Massive Cockroaches Invade City Suburb.....

The other day I came upon a cockroach that could quite fairly be described as the size of a small mouse.  In fact at first I thought it must be a mouse as it scuttled past me on the dark stairway of our bijou residence.  Not the sort of wildlife I would have expected to happen upon in trendy Parnell I have to say.

When we lived in our divine bush valley in Kohimarama all those years ago when the children were small, we were infested from time to time with a more miniature style of cockroach.  There were certainly plenty of them but as we also lived side by side with giant wetas and rats they were a minor problem.  Somehow or other we grew accustomed to the teeming wildlife over the years, even when the rats regularly ventured inside the house to escape the chill of winter.  They seemed to alarm the cats more than me in those days I have to say.  The three cats, Hector, Harriet and Heidi were respectful of the wetas and only Hector was game to tackle the rats.  It has to be admitted that they were a little on the large side those Kohi rats.

When we finally exchanged the bush valley and rather ramshackle dwelling for a  more upmarket house in St. Heliers we merely had to contend with ants and spiders, plenty of both but the latter were not too intimidating;  not as bad as those I remembered from London at any rate.

The downsizing move to the city fringe two and a half years ago brought nothing more alarming than occasional house flies so the advent of the mouse-sized cockroach the other day was cause for a great deal of agitation and the speedy accumulation of a number of insecticides.

Once the creature’s death was brought about by half a spray can of  Super Strength Mortein, I gingerly displayed the body to a neighbour or two.

Jill, from the heart of England, looked at it with little interest and said, `Yes – you tend to get them in buildings like ours…..’

Ina, from Australia said something similar and looked at me curiously I thought -  though she did add that spiders were the things she didn't terribly like.   Having given the matter more thought I think she was probably referring to the Australian variety - probably those that consume birds and small children.