The Compleat Cockroach

[KnightinGale]

Has anyone ever read this book? A friend saw it at the library and thought I'd want to read it. It is hardly complete from a hobbyists perspective but it covers all sorts of great roach facts and trivia, on the good and bad sides of human perspective.
For instance, the earliest written remedy for Cockroach infestations is found in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. It begins "Be far from me, o vile cockroach, for I am tha God Khnum!"
Oh, and that whole cockroaches surviving nuclear war thing? Well, a human will sustain cellular damage at a dose of 300 rads. 400-1000 over two or three weeks is lethal. Experiments from the 60s have shown that German cockroaches (adults and nymphs) can survive doses of 6400. Some even made it to 9600. So they could certainly survive a nuclear war with bombs like the one dropped on Hiroshima. Of course, now they've made much bigger and nastier bombs....
Anyway, lots of interesting and amusing stuff in there. Fun read if you happen to see it.

 

[cacoseraph]

compleat means something else. it's like full or healthy or something

haven't read it, though

 

[KnightinGale]

It can be used in a couple different ways. "Quintessential" would be a good synonym for the most common one. That's why I didn't use that spelling when I was talking about how comprehensive it was. I could have expressed myself more clearly. Mostly I just wanted to clarify that it wasn't a book written for the hobbyist, so one will find lots of cool stuff in it, but not, say, a full care guide for various species. Instead, there is a wider range of cockroach-related topics...which is also cool.
In his introduction, the author mentions that the book isn't complete, but is compleat in the sense that it is "as thorough and well ordered" as a first edition is likely to be. I imagine he also liked the alliteration.

 

[Rue]

I read it several years ago...fun read!

I thought compleat was the archaic spelling of complete. Same word, same meaning...

 

[Matt K]

That book is awful.

If you really want a "complete" cockroach book, this is the real deal:

Cockroaches: Ecology, Behavior, and Natural History
by William J. Bell, Christine A. Nalepa, Louis M. Roth, Edward O. Wilson

Link to where to find it or see it:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Co...e/9780801886164/?itm=11&USRI=cockroaches#TABS

If you like bugs at all, it is completely worth having. One of my three most valued books.

 

[KnightinGale]

Aw, I thought it was fun. Certainly more along the trivia line of things rather than any serious education, but it certainly amused me for a day or two and was a nice surprise to have brought back for me from the library. I am writing down the book you mentioned though, as I would certainly enjoy reading it as well. That would be the type of book I would buy rather than having no qualms about returning it to the library.
Rue: True, compleat is the archaic spelling of complete, but many words change meanings in subtle ways over the course of a couple centuries. Some of them change spellings as well and some of them don't. "Nice" for instance used to mean something more along the lines of "precise". So you could sort of say that compleat evolved into complete. They are not two seperate words, but nor is complete quite the same word it used to be.

Cheers,
KnightinGale