Flying Cockroach
I have done battle and killed many cockroaches in my New York lifetime. I have never in my life seen a flying cockroach…until today.
My girlfriend nearly jumped off the couch when a cockroach flew across the room and landed right in the middle of the giant Sony LCD on the coffee table.
This was the same roach that tormented us last night. In round one I was unsuccessful. My weapon of choice, any household spray cleaner such as Windex or Fantastic, was still lying on the ground. I leaped into action and grabbed the bottle of Lysol and hit the roach once on the front of the screen. It flew up and over the back of the TV.
With Ayesha yelling visual instructions, I chased the roach around the back of the TV and then the front, getting a few spray shots in each time. Finally, it went to the floor. As it ran towards the corner I got a few direct squirts in to slow it down. A few more shots killed the roach.
Never, ever in my life have I seen a flying roach. I went to Wikepedia, which made no mention of flying roaches.
Has the cockroach evolved?
Peter Cervieri is co-founder of and Director of Business Development for ScribeMedia.Org. He has many fetishes. Among them is collecting business cards.
Lots of flying roaches here in Hawaii…BIG ones (they not only fly, but are said to rearrange furniture when you’re not looking). We refer to them as B-52’s.
I recommend Lisa Matsumoto’s book, “How the B-52 Cockroach Learned to Fly” (http://www.e808.com/ProductGroup.aspx?ProductGroupID=2148&CategoryID=90).
I saw one of these in my apartment in Chicago two days ago. I chased it around (or it chased me) and finally killed it with Windex and Lysol spray. It was really scary and seemed to actually be carrying around another dead, smaller insect as it flew. I did not know there were flying roaches as far north as Chicago or NY. I used to live in Florida and New Orleans and these were sometimes seen, I think. Has there been a change?
The flying cockroaches you may have encountered are probably the Asian Cockroach. It is similar to the German Cockroach, except the Asian cockroach can really fly.
The Asian Cockroach can fly for about 150 feet.
It is odd that you were unable to find any Wiki on this insect. Maybe you need to try a different search engine.
Here are some links to help you out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blattella_asahinai
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-flying-cockroach.htm