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.
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