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Why should humanity 'stop' everything as it sees fit with imperfect knowledge and burgeoning ego? Cockroaches have a valuable role to play in degrading the vast

Why should humanity 'stop' everything as it sees fit with imperfect knowledge and burgeoning ego? Cockroaches have a valuable role to play in degrading the vast quantities of biological waste we put out. We don't need to stop them.

tuesdayrain 7y ago
You must not live with cockroaches if you feel no need to stop them.
- alistairSH 7y ago
  Inside the US, they seem to be present in large numbers in the deep south (FL through TX). Are they present in the southwest as well? Here in DC, we get them, but generally only in homes that aren't kept clean - which can a problem in large apartment buildings, as it only takes one slovenly neighbor or poorly tended garbage area to let a colony grow and become a visible nuisance. And what about Europe? Probably too cold in most of the continent, but present in Mediterranean regions?
  - itemGrey 7y ago
    Don't think I've ever seen a cockroach in my life living in Europe. Seems like a U.S exclusive bug.
    - hvidgaard 7y ago
      They are rampart in the Mediterranean area. I don't think I've ever been to a holiday resort there where I didn't see them.
    - cjfd 7y ago
      I lived in Italy for two years. At some point I had them in my appartment. It was not too hard to get rid of them using some poison.... Apparently they had come from the appartment next to me or that is what the landlady said....
    - jason0597 7y ago
      They are everywhere in Greece
  - squarefoot 7y ago
    "And what about Europe? Probably too cold in most of the continent, but present in Mediterranean regions?" As with other areas they live in or near garbage areas, but as far as I can tell not as common as one could think. I don't recall seeing any for example during garbage collecting emergencies. They could be present in homes though, especially old ones where small cracks in concrete or wood can offer a place to hide. That was the case of a 4th floor apartment I lived in over 30 years back where we were never able to find the source of those bastards. That wasn't an invasion, just 2 or 3 a week, so we weren't that pressured to call for someone to eradicate them. The solution came totally unexpected: one day my father brought a cat into that house and from that moment although we keep finding those 2 or 3 cockroaches per week, they were dead. Some time passed by, and one day I found the cat scratching near a baseboard corner; he just found the small crack the roaches used to live in and killed all those coming out of it. We sealed the crack and never saw a cockroach after that. I moved two times since then, and although my father kept that cat, I soon got two, and besides being wonderful companions, they kill anything entering the house uninvited, including bigger nasty mosquitos.
  - agent008t 7y ago
    Apparently, apartment blocks in Russia used to have a massive cockroach problem in the 90s, but then they all suddenly completely disappeared in 2000s and never came back. Nobody seems to know why.
  - dole 7y ago
    A little fun anecdata from the US, I've noticed cockroaches get much bigger the further south you go: Upper Midwest, Michigan, Ohio, the biggest cockroaches get up to about one inch. Central Midwest, southern Kansas/Missouri/Illinois, two inches. Texas and the gulf? Three inches.
    - alistairSH 7y ago
      That's definitely true. We get the little ones here. The big guys found in the humid/hot south are scary.
- muro 7y ago
  Lots of large ones in Australia. Regularly seen them fly to our apartment in Sydney. Hate those things and I don't miss them at all in Europe.
  - taneq 7y ago
    There's two types, though. The big brown bush cockroaches seem clean and pretty smart, and I really don't mind them. The shiny black ones (some with white dots) that infest your white goods? Those are filthy.
    - muro 7y ago
      The big redish black ones, they are solitary and thank God for that. Luckily, never seen the small ones that infest in swarms.
  - elorant 7y ago
    Where do you live in Europe that doesn't have roaches? I live in Greece and the cities are infested with them during summer.
    - stevekemp 7y ago
      I've never seen once in Finland. When I lived in the UK I'd never seen one in the wild either, for that matter.
      - cookieswumchorr 7y ago
        wait for the global warming to unroll...
    - muro 7y ago
      Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Switzerland. We saw very few when we were living right next to a forest. In a city, it meant you either have bad neighbours (could be a construction site across the street), or your place is filthy :) Friends at university said they have plenty in dorms, but a visit made it self-explanatory.
pard68 7y ago
I raise roaches, they are amazing critters! They eat two apples, a banana, an orange, and two cups of dogfood in only five days or so. No skin, peel, stem, or seeds leftover after!
- nerdponx 7y ago
  They are kind of fascinating once you get over the creepy factor. The main problem is that, like rodents, they can be a major health hazard as passive disease carriers. A pet rat is as different from a wild rat as a pet roach is as different from a wild roach.
  - pard68 7y ago
    Very true. I also raise Dubia roaches, which are very different to those common in the western world
- elboru 7y ago
  How many would eat all that? What about their waste how big would it be?
  - pard68 7y ago
    So I have about three hundred at any given time. As for waste, I don't worry too much, like fish the young eat the feces of the adults. In the last six months or so the 60gallon tubperware they live in has accumulated enough wase to cover the bottom about an inch deep or so
    - SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago
      You have 300 roaches in a 60 gallon tub? Are you raising them as food for something else or just for fun? I'm certainly not one of the "eww roaches" people but I have to say I don't see the appeal myself ;)
      - pard68 7y ago
joekrill 7y ago
I'm not sure anyone is suggesting we destroy every last living cockroach on the planet. This is more about keeping them out of living/sleeping/food areas. They can carry disease, for one thing. These aren't things you want freely crawling around a restaurant kitchen, for example. It's no different than not wanting your home to become infested with bees, or ants, or anything else that's also very important to our world.
hk2001 7y ago
They are disease ridden and a health hazard.

