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Nobody wants to stumble across a cockroach in their home, as the insects can carry a variety of diseases and are notoriously difficult to kill. However, one man in Japan went a bit too far in an attempt to irradicate a single bug he discovered in his apartment.
I normally opt for the “smash a cockroach with a heavy object” route when I encounter one of those pests, but plenty of people choose to pick up a can of insecticide while attempting to deal with them. However, it turns out that approach can have some dire consequences if you don’t know what you’re doing.
According to The Straits Times, a 54-year-old man in the Japanese city of Kumamoto recently came across a solitary cockroach in his apartment located on the island of Kyushu in the middle of the night on December 10th. He decided to go with the “spray a bunch of roach killer all over the place” strategy, but it literally backfired in a big way.
According to a police report, the guy suffered minor injuries when an explosion that was large enough to shatter the window of his balcony erupted in the apartment around a minute after he deployed the spray.
The combustible nature of insecticide means it can be triggered by simply being sprayed in sizeable quantities near an electrical outlet, although this particular case seemed to be traced back to a kotatsu (a heating table that is frequently used to warm residences in Japan).
The outlet reports Japan’s National Consumer Affairs Centre says this isn’t the first time it’s happened in the country, and similar incidents have been reported across the globe. As a result, you might want to think twice before you decide to pick up a can of roach killer when a shoe will do.