Life With Cockroaches
I think that it is important to write a short instruction on how to live with roaches, as I don't want to alarm our families.
They are around, that will remain a fact. We will look for traps, although I doubt we'll have any luck. There are plenty of little ones, but it the big ones that are interesting. These are often over an inch in length. From what I can tell, there are a couple of species. Some have a long head, very thin. Others have a rounded head. They are all dark brown and shiny. It's best not to describe them to women, however interesting they might appear.
They come out en masse at night, especially when it's been dark for awhile. Here they fly, so who knows where they come from. A person can wait silently and motionlessly, and they might come out, but this is a very inefficient method of finding and crushing them. Besides, they are too numerous for this to work. Again, methods of destroying them are best kept to oneself, women do not find this interesting, nor want to watch.
Due to the lack of traps, a little improvision can be tried. Water traps are useless. I've considered making glue traps, but I don't have glue either. Food that can be trampled (bread, crackers, cereal) is best kept in a closed cupboard, although this is no guarantee against the small ones. Veggies can be washed, don't worry about that. In general, this part of the issue should never, ever be mentioned to women. Fortunately, I'm the cook, so I deal with that end of it all.
Despite patient crushing hunts and all my work, I found little success. I was forced to retreat, a little shaken, and have decided it's best just not to go in the kitchen at night. Or think about it much. Or talk about it at all, really.
