Sorry, kiddo - didn't mean to alarm ya.
No, I remember them being much bigger than an inch and a half. I'll tell you this, too - that BBC article saying the worlds biggest roach is 4" long? Those guys have never lived in New York. I was in a department store (tagging along, not on my own) - a Filene's Basement, and I saw the biggest roach I've ever seen. They were doing inventory and dragging all these boxes out of a back storeroom, and this monster crawled out from behind the boxes. It was as long as a palmetto bug, but as big around as a mouse. I swear this thing could eat a mouse if it wanted to. Biggest bug I ever saw.
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After looking at the 'WhatsThatBug' site, I wonder if the ones I thought were palmetto bugs were something else. Maybe a central American roach? Either way, they're freaking disgusting.
...
"This cockroach seems to inspire more exaggeration than any other; in spite of what anyone says, however, adult American Cockroaches in our area rarely exceed 2 inches in length from the front of the head shield to the wing tips. ( In Florida there is a much larger cockroach, known as the Palmetto cockroach, Blaberus craniifer, which measures up to 3 inches in length.)"
...
But above that it says palmetto bugs
are American cockroaches.
So I only exagerated by a factor of two, apparently, although their measurement doesn't include antenna. (I'm a tellin' ya it was a foot if it was an inch.)
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