1302 Plague of the flying cockroaches

I had to dissect a cockroach once at University in order to identify the 'crop' and the 'gizzard'........nice !

I've got 50 odd here ...want to try again !!!! :)

Nah....!!!!!

You were lucky they stayed outside, I visited once a friend living in Nicaragua,
it was hot during Christmas time so I had only a sheet over me when sleeping,
it was difficult to fall in sleep when an iguana family lived and hunted insects
above the ceiling (under the roof), AND everytime you fell in sleep there was a
horror wake-up when one or cockroaches jumped from the ceiling to my belly.
We called these guys 'fellows'. But don't some people stake these for crunchy
snack?

I could have saved them for the party and served them up !!! ;)

Well, that is the one and only reason I need to not move to Italy!

I had enough of flying roaches in Cape Town.

I can handle most bugs quite calmly but have inherited my mother's fear of cockroaches. Worst experience I had with them was when I was clearing out the storeroom back home after my father died - I was more than halfway done, and quite far into the room, when my mother pointed out the near two-inch monsters that covered the roof and walls!

Never again!

[QUOTE=alex and lyn]we a had a brilliant thunderstorm yesterday and loads of rain ( plumping up the olives ! :) )...but last night we had a load of huge , what looked like flying cockroaches trying to get in door. :eek:
Only 3 succeeded ,which i zapped with my spray....BUT this morning we had about 50 splattered on doorstep ( which i had sprayed ) and verandah . We had heard what we thought was rain , but now realise it was the 'things' hitting the door !!!
Don't know if spray did the trick or they died from head injuries ;)

What are they all about !!!!...never seen them before....by the way...crunchy underfoot ( one refused to die so I had to put it out of its ' misery !)[/QUOTE]

Are they definitely cockroaches or are they locusts as there has been a plague of locusts this year in certain parts of Puglia (it was on the TV).
If they're locusts,don't worry they'll disappear soon but if they're roaches......

[QUOTE=alex and lyn]we a had a brilliant thunderstorm yesterday and loads of rain ( plumping up the olives ! :) )...but last night we had a load of huge , what looked like flying cockroaches trying to get in door. :eek:
Only 3 succeeded ,which i zapped with my spray....BUT this morning we had about 50 splattered on doorstep ( which i had sprayed ) and verandah . We had heard what we thought was rain , but now realise it was the 'things' hitting the door !!!
Don't know if spray did the trick or they died from head injuries ;)

What are they all about !!!!...never seen them before....by the way...crunchy underfoot ( one refused to die so I had to put it out of its ' misery !)[/QUOTE]

Hi Alex and Lyn
Just a note to say if they are cockroaches be careful about standing on them and crushing them. MY mum lives in lanzarote where they have a lot of these
and I have stayed on numerous occasions. Was told never to stand or crush little monsters because their eggs splatter and you end up with loads of them. Pick them up if you can and flush down toilet of find some other way of removing them
kym

[QUOTE=kym]Hi Alex and Lyn
Just a note to say if they are cockroaches be careful about standing on them and crushing them. MY mum lives in lanzarote where they have a lot of these
and I have stayed on numerous occasions. Was told never to stand or crush little monsters because their eggs splatter and you end up with loads of them. Pick them up if you can and flush down toilet of find some other way of removing them
kym[/QUOTE]

Or spray insect killer every two weeks - contact spray is the best as it remains active on the surface for a while after application.

It is just possible that these are not cockroaches but beetles. Where I grew up in Canada we had things that sound like the insects you describe and we called them June bugs (although I'm not convinced they necessarily came in June). They are attracted by light and were annoying because they often would fly into you (maybe they don't have a good radar system?). Does you door have a window in it through which the bugs could see a light?

Anyway, I found these links that describe June bugs so you can see what you think:

[url]http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/natbltn/100-199/nb121.htm[/url]

[url]http://www.thesahara.net/june_bugs.htm[/url]

The June bugs I remember were brown, but apparently they do come in different colours.

(BTW the second link has a load of pictures and may take a while to load, but I thought the following paragraph was worth noting:

“They are actually beetles, and it can be said that all beetles can fly, but they generally do not. These kamikaze bugs panic the life out of a lot of people because at least once in our lives these quite large creatures crash into our heads and get tangled in our hair. The mere sound of that deep buzz is enough for some of us to faint. But they cannot hurt you; just give you a little scare, and start your arms flailing about around your head.”)

Hopefully, your bugs aren't cockroaches.

really don't know what they were...just looked cockroachery...but no more since rain stopped...due another thunderstorm tonight and possibly next few days...will keep door shut...and yes we do have 2 glass panels in door so probably was the light ...glass has 2 wooden doors so will firmly shut them !!!

so far..nothing else in house ( or outside for that matter....) perhaps they travel with the storms !!!! Where is David Attenborough when you want him !! ;)

I think these things will be cockchaffers which we get in the uk they can make rather a lot of noise.If you are spraying lots of insecticide around you will damage your health as it will almost certainly contain organo-phosphates!

These bugs are part of the natural ecosystem and no doubt some lucky predator will deal with them ie bats or other creatures.

I tend to agree that they must have been some sort of Locusts because we haven't had them since and we are going through a very thunderstormy time at the moment.

Sano...don't worry about the cockroaches...we haven't had any at all here in Puglia...so far anyway .......in fact very few creepy crawlies generally which suits me as I hate them too.........but surprised me :)

I loved the crunky, deep fried 'roch' with crushed cochineal sauce a Apuglian delicacy I believe all glugged down with some blended locust smoothies..yum! ;)

So you did try the Antipasti !!!!! :D