An exterminator in Massachusetts dies after getting swarmed with cockroaches that are seemingly immune to his methods. Mulder is up in Massachusetts chasing UFOs when he stumbles on the case; the town has a big science community, and a few other people have fallen to roaches. Scully, working on the case by phone, posits allergic reactions, drug-induced psychosis, and other rationales. Mulder tries to catch a roach, but only gets the exoskeleton and injures his hand doing so.
The local authorities are more receptive to the killer roach theory, and the sheriff lets Mulder know that a Department of Agriculture agent set up shop in town recently. Heading there, Mulder finds Agent Bambi Berenbaum, who says she's studying insects, in part to find ways to eradicate them. Scully gets a little jealous of whatever they have going on, and decides to come up soon after despite findings that her initial suggestions have been correct. She finds the town in a hilarious bug-induced panic.
A roach is captured in a bug trap, and Bambi finds that it seems to be robotic. Mulder visits an artificial intelligence/robotics researcher, who suggests that robotic explorers would come before any biological ones and is shocked to see the metallic bug. Scully discovers that the insects may have been brought in with dung samples for an alternative fuel research facility. A researcher there thinks Mulder is a roach after his cell phone rings, and ends up accidentally blowing up the facility in a methane and dung explosion. The mysterious roaches are also destroyed. Mulder ruminates on whether aliens could reprogram their brains to go beyond basic survival instincts, and if they would consider humans disgusting and primitive; he then reacts in horror upon seeing a roach and crushes it.
A good showing by the druggies this episode. A.J. Buckley, playing the guy who tries to slash a roach out of his skin, now plays Adam Ross on CSI: New York. Tyler Labine, playing a stoner on this and one more episode, now stars as Bert "Sock" Wysocki on Reaper.
Episode Body Count
Doctor Bugger: dies after he is swarmed by cockroaches.
Two other people: Sheriff Frass tells Mulder that a molecular biologist and astrophysicist also died in a similar way. These three deaths are officially attributed to an allergic reaction.
Dude: dies after seeing a bug burrow into his skin and trying to slice it out with a razor while on drugs.
Dr. Newton: a medical examiner, is swarmed by roaches while on the toilet but officially dies of a brain aneurysm.
Motel guest: swarmed by cockroaches, though Mulder thinks he just had a heart attack upon seeing the roaches.
Dr. Eckerle: dies after firing a gun inside a methane gas-filled research facility, causing a massive explosion.
Humans: 7
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0
Cumulative Body Count (61/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)
Humans: 657
Creatures: 33
Aliens: 47
Grand Total: 737
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