tuesdayrain 7y ago

You must not live with cockroaches if you feel no need to stop them.

alistairSH 7y ago
Inside the US, they seem to be present in large numbers in the deep south (FL through TX). Are they present in the southwest as well? Here in DC, we get them, but generally only in homes that aren't kept clean - which can a problem in large apartment buildings, as it only takes one slovenly neighbor or poorly tended garbage area to let a colony grow and become a visible nuisance. And what about Europe? Probably too cold in most of the continent, but present in Mediterranean regions?
- itemGrey 7y ago
  Don't think I've ever seen a cockroach in my life living in Europe. Seems like a U.S exclusive bug.
  - hvidgaard 7y ago
    They are rampart in the Mediterranean area. I don't think I've ever been to a holiday resort there where I didn't see them.
  - cjfd 7y ago
    I lived in Italy for two years. At some point I had them in my appartment. It was not too hard to get rid of them using some poison.... Apparently they had come from the appartment next to me or that is what the landlady said....
  - jason0597 7y ago
    They are everywhere in Greece
- squarefoot 7y ago
  "And what about Europe? Probably too cold in most of the continent, but present in Mediterranean regions?" As with other areas they live in or near garbage areas, but as far as I can tell not as common as one could think. I don't recall seeing any for example during garbage collecting emergencies. They could be present in homes though, especially old ones where small cracks in concrete or wood can offer a place to hide. That was the case of a 4th floor apartment I lived in over 30 years back where we were never able to find the source of those bastards. That wasn't an invasion, just 2 or 3 a week, so we weren't that pressured to call for someone to eradicate them. The solution came totally unexpected: one day my father brought a cat into that house and from that moment although we keep finding those 2 or 3 cockroaches per week, they were dead. Some time passed by, and one day I found the cat scratching near a baseboard corner; he just found the small crack the roaches used to live in and killed all those coming out of it. We sealed the crack and never saw a cockroach after that. I moved two times since then, and although my father kept that cat, I soon got two, and besides being wonderful companions, they kill anything entering the house uninvited, including bigger nasty mosquitos.
- agent008t 7y ago
  Apparently, apartment blocks in Russia used to have a massive cockroach problem in the 90s, but then they all suddenly completely disappeared in 2000s and never came back. Nobody seems to know why.
- dole 7y ago
  A little fun anecdata from the US, I've noticed cockroaches get much bigger the further south you go: Upper Midwest, Michigan, Ohio, the biggest cockroaches get up to about one inch. Central Midwest, southern Kansas/Missouri/Illinois, two inches. Texas and the gulf? Three inches.
  - alistairSH 7y ago
    That's definitely true. We get the little ones here. The big guys found in the humid/hot south are scary.
muro 7y ago
Lots of large ones in Australia. Regularly seen them fly to our apartment in Sydney. Hate those things and I don't miss them at all in Europe.
- taneq 7y ago
  There's two types, though. The big brown bush cockroaches seem clean and pretty smart, and I really don't mind them. The shiny black ones (some with white dots) that infest your white goods? Those are filthy.
  - muro 7y ago
    The big redish black ones, they are solitary and thank God for that. Luckily, never seen the small ones that infest in swarms.
- elorant 7y ago
  Where do you live in Europe that doesn't have roaches? I live in Greece and the cities are infested with them during summer.
  - stevekemp 7y ago
    I've never seen once in Finland. When I lived in the UK I'd never seen one in the wild either, for that matter.
    - cookieswumchorr 7y ago
      wait for the global warming to unroll...
  - muro 7y ago
    Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Switzerland. We saw very few when we were living right next to a forest. In a city, it meant you either have bad neighbours (could be a construction site across the street), or your place is filthy :) Friends at university said they have plenty in dorms, but a visit made it self-explanatory.

pard68 7y ago

I raise roaches, they are amazing critters! They eat two apples, a banana, an orange, and two cups of dogfood in only five days or so. No skin, peel, stem, or seeds leftover after!

nerdponx 7y ago
They are kind of fascinating once you get over the creepy factor. The main problem is that, like rodents, they can be a major health hazard as passive disease carriers. A pet rat is as different from a wild rat as a pet roach is as different from a wild roach.
- pard68 7y ago
  Very true. I also raise Dubia roaches, which are very different to those common in the western world
elboru 7y ago
How many would eat all that? What about their waste how big would it be?
- pard68 7y ago
  So I have about three hundred at any given time. As for waste, I don't worry too much, like fish the young eat the feces of the adults. In the last six months or so the 60gallon tubperware they live in has accumulated enough wase to cover the bottom about an inch deep or so
  - SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago
    You have 300 roaches in a 60 gallon tub? Are you raising them as food for something else or just for fun? I'm certainly not one of the "eww roaches" people but I have to say I don't see the appeal myself ;)
    - pard68 7y ago

joekrill 7y ago

I'm not sure anyone is suggesting we destroy every last living cockroach on the planet. This is more about keeping them out of living/sleeping/food areas. They can carry disease, for one thing. These aren't things you want freely crawling around a restaurant kitchen, for example. It's no different than not wanting your home to become infested with bees, or ants, or anything else that's also very important to our world.

hk2001 7y ago

They are disease ridden and a health hazard.