Cockroaches, Good Guys or Baddies?

I’ve written about these little buggers before, see ‘Local Warming’. Back then I was informed that there were three distinct types, Australian, American and Asian. However, a recent article in ‘The Newspaper of the Year’, a rather dubious claim at best, but who am I to argue with the august Melbourne Herald Sun?

This article was over half a page long, if you include the photograph, which could have been anything, from a common bed bug to a blue-ringed octupus. If you don’t believe me check it out on the net, page 7, Friday March 7, 2009. Written by Karen Collier (consumer reporter), under the headline Cockroach Invasion. You’d have to be a fool to argue with someone with those qualifications for cockroach research.

To save you the trouble of looking it up, I’ll give you a quick precis. Big, ugly cockroaches are invading Melbourne (quick, get me a Hollywood script-writer, this has great potential). Hold on though! “Before you panic, that intruder in your kitchen sink, bathroom or barbecue (?) is probably a harmless native“. Thank any Deity you prefer for that, I was just about to pack my bags and catch a slow boat to Wales.

It goes on to say “Unlike the nasty little German roaches that thrive on filth and food scraps, hide in the dark and carry disease” (remind you of any Germans you know? No, me neither!) “the common shining (black) cockroach munches on organic matter and breaks down leaf litter”.

It then quotes an entomology expert as saying “These ones seem quite stupid and don’t run when they see you” What do they do then? Rear up on their fucking back legs and challenge you to a fight? “They are not as cluey as the pests that use the cover of darkness” (Remind you of any Aussies you know? nor me!)

“if you can, try to return the natives outside, rather than killing them because they help return nutrients to the soil”.

I won’t go into the ‘Smoky Brown’ variety, as I have to keep my blogs short and interesting (which is an oxymoron, if you ask me, so don’t bother). But according to the article they are "yet another introduced pest", along with rats, rabbits and the British?.

Anyway, for what it’s worth, I for one, am not going to try to interrogate any roaches in my bathroom and kitchen to find out if they speak German, Mandarin or ‘Strine’. I shall continue stomping on the bastards or karate chopping the little shits. Although, I might throw their corpses into the vegetable patch, to add nutrients.

Cheers,

SkyBlueSkull

http://keith-skellern.blogspot.com