Nintendo Wii said to 'attract cockroaches'

If you’re not a fan of creepy crawlies then you may want to turn your Wii off. The latest theory crawling through the gaming world is that the console actively attracts cockroaches. Wii_cockroach Is your Wii attracting cockroaches? Image courtesy Foureyesjokeshop.com The theory can be traced back to Japanese-language …

[Anonymous Coward]

No.

Cocks love the PS3.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Students need not apply

Hehe u just made me remember my first year kitchen, now that was something else. I believe that if it wasn't for the fact we were on the 21st floor we would have been infested quite badly

[Dan Collett]

COCKroahces!

Hmmmm me thinks you have accidentaly read the wrong report. The word raoches shouldnt have been included

[Liam]

in reply to #1

i have to admit i love my ps3 - the wii is just gaining dust now...

i really dont understand all the sony bashing - its a bloody brilliant console at a fraction of the price it would cost to build a pc that could run games 1/2 as well. (i mean my gfx card in the pc cost almost 400£)

oh well - i guess no intellect or age restrictions are required on this site. funny how all the gobby ones on here have no backbone and remain anonymous isnt it.... bullied at school? :)

[Anonymous Coward]

price point

Surely given the price point compared to gaming pc's/other current consoles, your just more likely to live in a substandard, pest-riddled hell hole than those with the cash for a more expensive device.

I've got many high end gaming PCs which I use for my gaming needs, however I got a Wii in one of Amazons 3 minute long RRP stock releases last month just so I could ruin Christmas for a poor family. I haven't even turned it on yet, maybe that's why I haven't got cockroaches so far.

What a stroke of serendipity for the grubby wide eyed potato-sack-wearing tykes who's Wii I snatched, if this devil box truly would have brought a swarm of locusts down upon them.

[Anonymous Coward]

As a wii owner

I've only noticed it attracting my Girlfriend's 8 year old sister, who usually completes every game I own, before I've even noticed she's switched it on.

At least a roach wouldn't humilliate everyone else who plays it.

[Tom Haczewski]

Roaches

Methinks it's a brand-smearing ploy by Sony. Reminds me of a certain line in Anchorman...

"I've heard their periods attract bears. The bears can smell the menstruation!"

Hmmmm.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh come on..

..that's like saying parliament attracts idio..... oh

[Anonymous Coward]

err, well shouldnt the

game cube do the same? since the Wii is basically a game cube - or whatever the last the last thing was from nintendont?

[Morely Dotes]

All warm, dark places

It's not just the Wii. If you are a sloppy housekeeper (or if you live in an apartment, if your neighbor is a pig), roaches will get into your Wii, your TV set, your Hifi, and pretty much any other warm, dark place they can find.

Which may explain why buttplugs were invented.

[Eugene Goodrich]

Isn't this why we have the scientific method?

Can't someone just test this? It's not like the requisite components are difficult to get. Cockroaches, and ... oh. Yeah, might take a while to put this test together after all.

[Anonymous Coward]

You learn something every day

"Cockroaches aren’t known for their superior hearing abilities, mainly because they don’t have any eardrums" - I'm glad I read The Register. I wouldn't have known that otherwise. Does this mean that water goes straight into their brains?

[Marty]

bug hunt

lol, I hope that it is true... it would be so funny....

i can see it now, govermnent departments springing up everywhere to test the "roach factor (RF)" of all new electrical devices.

you can see the adverts in the shop.... Wii, now with 3 including bug hunt, way or the roach and roach racing... and a lifetime supply of 'Roach motels'

[Register Reader]

Roaches?

Have never seen any roaches near my Wii. In fact I've hardly ever seen any in Scotland, full stop.. :P

Anyway if they want to have a bit of a go at Wii Sports while I'm sleeping, who am I to complain? Greenpeace might not be too happy though.

[Bo Pedersen]

well I am not afraid to put my name to a post :)

I can only say to anyone having a go at the wii is they are failing to spot the obvious

because the wii isnt a spotty geek loner console , and actually brings the family and friends together, Maybe its the housework that just doesnt get done ? :)

Each console has its merits, and yes while the wii is an expanded gamecube, that just means there is a whole host of games that I can buy for it already.

the playstation is probably also a great console, as the xbox probably is. I dont own them so I cannot pass judgement without proper playtesting.

so play nice people :)

[Alex]

Ever watch Dirty Jobs on Discovery Channel?

When Mike tagged along with an exterminator for a day at an infested trailer, the guy mentioned that the roaches are attracted to most electronic equipment. To prove his point, he picked up the cordless phone base and rapped it against the counter top a few times.

I couldn't believe the number creepy crawly bits that scrabbled out for safety. Seems the brown flecks by the speaker was a buildup of roach shit, too.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not just the Wii

I suspect the same applies to any gadget James is hiding his bitterness about not being able to get for Christmas.

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously

Been spending (wasting ?) last 10 years working in a very small pest control company in Switzerland.

Jokes apart, we're facing more and more cases of Supella Longipalpa in my small area of work, say, not too far from Geneva. That particuliar specy has the rare ability, contrary to most common cockroaches, to live happily in dry places.

