just step on them to kill them, like you can with roaches; they required a two-step approach: Step, twist. I thought THOSE things were palmetto bugs. But they never swarmed like the “roaches” in the dog food incident did; they just showed up now and again, like the dog-killing toads. What bug was that? [/QUOTE] I’m guessing you mean a [woods roach](http://www.hulett-es.com/floridawoods_roach.html). I usually see these outside in leaf litter and stuff like that. They are rather flattened so if you try to just squish them it doesn’t work. My mother once mistakenly called these Wood Burning Roaches, so in my family that name stuck. From what I understand a palmetto bug is the same thing as a cockroach. Check out the other links at that site for more info on the other roaches … if you dare. ---
**Author:** ![3acresandatruck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/e79b87/32.png) [@3acresandatruck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3acresandatruck)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2008, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-raining-maggots-in-my-house/452311/68 "2008-06-11T04:16:59Z")
[QUOTE=Taters] Roaches…_bite?!_ :eek: [/QUOTE] What, you don’t trust me? I’m shattered. From [Google cache of a page by J. Kunkel of the UMass biology department (I couldn’t get the page to load)](http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:fbqt-SRtz90J:www.bio.umass.edu/biology/kunkel/cockroach_faq.html+cockroach+bite&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us) > [@](#): > > Q7: I read a newspaper article about children taken to the hospital with cockroach bites. Do cockroaches bite humans? > A: The cockroach is an omnivore, that is, it eats everything edible, animal and vegetable. So if we do not move around too much while sleeping they might be inclined to nibble on our earlobes at night. They are rarely aggressive enough to attack us while we are awake. When visiting Tulane University in New Orleans many years ago I slept in a dormitory room and cockroaches were flying down from the ceiling onto my head. I would guess that these large American cockroaches, _Periplaneta americana_, would be capable of taking a good bite out of me. Only the larger species could take a bite through our skin. Of course the skin of children is much more tender and vulnerable to a roach bite. One thing that was odd was that there were three other kids in the house and two adults; I was the only one getting bit. My parents kept a clean house, but we lived across the street from a river channel that had been converted to take sewer overflow from St. Louis. The rats were HUGE (well, at least the big ones were), but I only saw one on our side of the street once. ---
**Author:** ![Taters](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/taters/32/2845_2.png) [@Taters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taters)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2008, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-raining-maggots-in-my-house/452311/69 "2008-06-11T04:24:23Z")
Oh, I believed you **3acres,** I just didn’t realize they bit us. It’s perfectly logical that they would bite humans, but I guess my mind just didn’t want to wrap itself around that little tidbit of info. Even more reason to stay here in the PNW. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2008, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-raining-maggots-in-my-house/452311/70 "2008-06-11T14:03:14Z")
My aunt calls those flat roachy things out in the woods “wood roaches”, I don’t know if that’s a real name or not. A palmetto bug is a big flying roach, one and the same. Don’t listen to anybody who argues about it. It goes like this: YOU have roaches because you are unclean and your house is filthy. I have palmetto bugs because they come in from the outside. Got it? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2008, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-raining-maggots-in-my-house/452311/71 "2008-06-11T14:18:08Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] My aunt calls those flat roachy things out in the woods “wood roaches”, I don’t know if that’s a real name or not. A palmetto bug is a big flying roach, one and the same. Don’t listen to anybody who argues about it. It goes like this: YOU have roaches because you are unclean and your house is filthy. I have palmetto bugs because they come in from the outside. Got it? 🙂 [/QUOTE] _Cough_ Post #67. I even provided links with pictures. 😛 Are people afraid to click links in a thread about maggots? I hate the big flying cockroaches but I think I actually hate the little German ones more because they always hang around the kitchen and get into everything, including your appliances. They are really hard to get rid of. By the way, I’d like to plug the Hot Shot Ultra Liquid Roach Bait. It works on the theory that they can actually go longer without eating than without drinking so they are attracted to liquid more than to bait. I tried this stuff and have been seeing dead roaches off all varieties all over the place. They had all come in from the outside, of course. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![3acresandatruck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/e79b87/32.png) [@3acresandatruck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3acresandatruck)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2008, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-raining-maggots-in-my-house/452311/72 "2008-06-11T15:03:31Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] It goes like this: YOU have roaches because you are unclean and your house is filthy. I have palmetto bugs because they come in from the outside. Got it? 🙂 [/QUOTE] Ha ha, yeah… That was the underlying thought which compelled me to point out that my parents kept a clean house. Sure, I was getting bit, but I don’t want anybody thinking they were slobs or something. [QUOTE=Wile E] I think I actually hate the little German ones more because they always hang around the kitchen and get into everything, including your appliances. They are really hard to get rid of. [/QUOTE] A long time ago (back when telephones had actual bells in them for ringing), I worked at a storefront where people turned in their old telephones. We’d put each phone into a plastic bag and seal it, because most the phones had German cockroaches in them. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2008, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-raining-maggots-in-my-house/452311/73 "2008-06-11T15:07:42Z")
[QUOTE=3acresandatruck] … A long time ago (back when telephones had actual bells in them for ringing), I worked at a storefront where people turned in their old telephones. We’d put each phone into a plastic bag and seal it, because most the phones had German cockroaches in them. [/QUOTE] When I was a kid my father had a company car from work that he used. The previous user probably left food in the car (not my father, he was meticulous) because the car was infested with the German roaches. He’d spray and clean the car but never got rid of them. We’d refuse to ride in that car at night because that’s when they’d come out and run around. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-raining-maggots-in-my-house/452311/74 "2008-06-12T01:14:11Z")
[QUOTE=Wile E] By the way, I’d like to plug the Hot Shot Ultra Liquid Roach Bait. It works on the theory that they can actually go longer without eating than without drinking so they are attracted to liquid more than to bait. [/QUOTE] I’m glad it’s working, but I’m not sure about the liquid part. IIRC from one of my kids’ favorite gross bug programs, if you chop the head off a cockroach it won’t die right away. It will take about a month to die of thirst… :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: 😃 ETA- but maybe that just means that they can go _forever_ without food… ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-raining-maggots-in-my-house/452311/75 "2008-06-12T04:42:29Z")
[QUOTE=EJsGirl] I’m glad it’s working, but I’m not sure about the liquid part. IIRC from one of my kids’ favorite gross bug programs, if you chop the head off a cockroach it won’t die right away. It will take about a month to die of thirst… :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: 😃 ETA- but maybe that just means that they can go _forever_ without food… [/QUOTE] If you search the web you will find conflicting reports, but the literature on the bait said a month without food and 7 days without water. However, that’s only if they don’t have access to anything. If it’s there and handy they will drink or eat it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-raining-maggots-in-my-house/452311.md?page=3)