Never lick envelopes

Philippines
July 31, 2007 9:17am CST
A woman was working in a post office in California. One day she licked the envelopes and postage stamps instead of using a sponge. That very day the lady found a cut on her tongue. A week later she noticed an abnormal swelling of her tongue. She went to the doctor, and they found nothing wrong. Her tongue was not sore or anything. A couple of days later, her tongue started to swell more, and it began to get really sore, so sore, that she could not eat. She went back to the hospital, and demanded something be done. The doctor took an x-ray of her tongue and noticed a lump. He prepared her for minor surgery. When the doctor but her tongue open, a live cockroach crawled out!!! There were cockroach eggs on the seal of the envelope. The egg was able to hatch inside of her tongue, because of her saliva. It was warm and moist... This is a true story reported on CNN. Andy Hume wrote: Hey, I used to work in an envelope factory. You woudln't believe the...things that float around in those gum applicator trays. I haven't licked an envelope for years! I used to work for a print shop (32 years ago) and we were told NEVER to lick envelopes. I never understood why until I had to go into storage and pull out 2500 envelopes that were already printed and saw several squads of cockroaches roaming around inside a couple of boxes with eggs everywhere. They eat the glue on the envelopes. After reading this, you will never lick another envelope of stamp again.
4 people like this
9 responses
@jc_star10 (953)
• Indonesia
31 Jul 07
Is it really true ? How come an egg did not swallowed inside her stomach when she is eating ? I don't know how to react with this. It's really gross, but when you think of it, it kind of strange. But one thing that I agree, never lick an envelope. You just never knew what substance that inside the glue. It might be dangerous to your health. After all a glue is never one of our food, right ?
• Philippines
1 Aug 07
Yes it's not a food. That would mean you're a pica if you're the person eating glue and some kind of stuffs like papers, etc. It really is weird and strange knowing that a cockroach hatched inside the tongue. The first time I read it was on my email and it's kinda weird how the heck did the cockroach survive? Strange huh?
1 person likes this
@kaka135 (14931)
• Malaysia
10 Nov 08
I've read the story before, and think it's really scary. I never lick the envelopes, simply because I think it's dirty. I don't lick the stamp to stick on the envelope too. I'll rather trouble myself a bit, go and get some water for it.
1 person likes this
31 Jul 07
Now that is really gross. That would have freaked me out big time. I have been using the self sticking kind for a long time. Now, after reading this, I will never lick another envelope again! That poor woman, what a shocking thing to find.
1 person likes this
@cher913 (25782)
• Canada
31 Jul 07
wow and ewwwwwwwww!!! you are so right! i work in an office and although we have an auto 'licker' attached to our postage machine, sometimes i will lick one or 2 envelopes...never again!
1 person likes this
@Rozie37 (15499)
• Turkmenistan
31 Jul 07
That is absolutely disgusting. I have never heard of something that sick in all of my life. Thank you so much for telling me. However, it has been a long time since I licked an envelop. Mine have the self adhesives, but my greeting card envelopes don't. Oh, that just makes me queezy.
1 person likes this
@makingpots (11915)
• United States
31 Jul 07
Oooooo, yuk! I threw up in my mouth a little bit, just reading that. I still can't shake the icky feeling as I am typing this. Yuk, Yuk, YUK!! Thanks for the warning.
1 person likes this
@jtr115 (722)
• United States
29 Dec 08
Ick! I have only self-adhesive stamps, but regular envelopes. I'll definitely buy self-adhesive envelopes from now on. I'll use a small brush to moisten the envelopes I have left.
@cream97 (29087)
• United States
15 Sep 10
Hi, ronyle24. Wow! This is some story here! I have been licking envelopes for a very long time now. And this has never occurred to me at all. Self-Adhesive and self-adhesive envelopes, here I come! This is truly scary to have to go through. I am very sorry about what happened to this woman. Her situation has warned me in many more ways that I can even mention.
@nicanorr (1789)
• Philippines
20 Feb 13
Wake up! It's not good and proper especially a lady post office employee to see her licking the flap of an envelope to seal it. Provide a bottle of water for the purpose or try to kick away the habit.