Spygirl

Ira-surely you don't really believe that "roaches are cleaner than flies?" Roaches carry some of the most horrible disease pathogens known to humankind, including, but not limited to, bubonic plague, cholera, e-coli, hepatitis-B, and most commonly, staph infections.

Gregor Samsa's Verwandlung or no, these are some nasty critters!

But I like what I read once from a comedian: (don't remember who)

"They say roaches can survive a nuclear holocaust, but they don't seem to fare too well against my rolled up copy of the Times!"

platzman

This is a funny thread. Don't understand how I missed the original post back in May. I've stayed in some pretty suspect hostels and dingy flea-bitten hotels during my first years of travel. I don't recall ever having a problem with roaches. But there was one time at a hotel on Rue Cardinal Lemoine where we were eaten alive by
Parisian mosquitoes. When we complained, they just looked at us, shrugged their shoulders and said "no mosquitoes". Now, I'm from Louisiana and I know mosquitoes. They're our unofficial state "bird". When you try to spray them with insecticide, it only makes them high.