You easily find them in buildings more than 20 meters away from a water source, and they really like a lot of electronical devices : phones, TV or computer screens, printers, fax, etc.

Put yourself for a minute in a roach's mind, and think where to go to relax, knowing you like it dark, at a temperature ideally between 25 and 32 celsius, just enough space to feel you can move but not enough to let bigger predators reach you...

But you really dislike wind. No air movement please ! And, if possible, no mechanical vibrations either...

This leads me to my only true interest about Wii consoles : do they have a fan ?

No fan, good place for that roach.

For the record, since it's usually not in the technology's history lessons...

When the PTT (Post Telephon Telegraph) used to be a state monopoly, you had to rent your telephone station with your phone line. Broken, those phones were mended by the PTT. And at those times, that was a nice infestation vector...

Anyone see an IT aspect there, something along the line of a monopoly spreading bugs... ?

[Herby]

Game consoles attracting "roaches"??

According to http://www.thefreedictionary.com/roach item 2, definition #2, it is "Slang The butt of a marijuana cigarette.". I suspect that these ARE attracted by all sorts of game players.

On the other hand the animal types of "roaches" are attracted to anything "nice and warm" which a game console certainly qualifies as (see "dirty jobs" entry above).

[Smitty Werben Jueger Man Jenson]

@ Seriously

Wiis do in fact have a fan. A quiet one, but a fan none the less.

[dek]

Ha Ha

So, in a typical home environment, these roaches trek how far? and past how many devices? and have amazing frequency filtering abilities? Hey maybe, just maybe, they like millions of humans are voting with their feet and are avoiding the bloated regurgitated expensive crap and looking for a modicum of originality and basic game play. Heh? This story is about as believable as Sony claiming to be "consumer friendly".

[Anonymous Coward]

dusty wii

It seems on every wii thread there are people making the 'gathering dust' comment.

Maybe if the dirty fuckers actually did some cleaning instead of boasting about their uncleanliness there'd be less of a pest problem.

[Matt Bryant]

Oh come on!

Everyone just knows roaches prefer Super Mario to Halo.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Roaches?

Dunno about roaches, But console controllers have always had a tendency of attracting blim burns, in my experience...

[Tony]

Bugs love all warm, dark places.

I have been an electronics repairman for 25 years and have found that roaches will nest in any piece of electronics. If the house or apartment has roaches, almost everything in them is a potential hide-out for them.They seem to prefer equipment that is on (and warm) for long periods.

There is nothing worse than opening a piece of equipment on the work bench and having roaches run in all directions.

[Alexandre Strube]

It's not about the wii.

Keep your house clean, and there will be no roaches or rats.

[Anonymous Coward]

Myths are harder to extermine than roaches

Roaches and dirt, dirt and roaches... what a myth !

Roaches don't like dirt, they like food. Some things we call dirt are food for them, some not. More food means more roaches once they're in, sure, but it's not the cause. You can keep your house as clean as you can AND have roaches, or have it as dirty as in your worts nightmares and NOT have roaches !

People still believing in that myth need to go back for basic boolean logic lessons. Dirt may be a subsequent cause for a faster and bigger infestation, AFTER the infestation started for many possible causes BUT NOT dirt.

[Anonymous Coward]

So ?

Even if a Wii attracts cockroaches, it STILL attracts a damn better quality of crowd than an XBox360, and definitely better than a PS3.

Sheesh.

[Martin K]

hmm...

There we go. We have clear evidence that roaches are not only drawn to garbage, but also to shitty graphics.

[Gordon]

fortunately

It's darn freezing in my place, and I have crappy electrical heaters. No bugs would be comfortable here! Double-fortunately I have a lovelly ability to live in cold conditions, born of having northern-european ancestry and having ridden motorbikes for years. I don't really feel the cold, unless it's absolutely freezing!

I guess some bugs live in my place, as all places, but as I have no Wii, my Xbox is on for just a few hours a month and I don't own a PS2/3 (and my PS1 is disused) I guess I don't have a problem.

[Lickass McClippers]

I stand corrected...

...the Wee is obviously for chicks'n'kids'n'roaches...

[matthew bennion]

Roaches have taste then

Glad to see these dirty germ ridden creatures have a grasp that its not just about amazing graphics but orginality...

If you're stupid enough to leave your Wii collecting dust and not ebay it in order to make a wad to buy a game for your XBOX360 or PS3 then all i can say is "idiot"

[Mark]

@Ashley Pomeroy

No, since roaches don't have fingers, they, unlike humans, don't have *little fingers*.

The little finger is essential for swimming because you need it to get water out of your ears. And you don't want a soggy brain, do you...

[Danny]

attract whatever

i don't care if they can attract wild boars (there seems to be a surplus here in Holland), i'm still getting a Wii

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes.

And 360 owners love the cock

[Anonymous Coward]

The Wii certainly DOES attract cochroaches....

..judging by some of the comments on here!

[archie lukas]

Explains the lack of wiis on the market

I wondered who was buying the damn things up

its impossible to buy a Wii as Nintendo under-estimated demand this year again (see www.duh I screwed up again.com) or ebay if you have £400 to spare

It appears that insect exterminators have bought them all and use that as an excuse to play Tomb Raider on the job.