The Insect Folk Part 8

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 c.o.c.kroaches.

Poor old c.o.c.kroaches.

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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 c.o.c.kroaches; n.o.body 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 s.h.i.+ps 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.

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Stowaways, as you know, are people that do not buy their tickets, but that hide among the s.h.i.+p'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 c.o.c.kroaches.

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 n.o.body 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 c.o.c.kroach that belongs to tropical America, but that has found its way pretty well over the country. And there are c.o.c.kroaches 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 c.o.c.kroaches 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 c.o.c.kroaches so very offensive to us.

We cannot bear to touch one because of it.

c.o.c.kroaches eat one variety of food that n.o.body objects to their having.

They are fond of bed bugs and greedily devour them.

Besides the large, dark, reddish brown c.o.c.kroaches there is a little tan-colored fellow that is often very troublesome.

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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 c.o.c.kroach.

It is particularly numerous about water pipes, and, like the rest of the c.o.c.kroaches, 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 c.o.c.kroaches 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 c.o.c.kroach. The female of this species of c.o.c.kroach 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 c.o.c.kroach, 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 c.o.c.kroaches, and have studied carefully all about them.

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If you dislike to touch the c.o.c.kroach so much, perhaps you will look at this picture of a croton bug.

See, the upper wings are different; the c.o.c.kroach 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 c.o.c.kroach flies with.