Bug Misconceptions

Some of the myths that we read about in The Earwig’s Tail I had never heard of before, but some of the myths were all too familiar. The myth about the tongue cockroach wasn’t a myth in my family: IT WAS TRUTH. Ever since I was little my mom warned me and the rest of my siblings not to lick envelopes and I believed this myth to be true until I took this class. My family and I used the little sponges at the post office to seal our envelopes and the fact that we are all from California further solidified this myth as truth to us. The discussion in class made me realize that we’re all silly, especially when someone mention that cockroaches laid their eggs in egg sacs that would be totally visible to the naked eye. Another myth that was familiar to both me and my family was the myth about the Iraqi Camel Spider. My brother was stationed in Afghanistan two years ago and right before he left, he voiced his concerns about the spiders. I found on a wiki page (which probably wasn’t the smartest source to use) that they scream and cartwheel after their prey at rapid speeds. I also read that they attack camels, but all this was proven untrue today. I was surprised to learn that they technically aren’t even spiders.

A bug related myth that I discovered on the internet was similar to the story about the cockroaches. A woman was sunbathing on the beach and thought she felt something on her face. She swatted her face and didn’t find anything. Weeks after her beach trip, she began to develop a pimple that grew bigger and bigger every day until one day the pimple exploded. Out of the pimple exploded a combination of pus and baby spiders. I feel like this would be untrue because of the whole egg sac part. That wouldn’t be able to go under someone’s skin.