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zenmodo

Palmetto Bugs

zenmodo
14 years ago

A year ago i was in my home office at around 1:00am finising a proposal. I glanced up and noticed a huged PB on the wall about a foot from the ceiling. My wife and 2 year old were asleep- so i muffled my shriek... as I am scared of only one thing in the world... the word I will not say but can write- ROACHES- especially huge ones.

My office is somewhat cluttered, it also has guitar equipment and amps lining the floor by the walls- I swatted the thing down and of course he was hiding out behind one of these. Obviously I couldn't go to bed as i knew IT was still alive. Shoe in hand I cautiously looked behind each thing and as soon as i saw it- he scuttled to the next spot. I chased that beastard for 30 minutes finally hammering him with my shoe- all the while trying not to scream. I go into the bathroom to get a wad of kleenex to pick him up with and perform the coup de grace- the crunch grip of death before sending him to the sewer via flush- I come back and he's limping toward me- (I swear this time he had a knife). I hammered him again- picked him up and transported him to the bathroom and tossed him into the hopper.

Exhausted- exasperated I recoiled and attempted to regain my sanity- 10 minutes and 3 fingers of Tequila later I stumbled into the bathroom realizing I hadn't flushed the commode. Eager to send my enemy to the fishy deep- I raised the lid of the commode- and screeched in horror like a school girl- Little did I realize my son's potty seat was on the commode top- i had tossed the wadded mass with enclosed seemingly dead bug in their- and the size of the wadded kleenex was large enough to not be able to clear the seat- The D@MN thing was wriggling out of the kleenex- not dead yet!!!!

I reached for a clorox spray solution under the cabinet then followed up with a shot of Lysol for good measure. I flushed the mess- slowly got myself together- I sat in bed shivering for hours before I fell asleep.

I would rather confront a prowler who broke into my house than one of these things!

Comments (3)

  • karma4111
    14 years ago

    Know the feeling and I was a cop for 10 years! One of my fondest (yes I'm being sarcastic) memories from my Florida childhood haapened due to a palmetto bug... and let me tell you we actually had palmetto bushes. One that was about 2 inches long was crawling up the side of my parents entertainment cabinet one night when it was just me and my mom. I went for a broom to kill it and my mom, unknowingly by me went for the Raid. Anyone that knows anything about Palmetto bugs knows that they are not effected by sprays. Next thing I know is that I see her about to spray the bug and I scream NOOOOOOOOOOOO! She sprays anyway. Why did I scream Noooooooooooooo! Because Florida Palmetto bugs FLY!!!!!!!!! Imagine a bug flying at you that is the size of a Hummingbird. Anyway thank God I had the broom, because I swatted it out of the sky and bludgeoned it to death! Fun, not!

  • justin_walker
    14 years ago

    And they seem to be realy loving the wet weather this year, every time I go out on the deck to smoke they scurry into the spaces between the boards. I don't go outside barefoot much any more.

  • mk87
    14 years ago

    LOL We haven't seen any yet this year (of course, that just means there'll be one that crosses my path tonight), but they are tenacious critters. I think we all have a horror story...

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