It’s safe to say that having insects running around your home is far from ideal, but one man learned the hard way that insecticide may not always be the way to get rid of them.
Of course, we all know the nice thing to do is to let the bug you do find free into the outside world, though many people do decide to try and kill the critter.
Perhaps this latest story is a reason to not end the life of an innocent bug though, as a man astonishingly blew up his own apartment trying to kill a cockroach with insecticide.
Officials have said the Japanese citizen was trying to kill just a single cockroach when it inadvertently turned into a firebug – ouch.
The unfortunate incident was reported early on Sunday (10 December) in the city of Kumamoto on the island of Kyushu.
Shortly before midnight, the man spotted a cockroach inside his apartment and knew it immediately had to go.
The Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reported that the 54-year-old man sprayed a massive amount of insecticide in an attempt to wipe out the critter.
However, things did not exactly go to plan.
Just a minute after the man tried to kill the cockroach, an explosion went off, subsequently blowing out a balcony window.
Not only that, but police also said that the extremely unfortunate incident led to the man sustaining a minor injury.
Certainly an embarrassing moment, but at least he made it out all in one piece, eh?
A subsequent investigation into the explosion uncovered burn marks near the victim’s kotatsu – a Japanese heating table.
While this incident may sound pretty random, the National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan said it has received multiple reports of explosions that have been linked with insecticide being sprayed on critters near electrical outlets.
Philip Koehler, an emeritus professor of entomology at the University of Florida, wrote in a publication for the university in 2022: “Applying liquid sprays in certain areas may be extremely hazardous.
“For example, electrical outlets, motors, or exposed wiring pose a potential threat of electrical shock to persons applying water-based pesticide sprays. Pilot lights and gas flames from heaters and appliances may ignite flammable petroleum-based pesticides.”
In the US, a woman in Cincinnati, Ohio, burnt her entire house down after using rubbing alcohol near an open flame in an attempt to calm a bed bug infestation.
Other stories have also been reported in the US, with one 13-year-old being left homeless due to a similar incident.
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