My son calmly announced at breakfast the other day that a ‘cockaroach’ (his pronunciation, which I prefer) can live for up to a month without a head. I quickly looked around for the source of this inspired bit o’ breakfast wisdom, and was relieved that it seemed to be an insect-y non-sequitor.
I really need to talk to my sister-in-law about the “Gross Facts About Bugs” book that she sent Nicky for Christmas. The cockaroach factoid was not a big deal, but my son’s over-arching squeamishness with respect to flies is getting out of hand.
“MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can’t eat this! A fly just landed on it!”
“uh, well, it’s gone now… just eat your sandwich.”
“MOM!!!!!!! DON’T YOU KNOW THAT FLIES PUKE ON YOUR FOOD IN ORDER TO EAT IT????”
“uh, no, I didn’t know that. Thanks, Aunt Debbie.”
sigh… Whatever happened to boys that actually ate flies? My son is disgusted by flies and will not eat if he sees one zooming around. God forbid one lands on his food – all bets are off as to whether he’ll eat again that day.
By the way, the world’s largest cockroach grows up to six inches long – with a twelve inch wingspan. Good news: it lives in South America.