Attack of the Mutant Giant Madagascar Cockroaches

Our readers write back - Great article....... I lived through that #$%!@ back in '74.. My little brother in law caught one and it was just short of FOUR inches......

Who done it?

The US Army Natick Laboratory is home to America's hardest-working Cold War and post-Cold War researchers. The Labs has performed studies related to conventional and nuclear battlefield soldier survivability including:

• personal protective gear
• rations
• chemical/biological threats
• remote battlefield wound detection
• environmental impacts of unexploded ordnance (I can think of one)
• radiation studies on various animals and insects (like cockroaches)
• dry cleaning
• air dropping & logistics

This installation has also led the way in the search for anti-nuke sunscreens for pigs, radioactive dog food, and the famous Meals-Ready-to-Eat, or MREs. It was a repository for more than 3.2 megacuries of radioactive material (that's equal to 3,200 kilograms of pure radium), and incineration of chemical warfare research and mustard gas wastes in downtown Natick, Mass.

The Labs and its nearby sudbury annex also had a few spills from dropping countless large objects from its onsite tower which is used to simulate parachute drops, and from driving tanks over plastic 500 gallon bladders filled with fuel. (oops)

Cold War Cockroaches

Most importantly for our story, this base carried out secret experiments in the attempted destruction by radiation (ultraviolet and other forms) of our little friends, the cockroaches. For these and other activities, and especially the dry cleaning (?!), the Command is now a major Superfund hazardous waste disposal site.

In the 1960's and 70's the Labs disposed of thousands of giant Madagascar hissing cockroaches that had apparently already served their purpose. They did this by shovelling them into plastic garbage bags and adding some carbon tetrachloride. The Labs then paid some truck driver about $4.75 a truckload to cart them to the local Natick, MA town dump. It's too bad that the Army forgot that carbon tetrachloride dissolves plastic bags, and seemingly didn't know that these particular cockroaches had eggs sacs which were not particularly bothered by carbon tet.

Cockroach Corners

With the coming of a dry winter, these tough little buggers migrated into area homes. The giant army roaches proved to be immune to the usual pesticides such as chlordane. Picture the hysterical housewife carpet-bombing the little buggers with Raid (TM), only to watch them pitter patter off unaffected. Because of their size, nieghbors of the dump referred to the cockroaches as "turtle bugs." The afflicted neighborhood soon became known as "Cockroach Corners."

Perhaps the best description of what it was like to live in Cockroach Corners comes from a local librarian who notes, "One poor woman was pouring a box of cereal into her kids' bowls when two hissing 4 inch cockroaches came riding out with the flow of cereal and straight onto the table."

Roaches as Weapons

The Board of Health Director declared that the roaches were not a threat, but merely a nuisance. Angry townspeople in turn threatened the health director, saying that they would dump cockroach egg cases in his home mail slot if he didn't take their troubles more seriously. The egg cases were the size and color of an apple seed, except they were broader where an apple seed would have a point, and the egg cases had a tiny fringe. In essence they were small and hard to notice, therefor they were a truly "stealthy" weapon.

Although free chlordane spraying was offered, by the time a housewife emptied her shelves for the third application, people were getting a little annoyed with the lack of progress. In a recent interview the Army's post exterminator told this author that the only real way to kill those roaches was to "Splat'em with a hammer."

DDT to the Rescue

After much denial the Army provided a "white powder", guaranteed to do the job, to anyone who came to the post with an empty bucket. Citizens were told that the stuff was safe, but that they ought to send their kids and pets on a one to two week vacation after using it. Local pundits publically bemoaned the scourge of environmentalists who made the aquisition of manly pesticides like DDT so difficult.

More recently some of the strongest proponents of DDT use now regret how long it has taken songbirds to recover from the massive spraying program. The same folks note that the bluebirds have yet to return.

Battle in the Sewers

A town-sponsored spraying of all affected streets and the dump itself with chlordane went on daily for six months. Residents living in the affected area were told that many of the sprayings would be done with DDT, once again provided by the Army. Applicators working for the town used no protective gear. The town also feared that the use of DDT would drive the bugs further into unaffected areas, so workers sprayed more DDT into the sewers begining in the downtown area and working west toward the dump.

Whether by magic white powder or massive deployment of lethal iron bug flatteners, in March of 1975, nine months after it began, the attack of the Mutant Giant Madagascan Hissing Cockroaches was over.

The following text comes from the Sunday June 13, 1999 Edition of the Boston Globe, Metro West section

"Records available about the military facility show it ran some unusual experiments, Kaltofen said.

Lab scientists in the 1960s tested the effect of the sun's burning rays on skin by erecting a large solar mirror in the sky and directing it at live pigs, (Facility Restoration Officer John) McHugh said.

The Army also worked with flying cockroaches, something many people on and off the facility probably regret.

The Army used the roaches, who some say were giant Madagascar hissing cockroaches and others American cockroaches, for basic pest research, McHugh said. After the Army finished with them, it scooped them into garbage bags with insecticide and carted the bags off to the Natick dump. In 1974, some cockroaches wintered over in the warmth of the landfill, and the insecticide slowly ate away the plastic bags, (Local Board of health Director Roger) Wade said.

''They were really large'' by the time the insects made it into nearby homes, Wade said. New on the job at the time, Wade was recruited to help kill the roaches with insecticides, which eventually worked, he said.

At first, the Army denied the cockroaches were from the Army labs, Miller said. Wade said it later paid for the cleanup. [M. Kaltofen note - As recently as March 19, 2000 a former Natick Labs scientist, now 82 years old, denied the Army's involvement in Natick's cockroach plague in a Metrowest Daily News interview.]

Even after the roach problem, much of the public in Natick considered the labs a great neighbor, Miller said.

Then, about 10 years ago, workers discovered benzene in soil at the facility during construction of a gymnasium. The state Department of Environmental Protection launched an investigation, and numerous toxic sites and contaminated ground water were discovered." © Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company

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