The Odd Connection Between Steve Miller, Snapple, and Wood-Eating Bugs You Might’ve Forgotten About

What do Steve Miller, Snapple, and wood-eating bugs have in common?

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A possible (and less strange) answer might have been “absolutely nothing,” had it not been for a potential marketing ploy by a pest control consultant service at the University of California at Davis. That ploy, of course, then had to be followed by a definitive marketing ploy by a popular flavored drink brand.

The odd story left us with one question remaining: how many urban myths could we solve if we employed curious journalists with time on their hands?

The Strange Connection Between Steve Miller and Wood-Eating Bugs

A scientific journal citation has a way of making any fact sound legit, even if it really isn’t. Such was the case for the claim that termites, the wood-eating bugs that every homeowner dreads, eat wood faster when they’re listening to heavy music. Guitar Player journalist Joe Matera stumbled upon this interesting and creepy factoid that was allegedly published in Royal Society Open Science. Curious to know more about the vibrational benefits of heavy metal that termites might experience, Matera dug a little deeper.

The only problem was that the Royal Society Open Science journal had no recollection of publishing that study. Royal Society led Matera to a different paper actually published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. And while that paper didn’t have to do with heavy metal or the study Matera was looking for, he was able to get more clues from one of the paper’s writers, Theo Evans. Evans stumbled upon a 1968 newspaper clipping on a Steve Miller forum run by Bruno Ceriotti. Ceriotti told Matera he found the story through “contemporary newspaper clippings.”

With the help of the Library of Congress, Matera found the original article. The story dated back to 1968 and was syndicated to The Christian Science Monitor and The Miami News, among others. It described a press conference in which Dr. Trenchard Bowelton, “an etymological researcher who operated a pest control’s consultant service at University of California at Davis,” described conducting an experiment where the Steve Miller Band played in front of a flock of termites. “The termites exposed to the music of the Steve Miller Band were spurred to ‘increased activity,’ such as foraging and eating. They neglected their family life and kept on eating instead of feeding their larvae and queen as they should be doing,” Bowelton said.

How Snapple Popped Into the Story

The 1968 article that Bruno Ceriotti referenced on his Steve Miller forum even included an alleged quote from the rock ‘n’ roller, who said, “I think the U.S. Department of Agricolture [sic] is freaking out. Rock will only turn off square termites.” With its scientific verbiage and quippy quotes, the article obviously seemed plausible enough to the casual reader. But researcher Theo Evans posed an interesting question to journalist Joe Matera. “Wasn’t it a little odd that the pest-control consultant was the sole person to make a link between loud music and termites?”

Matera thought it was, so he continued to dig. He got in touch with a former columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle. That reporter was able to forward Matera’s question about the infamous termite experiment to Steve Miller himself. Miller didn’t remember performing in front of a swarm of wood-eating bugs. Matera might have stopped his search there if he hadn’t spotted the same factoid on a blog post by reporter Peter Carlson. Matera asked Carlson where he learned that these bugs would eat wood faster if listening to heavy metal music, to which Carlson replied, “inside the cap of a bottle of Snapple.” You know, the little fun facts they print on the lids?

Matera’s long, convoluted journey is proof of three things. One, a curious journalist can solve almost anything they put their mind to. Two, marketing ploys (from fake scientific experiments to fun facts printed on bottle caps) can beget some strange stories. And three, a decades-long game of termite telephone is guaranteed to make the story even weirder.

So, no, there’s no specific proof that wood-eating bugs go nuts for the Steve Miller Band. (No matter what Snapple had to say about it in “Real Fact” #33.)

Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images