The Cockroach That Wouldn't Die

Barf Stew picks up on Jason Offutt's post about a giant bug, which I commented on the other day. The story reminded me of an urban legend I heard when I was in my late teens, early twenties. I was living in L.A. The story was told to me with all seriousness, most of us believed it at the time, including me! The story:

Scientists at UCLA were studying pesticides. Cockroaches taking over L.A. was a concern. So they had a cockroach the literal size of a poodle; kept in a glass cage. Success! Now they could breed the giant cockroaches to test their cockroach killing inventions. But no matter how much of the stuff they sprayed this poodle sized bug with, it wouldn't die. Finally, worried that the cockroach would escape, the scientists had to resort to shooting the thing with a gun.