Oh, no, it won't bite you.
It will only get into your pantry and eat your food.
It will walk around in the night and frighten you if you go suddenly
into the kitchen.
It will not frighten you on purpose, but when it hears you coming, it
will run, and then maybe you will scream and run too.
What is that, May? You've a good mind to scream and run as it is?
Very well, scream and run if you want to; the cockroach won't care.
We do not often see these big black fellows in the North, but sometimes
we do. Down South cockroaches seem to be everywhere.
What, May? You are never going South, then?
Well, you do not need to go; the cockroaches won't care.
They have little heads and long antennæ, like threads.
What is that, May? You don't care anything about their heads? You don't
want to know anything about cockroaches?
Oh, yes, you want to know about cockroaches. Remember how old they are.
They have six legs, you see.
You don't care how many legs they have?
Oh, yes, you do. They could not walk if they had no legs.
You wish they couldn't walk?
Dear me, May; you don't seem to like cockroaches.
Poor old cockroaches.
[Illustration]
Think how old they are.
What is that you say? They are old enough to know better?
Why, May, what have they ever done to you?
Nothing, only you don't like them?
Well, well, they don't like you, either. Poor old cockroaches; nobody
seems to like them.
Perhaps they don't care.
Will you let me tell you where they came from?
They do not belong to this country.
Their natural home is tropical Asia.
You see, about four hundred years ago, the ships that bore fruits and
other merchandise from India and other warm countries in Asia, bore, as
well, a number of little, flat, reddish brown stowaways.
[Illustration]
Stowaways, as you know, are people that do not buy their tickets, but
that hide among the ship's cargo, and so get free transportation to
other countries.
Well, these little flat stowaways were not human beings, they were
insects. Yes, May, they were the cockroaches.
When they landed from their hot land of Asia in cold England, they must
have wondered what was to become of them. Many of them no doubt died,
for they cannot stand cold weather at all; but some of them were
carried, with the fruits and other things, quite unintentionally, of
course, for nobody guessed they were there, into warm cellars and
kitchen cupboards.
_Then_ they felt at home!
They knew better than to leave the cosey nooks where they could hide
away and sleep all day, and when they came out at night would find a
delicious supper close at hand.
They are great eaters, you know, so what with the good things in the
pantry and the warmth of the kitchen quarters they prospered wherever
they could find a kitchen to live in.
Soon they spread all over the large cities of England and finally into
even remote country districts.
Of course they found their way to the United States of America, and in
many houses in the North they have taken lodging. But down South, where
it is always warm enough, they have prospered greatly, and they are
there in far greater numbers than in the North.
Besides, there is a large American cockroach that belongs to tropical
America, but that has found its way pretty well over the country. And
there are cockroaches that live in the woods, some of them coming in the
night to visit our houses and help themselves from our pantries.
Yes, Mollie, the cockroaches eat almost anything they can find, and what
they do not eat they spoil by an ill-smelling liquid they give out when
disturbed.
It is this liquid that makes the cockroaches so very offensive to us.
We cannot bear to touch one because of it.
Cockroaches eat one variety of food that nobody objects to their having.
They are fond of bed bugs and greedily devour them.
Besides the large, dark, reddish brown cockroaches there is a little
tan-colored fellow that is often very troublesome.
[Illustration]
It is not a native of this country, but is supposed to have been brought
to England by soldiers from the Crimea, and later it found its way to
America.
We call it the croton bug, but it is not a bug at all, it is a
cockroach.
It is particularly numerous about water pipes, and, like the rest of the
cockroaches, it hides in the daytime.
At night out troop crowds and crowds of the little tan-colored water
bugs. They run about the floor, and over the pantry shelves. They get
into everything they can find, and have a beautiful time.
They are funny little fellows, and if they were not so troublesome, we
might admire them.
How they can run!
All the cockroaches run very fast, so that it is hard to catch one. And
they are hard and smooth, too, which makes it yet more difficult to
catch them. They are well made to escape their enemies, and they are so
flat they can hide in cracks or almost anywhere.
No, May, they do not fly very much. You see this one has short wings. It
is a male cockroach. The female of this species of cockroach has no
wings at all, only little hints of wings, as it were.
Such little useless wings we call "rudimentary" wings.
John says he thinks that is a long word for short wings.
Yes, but it is not a hard word,--ru-di-ment-ary, see if you can remember
it.
The croton bugs have longer wings and they sometimes fly.
If you were to spread out the wings of a cockroach, you would find it
had four.
What is that, May? You wouldn't spread them out for anything?
Yet wise men have been very much interested in our poor, ill-smelling
old cockroaches, and have studied carefully all about them.
[Illustration]
If you dislike to touch the cockroach so much, perhaps you will look at
this picture of a croton bug.
See, the upper wings are different; the cockroach does not fly with
them, he merely uses them to cover up the under wings, and we call them
wing covers.
It is the under wings the cockroach flies with.
Cockroaches may not be pleasant, but who can say they are not
interesting?
What other insect lays its eggs in little bandboxes?
Here is one of the little boxes, shiny and hard.
[Illustration]
This little case is at first a sticky substance that soon hardens. The
eggs lie in it side by side in two rows.
These cases remain attached to the abdomen of the female cockroach until
the eggs are all laid. Then the case falls off, and soon out runs a
crowd of infant cockroaches.
[Illustration]
The case is something like a satchel that shuts with a spring. The
youngsters are packed close together, side by side, with their heads
towards the mouth of the satchel.
As soon as one hatches it pushes open the side of the case and creeps
out. Then the case springs together again to protect the rest of the
brood.
They are funny fellows when they first come out, little and
white-looking. But they eat and grow of course, and shed their skins,
and after each moult they become darker in color.
Now, do look again at this cockroach I have taken such pains to catch
for you and put into the tumbler.