h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Mmmmm nice. Just seen a half dead one on the floor in the gents at work.
And now? To breakfast.

Could have been worse. Could have been at home. Although since the cats these days seem to be systematically destroying all other animal life forms within a 30 yard radius of our living room that probably wouldn't be a problem.

It could have been worse. You could have seen half of a dead one.

If they don't move their legs when prodded it's OK by me whether it's 1, 1/2 or 1/4

I've never seen one, and I'm thankful. *shudder*

Well I have only seen one once before - in my hotel room in Gran Canaria. But that was dead and we never saw another - so I'm not exactly an expert.

To be honest they don't really look any worse than any other insects - although perhaps bigger than most. It's their - ahem - reputation that is the problem I guess.

Indeed. And I think I've seen enough films with them in to put me off for life. Their reputation may be undeserved, but images of people squishing them in their hundreds was enough to make me squirm.

I used to live with cockroaches, in my bedroom, kitchen, and bathrooms. The joys of living in student halls of residence :- They did periodically zap them all but they inevitably came back... I quite liked them actually, they're such loverly clean creatures, at least when compaired to the other students who lived in halls, who thought keeping rotten meat in the comunal fridge was a good idea. Quite worrying as most in my halls were destined to become, and probably now are, doctors. So, the cockroaches were kind of light relief from the otherwise filthy other residents.

How odd. I just had a visit from a guy wielding a big book of insects.

He showed me a picture of a british cockroach and another insect that people commonly mistake for a cockroach.


Guess what - it was the latter. The building manager will be relieved.

It was most probably a cockchafer it seems.