A few weeks ago I saw a lone cockroach stranded in my white bathtub... obviously crawled up out of a very wet drain as the monsoonal rains bucketed down outside, 3 months early. And he sat there, frightened and stuck.
I watched him frantically trying to get up out of the slippery bath with little success and, despite being marginally creeped out by the IDEA of cockroaches, I felt something along the lines of compassion. I was reminded of that beautiful poem, Mercy:
And so I scooped him up with the dustpan and brush and relocated him to the garden. As he scuttled off looking for another drain, I started wondering what PURPOSE cockroaches actually have in the order of the natural world. Because, honestly, I have only ever been fed western hype about dirty Asian kitchens and how it is a lack of cleanliness that brings them inside. Now you only have to have been in Asia for 10 minutes to know how fallacious this is!! Cockroaches hate the light, and they hate water, whilst loving warm, damp & dark. They FLY around outside too, in the garden, especially at night. But they live in drains mostly, scuttling up into my pristine white bathtub through the plughole only when the poorly designed drains are full of water and they have no place else to go.
Reminded again of just how little I KNOW that isn't fed by neurosis and fear, I did a little reading about my cockroach buddy....
WOW - did I learn something!!
- Cockroaches are obviously a really important food source for all kinds of birds, spiders, lizards and other critters;
- they also produce their own natural antibiotics which are effective in the treatment of MRSA and other antibiotic resistant infections - the pharmaceutical world is currently grappling with how to apply this knowledge commercially;
- they're really important pollinators;
- cockroaches are part of the clean-up crew of the natural world who help turn waste back into nitrogen to enrich soil;
- and their robotic legs have been used as templates to help create state of the art prosthetics.
Source
It started me thinking about how PERCEPTION feeds FEAR which leads to needless killing and harm. Don't get me wrong, cockroaches DO carry and spread bacteria and disease and are definitely NOT in the same league as cohabiting with George, my 10 inch resident Too-kay Gecko who lives between the air conditioner, the back of my dresser and the window here in my home in Chiang Mai.
I decided rather than killing them needlessly, I could be smarter and simply keep the plug in place, even when the bath is empty. Block the point of entry. I can (and will) also use more regular drain clearing options like caustic soda, so these guys can scuttle back out towards the garden and the septic tank, rather than being forced into a place where they are clearly lost, frightened and out of place.
The Thai eco-solution to cockroach abundance?? Eat them.
Cockroaches are omnivores and feed on rotten vegetables, waste products from industries such as brewer’s yeast, leftover bread, brewer’s spent grains and several other food materials, hence they are very well efficient at turning plant based feed into animal protein. This makes them efficient projectors for addressing the problem of shortage of animal proteins thereby fulfilling the food security goal of sustainable development. Source
Historically, salmon, blueberries, and kale have been touted as a few of the most nutrient-rich foods we can put into our bodies. A new study by the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine in India (inStem), however, reveals that cockroach milk might be the greatest superfood yet.
Research shows the Pacific beetle cockroach has the mammal-like ability to produce milk to feed its offspring, and the milk it “lactates” is full of protein-dense crystals that boast essential amino acids, sugars and healthy fat.Source
20 years here in Thailand and nope, I have NEVER yet (knowingly) eaten a cockroach or a fried insect. And no plans to start!! 🌿
But what this whole little cockroach-in-my-bath-mind-trip HAS taught me, is to be more merciful and to appreciate that all things have their place and function. That said, the bathplug is staying firmly in place 24/7 from now on!!!
So tell me, how do YOU react to cockroaches??
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Oh yeah they're amazing critters. I have to check my first reaction all the time, and am constantly asking kids at school to be more compassionate to insects - they don't care, they're teenagers.
Ask me how I reacted getting a leech on my hand in the Otways today though....I've never tucked socks into trousers so fast.
😆chuckling at the leech factor - I go NOWHERE in the jungle without salt in my pocket! Might be known to snitch those little restaurant packs occasionally specifically for the purpose. I had an undetected leech on my neck one day way back when in the Strezlecki Ranges, and was unaware of my blood soaked tshirt until I returned to my B&B and nearly freaked the guy out. LOL.... And I thought I was just tired from the long hike and had not even considered major blood loss.
Compassion for bugs and critters starts with understanding their function.
Oh yeah they are such wierd little things the way they hop foot it along the forest floor comin' atcha... sooo creepy! But you gotta love even them, right?
Aaaaahhh - checking for leeches now (see my last post)
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