Those who teach marketing often say that for every customer who voices a concern, there are 24 more who remain silent. Some say more; others say fewer. No matter; the salient point is that what we see is, most often, the tip of the iceberg. I think it is like that with roaches.
Roaches? Yes, Periplaneta americana, the giant American roach said to have been imported from Africa in the early 17th Century. No matter where they came from, they are now ubiquitous in the Americas. I suppose that they share their immigrant story with many of us as well as with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Life gets around, and where it originated matters less than where it settled, it seems.
I’ve posted about roaches a couple of times this year. They have invaded our home more often this year than in years past. We see and dispatch one every few days. I have conjectured that these are low IQ roaches – roaches too dull to hide among books and papers and other household detritus as a smart roach would likely do. Bold roaches rather than dumb roaches, perhaps, they skitter across the living room carpet rather than along the baseboards where they might not be so conspicuous. So, they come to their demise because they have made themselves obvious – the tip of the iceberg is what gets noticed.
Since we welcomed Kedi and Maia into our pride, we have found a number of Periplaneta remains in the living room, the master bathroom, and bedroom closet. The kittens have exquisitely sensitive, high-frequency hearing. They hear the roaches that we do not – the remainder of the iceberg, as it were.
This morning, as Susan walked into the shower, she witnessed a hunt. Maia was batting around a mid-sized roach fleeing to safety in the bathroom. The roach skittered under the bathmat – clearly damaged in the hunt, reported Susan. Susan stomped on the bathmat to put the arthropod out of its and our joint miseries.
They are both hunters (huntresses), but Maia is clearly the alpha huntress. I think these felines will bring roach balance back to our domestic, micro-ecology.