Cockroaches aren't the Survivors we would be led to think they are!

Yikes, I have had a phobia of cockroaches ever since I was little! I remember it was one Chinese New Years Eve. Actually these were really fun times as we lived just opposite a field and people would shoot fireworks at each others houses (none actually caught on fire thankfully/woefully!). I was much too young to participate without blowing any of my limbs up so I was made to stand next to my mother underneath a tree. Here I was enjoying the spectacle when suddenly a disgusting little cockroach fell from the tree onto me. It was at night and I was only about 3 then. Imagine my horror (and its horror!) as it scrambled across my body. I think I was yelling and jumping and crying just trying to get it off, and no I did not create the Macarena dance that night! However, since then, I have always been a little wary of the little buggers!

New Zealand is not normally a place where you see too many roaches. The rare ones that you do see are tiny little creatures that wouldn't scare anyone. Imagine my shock when after taking a shower, I saw one crawling on my sink! This one was big for a New Zealand roach (not as big as a Malaysian one though). I freaked! I went around looking for something that could squash it. A book? No, i didn't want to stain my favourite toilet reading material. Some tissue paper? No, those roaches are quick as lightning and i didn't want to feel it struggling before I made it go squish! I then went downstairs and searched for some insectide which I remembered was around the house. Unfortunately I have the memory of an 80 year old goldish and couldn't find it, most probably it never existed! I quickly ran back up to the scene of the crime (or soon-to-be crime as I was gonna murder the poor little thing). It was still there on the sink, sneering and heckling at me!

Lousy Roach! Give you chance to escape and still you want to stick around!

I checked the toilet cabinet and voila, my weapon of choice was at hand! And so I took out the hairspray and aimed it at the arthropod. This was perfect! I would not have to get my hands dirty and there would be a fragrant smell after the deed! I pressed down on the button and let loose on the insect, covering it with hairspray! Eventually it died, a combination of drowning in hairspray and being stuck as a result of the hairspray drying, and was sent to a watery grave (flushed!). I then did a victory jig in celebration of my victory (No i didn't).

However, I was led to believe that Cockroaches would outlast humans because I've heard that even if there was a nuclear bomb that wiped out all of humanity, that Cockroaches would survive the radioactive fallout while we disappeared from the annals of history. However if they can be killed by simply hairspray (although I did administer a LOT of hairspray onto it), I wonder if scientists need to reconsider this proposition. Life lesson learnt that hairspray is an effective insectide if used in copious amounts. Kinda makes you wander what they put into hair spray??