Day after day, I am a witness to the human way of life. I have thousands of eyes, so yes, I can see everything. I am not like humans who can obviously see only one view or focus on a particular object. These poor humans would not know what hit them if the tables turn and I hold the swatter! I see everything I am the fly on the wall.
Humans are very funny creatures. They hate pests, but they feed them. They try to kill them and they feed them at the same time. Usually, they are more successful at feeding these pests, as they have thrived in this house for years. I have been around here my entire life, a week to be exact, and I am a middle-aged fly with plenty of experience and mileage behind me. I have seen them swat away at some of my friends and family members. Sometimes they succeed, most of the time they do not. But most of the time, after some swatting, these funny humans give us peace offerings by way of food. Sometimes these were placed on their table, sometimes the food is in the trash, sometimes they just simply leave them out anywhere around the house. There are plenty more outside, more trash, more fun. I even see my cockroach friends there. I like this house, it is very dirty!
When I am not eating, I simply go back to the same comfortable place on this wall. I watch everyone’s every move. I am very active during the day, just like humans. I enjoy watching them. They seem to talk a lot to each other. They love to eat, they love to watch TV, they love to surf the internet. What is it that they do not like? Pests! And in this house, the one pest they really hate is the cockroach. But as I have learned, the cockroach’s fate and my fate are intertwined, because we both love the same things. Here is our story.
Cockroaches Are Filthy
If there is one pest that I am very familiar with, it is the cockroach. Like me, the cockroach eats anything. Their filthiness is in the extreme however, they thrive on filth. They look for the dirtiest, moistest spot in the house and they settle there. They like to eat fresh or spoilt food, garbage, decaying dead animals, feces, and garbage. They are night creatures, so we take a turn in shifts; while we rest, they go out to forage for food.
Cockroaches Transmit Diseases
A couple of days ago, the youngest kid of the family who they call Billy, was having frequent coughing at night. During the day he was having shortness of breath, immediately gets tired when playing with his older brother, and he was always sneezing. Then just yesterday, the boy had an asthma attack, characterized by coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath. Cockroaches may have contributed to Billy’s asthma. They are a common source of allergens, which can eventually lead to asthma.
Like us flies, the cockroach can spread diseases. This stems from the fact that cockroaches thrive in all things dirty. They eat what we eat, which makes them our rivals. They eat rotten food, garbage, fecal matter, and there are instances wherein I spot them eating their own kind. Even I get disgusted with them sometimes. Then after eating all these disgusting things, they come to your home and eat your own food. At times they defecate on your food, urinate on it, or vomit on it. Even just by crawling at your food, or at surfaces where you handle food, are enough to contaminate it. Then you eat your food, and that is how you can get diseases. Salmonella, Staphylococcus, diarrhea, food poisoning, conjunctivitis, and Streptococcus are some of the diseases they carry.
Types Of Cockroaches
This cockroach I always meet inside and outside this house is an American cockroach.
He told me his name is Freddie. Now, Freddie, the roach says he is not really pure American. His ancestors were from the Middle East, only coming here by boat. And I told him, yeah, but he is now American because he was born here. Freddie’s kind is the largest among all the common cockroaches here in the United States. He is reddish brown in color with a yellow band in the area behind his head. He is oval in shape and compared to my size, he is very long, about 2 inches. He has wings, but I can see he is a clumsy flier. He said his wife just laid 150 eggs this year. Good luck to that!
He goes out to feed at night, and when the sun rises, he retreats back to his nest, where it is warm and damp. I also oftentimes see him sneak in this house at night, when everyone is asleep. He looks around for food and water. He enters through under the door, sometimes through one of the cracks in the walls. Then he goes straight to the kitchen where he knows he can find food. Sometimes he goes to the bathroom, where he can get hydrated. Freddie the roach once told me a very creepy story. He said one of his brother’s head was cut off, yet he did not die, at least not then and there. I asked how did that happen. He said all of them have this superpower of staying alive without their heads. They can manage to live for a week without it. Cockroaches can live for a month without food, and 1 week without water. His brother died because he did not have a head, but because he did not have a mouth in which to drink water. I also thought, how did he breathe without his head? Freddie the roach showed me his body. He has holes in each of the segments in his body. That is where they breathe. They are spooky indeed.
I also met a German cockroach four days age. That was when a friend invited me to this big restaurant, as they serve the finest trash there. There were rotten eggs, moldy spaghetti, burnt toasts, fresh vomit, and all the yummy stuff you could think of. This German cockroach was smaller than Freddie, about 1.5 inches long. Thinking that he eats the same things as I do, much like Freddie, I offered him some of my food since there is plenty to go around. He begged off, saying he prefers sweet, fatty, and starchy foods. Gee, I am going to like him better than Freddie, though I can say he is more troublesome than Freddie.
From what I have gathered, there are two more types of cockroaches going around, the brown-banded cockroach, and the Oriental cockroach. The brown-banded cockroach is almost similar to the German cockroach, only smaller. They dwell in warm, dry places. The Oriental cockroach is described as the filthiest. They are larger and darker than the other cockroaches. They thrive in dirty but cooler places.
Control
Just yesterday, I overheard the husband and the wife talk about how they are going to stop Freddie and his gang from attacking their house. It seems like some changes had to be made, both of them agreed. The wife said she intends to look for the best pest experts in High Point NC. So she went and checked on the internet, and found the one that is the most recommended on social media: Go-Forth Home Services.
The husband said he is going to make some adjustments around the house so that the cockroaches would be kept away. He sealed off the cracks and crevices that Freddie roach loved to hide in. He started to cover the trash can because that is where the roaches love to go to for food. I must admit this affected me a lot too. They took away our food source. Dishes were also washed immediately, whereas before it used to sit in the sink overnight. The leftover foods were also placed in a sealed container to prevent the roaches from getting to them. Then, of course, the husband started to regularly throw away the garbage. Nowadays, I also barely see food and drink spills on the dining table where they used to be. This leaves me starving and weak right now because my food source has been considerably cut.
Calling The Best Pest Control Experts
The problem in this house though, is that the roaches have infested it. I have seen them, and this family has seen them too. In order to get rid of them, it is time to get the best pest control experts in High Point NC: Go-Forth Home Services.
I have heard from around the circles that Go-Forth has excellent experience in pest extermination, with highly skilled and well-trained professionals. They have been at it for more than 50 years now, and they have earned the trust of residents of High Point. Speaking of which it is now time for me to leave this place because the guys of Go-Forth will strike any time now.]