Giant Flying Cockroaches

The insect life here is interesting and varied. Many of the bugs come in a variety of sizes--ants, for example, come in small, medium and large. The small ones are everywhere, especially in the house. However, they're easy to control. One swipe of a hand wipes out the whole line making their way to the sugar bowl. The medium ones are occasionally inside and definitely outside. The large ones bite. They're not fun, but they're fairly easy to avoid.

About cockroaches--they also come in many varieties. I don't mind the ones that are like the US ones. We really don't have those, although I have seen a few. The giant ones I strongly dislike. I, who despise poison, actually put some down to get rid of them. I've never seen more than one or two, but you can hear them moving around knocking things over. At this point they're dead and I feel no compunction about their untimely deaths.

Just recently I've run into the giant flying cockroaches. They are disgusting. They're about four to five inches in length with large translucent wings that overlap on their backs when they're crawling around. The wings act like armor. They can move pretty fast, but mostly they're almost impossible to kill because the wing seem to protect them. I tried to kill one by stepping on it but was unsuccessful. Fortunately that was at the Grail, not in our own house. I found one in our house last night and used a copy of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America to smash it. (de Tocqueville's book is a sociological classic of about 800 pages.) It worked. I'll skip the gross and gory details. It won't bother us anymore. So much for the litany of Non-Violence. I figure roaches and mosquitoes are exempt.