Just wondering - what is the purpose of cockroaches?

[begin_within]

[BigMcLargehuge]

1. to make more cockroaches

[rustydog]

29. They make Republicans somewhat palatable as a lifeform

[mwdem]

2. since moving to Texas a couple of months ago, I really want to know.

[SeattleGirl]

13. Wanna hear my Texas cochroach story?

Here you are (even if you don't wanna hear it!):

I lived in Ft. Worth in the mid-70's. Lived in a two-story house divided into 4 apartments. At one point, it got so bad you could hear the herds of them running for cover when I'd head to the kitchen. We kept our place spotless, as did the folks next door, and the folks in the back apartment. The woman upstairs was pretty stand-offish, so it was hard to talk to her about it. The three lower-apartment dwellers got together and sent the landlord a letter saying either HE could hire an exterminator, or we would and deduct the cost from the rent.

He relented, and the exterminators came out. What they found when they went to the upstairs apartment was just awful. The woman who lived there had an old steamer trunk filled with newspapers and cockroaches! That was the source. Ugh! The worst part was she had a little two-year-old living in that place, which, in addition to the cockroaches, was totally filthy. The woman turned out to be a bit nutty. The authorities were called, the boy went to live with his daddy, and the mother was taken away. (I really hope she got help.)

Anyway, I HATE cockroaches!

[Dark]

3. To carry on after we nuke ourselves into oblivion. n/t

[Wetzelbill]

4. to hang out with Dick Cheney when all other mortal beings

have been eviscerated from earth by a nuclear holocaust.

[Elidor]

5. Crunchy snack during nuclear winter

Mmmmm.

[nickgutierrez]

6. Something to compare Republicans to?

:shrug:

[peekaloo]

24. along that line...something for republicans to aspire to.

:o

[BreweryYardRat]

7. To eat decaying organic stuff.

And piss people off/gross them out.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

8. to make me run out of the bathroom

undressed...screaming!

happened all summer in india...

thankfully my friends are used to this by now

[ghostsofgiants]

16. Suddenly cockroaches are a little less icky...

:P

[Omphaloskepsis]

19. Wait until they discover the human mouth..

Is a fantastic source of liquid.. Wake up with a mouthful of the damn things. Just fucking wow.. That is very bad.. Sleeping with the lights on can prevent this.

[ghostsofgiants]

21. Haha, and this is why I'm glad there are none on this island.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

9. Bird food.

And to carry diseases that are harmful to overpopulated species like people.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. In Florida they are

palmettos (sp?)

[aePrime]

11. They are really efficient DNA carriers

And all DNA really cares about is replicating.

[skoppa]

12. To be able to survive nuclear blasts??

[Seabiscuit]

14. Their purpose is to be meek. And then inherit the earth.

[Seabiscuit]

15. To keep Scooter company in jail.

[China_cat]

17. Diversion from Bush admin tactics.

[khashka]

18. To make us humble

Ever touch one? They can't get clean fast enough - they think we are icky and dirty.

(Actually, now I live in TX and can observe them closely, I think they might be a superior species - complex behaviour, complex social structure, and much hardier than we are - they're fascinating.)

Khash, the bug boy.

[hfojvt]

26. much hardier?

Ever stepped on one? They are not that hardy. They are only hardy like the dandylion because they produce brazillions of babies. Which is how they would survive radiation poisoning. 99.44% of them would die, but the rest would re-populate the planet, and in just a few hundred years.

[realisticphish]

28. you ever been stepped on

by something about a million times your weight?

[hfojvt]

30. is that an offer?

:P

[realisticphish]

31. yep

next time you visit your mom, she'll help you out there :P

[hfojvt]

32. you know my mom's dead, don't you?

:cry:
She was killed by a Texas cockroach that fell off an airplane.

[realisticphish]

33. i suppose

the roach could pick up enough airspeed to make that work :shrug:

by the way, was the culprit riding in first class, or roach? *rimshot*

[khashka]

34. Hardier in the sense of the species

not the individual.

Khash.

[hfojvt]

35. if you step on fleas or ticks

they will just laugh at you.
However, fleas do not swim very well, and a tick will not survive a hammer blow when it is standing on concrete.
The hardiness of their species comes from their fecundicity.

[baldguy]

20. They don't need a purpose, they just are!

They're the Republicans of the insect world.



Ain't he cute?

[Deep13]

22. surival, just like our purpose

[RedCloud]

23. Two ways to do in cockroaches:

1) Take some bay leaves. Dip in water with baking powder. Leave in conspicuous places. Roaches love the smell of wet bay leaves. They eat. Then the baking powder starts to expand and KAPOW! Soon their so called buddies come along the blown up corpse of their pal who smells like bay leaves, so they eat him and then the baking powder again starts to expand and KAPOW! You will find their corpses in many places.

2) The cockroach parasite. Whilst living in a tropical paradise, I thought to myself, I have got to stop drinking so much. (This part I now have down to zero!) I saw a bright green metallic bug flying around. It was so fake looking I thought it was either some high tech toy or I was under the influence. It landed on a wall. It searched for a hole. Then it went around and discovered one of those large flying cockroaches. It took it into the hole. Then emerged a few minutes later.

This parasite deposits its eggs inside of the larger cockroaches and a few days later, KAPOW!

Now before the cockroach lovers of the world get after me, let me tell you that in the tropics you can step on some of the larger ones and they survive! Albeit a dreary existence, having to hobble around with a skull bashed in and some dented antennae..

[Deep13]

25. They keep henroaches company.

[bertha katzenengel]

27. to terrify and infuriate me!

:scared: