Creepy Cockroach

Of the four thousand odd species of cockroach, only about thirty are considered important in their association with human habitats. They are the carpet sweepers of nature and perform a useful role, but nobody likes them, especially in their homes because cockroaches are synonymous with dirt.

They are quite rare where Henry lives having never seen one inside, but very occasionally he spots one outside, usually in the compost. Cockroaches have plenty of competition outside as slaters, aka woodlice, carry out much the same function.

The biggest cockroach he had seen before arriving at Sanawari was less than twenty five centimetres long, so he was surprised to see one that was as big as a mouse! He was calm at the sighting because he knew his manner would translate to Mags’ reaction and he didn’t want to alarm her – on the other hand he didn’t want mouse-size cockroaches prowling around the house.

His sister had given him a flyswat because she did not like bugs and he had acquiesced to take it with them to Africa because it hardly effected their weight allowance.

He missed swatting the cockroach because it flew away at his approach – a mouse-sized cockroach that flies!

They became quite used to the big cockroaches, as their numbers did not seem to be great but the flyswat made a mess of them - a big splat, usually on the floor and bits flying!  But they had to be quick because the big fat buggers had a remarkable turn of speed.

Henry knew where the cockroaches came from. A cow was housed very close to their bathroom wall. This is called zero grazing and all food and water is brought to the penned cow.

In this case the cow was not well cared for and much of her food was uneaten so was pushed with her body waste to the back of the pen. That is where the cockroaches lived and bred.

The only furniture supplied in the house was the narrow double bed, a couch and two chairs. Henry bought some rough-sawn timber and made some shelves for the bathroom to put tooth brushes and other bathroom stuff on. He also bought some tomato boxes to use as tables and for storage.

Big cockroaches do big poo and Henry noticed some on the bathroom shelf.

There was a flurry when he moved the unit! Dozens of cockroaches were camping there dining on their toothbrush bristles, soap and goodness knows what else!

Enough is enough so he went into town to buy a can of insect spray that claimed it also killed cockroaches – aptly named Doom! He had heard that cockroaches were able to live through a nuclear holocaust, so the power of Doom must have been incredible!

Baraka in his wisdom decided to burn the waste heap in the cow pen! The fragrance wafted through the house and attached itself to bedding, clothes, food and even skin!

That night sleep did not come easy made worse by a terrible racket in the kitchen. A continuous scratching sound.

Henry had to check it out!

He had a sizable collection of empty beer cans. Wrong assumption – he hardly contributed to the collection; he had sent the word out to the expat community for empty beer cans because he took them to schools to plant (with a hole drilled into them) beside trees to facilitate water-economical irrigation.

Baraka’s fire had driven the cockroaches in all directions including into the house; the smell of sugar inside the beer cans attracted them to enter but they could not extract themselves. Perhaps thousands of scrawny, brown, prickly legs – or feet – scraping against aluminium created a racket! And to this day Henry swears they were screaming!

One by one Henry carried the boxes of cans with their cockroach cargo outside while Mags manned the Doom can because there was considerable leakage!

The rest of the night was spent picking up the dead, and finishing off the dying.

The next day Henry walked into town to buy another can of Doom.