Bugging Out – How New Yorkers Deal With Big Summer Roaches

New York, NY —

New Yorkers are used to rats, pigeons and more than a fare share of household pests. But they still seem surprised - and disgusted - every summer when some exceptionally large, six-legged creatures come out of the sewers and walk the streets at night. WNYC’s Beth Fertig has more.

WHITING: You see that? You see that brown skid mark?

REPORTER: Herb Whiting is pointing to a big smoosh on the pavement, just outside his East Village apartment building. A few minutes ago it was a waterbug. But then -

WHITING: Basically I just put my left foot down and put a little twist.

REPORTER: Whiting doesn’t look like he has much to fear from an inch and a half long cockroach. He’s a big guy, who spends summer nights sitting in a chair outside with his neighbors. But when he sees a waterbug creeping by, it’s time to move that foot. Preferably with a little style.

WHITING: You know, you give ‘em a Chubby Checker Twist stomp. You know, depending. Depending on the way you feeling. But the bottom line is you don’t want them around and you want them exterminated.

REPORTER: His neighbor, Maria Nazario, says that’s because they’re not just out on the streets.

NAZARIO: They’re in the halls, they’re outside, in the homes if you leave the screen open they fly in, it’s ridiculous. Sometimes when you’re closing the screen and you hear –click - a knock and you, all of a sudden there’s the roach right there.

REPORTER: The word “roach” seems too ordinary for something so big. Maybe that’s why many New Yorkers prefer the term “waterbug.” These insects are scarier than the smaller German or Brown-Banded cockroaches we typically find in our kitchens. They walk down the streets as though they own them. And they look even bigger when they fly. But the waterbug is, in fact, a cockroach.

SORKIN: It’s actually Periplaneta Americana. Its common name is American Cockroach.

REPORTER: Louis Sorkin is an entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History. He says the American Cockroach arrived through colonization, so its name is a misnomer. It’s believed to have come here on slave ships from Africa. We see them on summer nights because they prefer dark, warm, moist environments. But they’re here year-round in our basements, and sewers.

SORKIN: They happen to come out of the sewer lines often and walk all over the sidewalks ‘cause they like hot temperatures and well, they’re looking for food, they’re looking for mates.

REPORTER: Sorkin is really an expert in spiders but he also studies the more exotic cockroaches.

SORKIN: These are hissing cockroaches…

REPORTER: In the hall outside his office, where you can hear the crickets used for feeding the spiders, Sorkin keeps some tropical roaches just for show in a few terrariums. One has Hissing Cockroaches from Madagascar.

ROACH: Hiss! Hiss! SORKIN: That’s one way of predator avoidance is when it’s touched it hisses and the animal lets go of it.

REPORTER: This is where you’re probably reaching for the radio dial. But hang on. As a scientist, Sorkin says our American Cockroaches are also pretty interesting.

SORKIN: You might see them, you know, putting their antennae out and touching things, maybe tasting surfaces, being attracted to food someone leaves on the street, beer might be - they might want to drink it. I don’t really know, but I know if you watch them instead of just stepping on them you might learn something.

REPORTER: Although Sorkin freely admits he kills any he finds in his house. Out on the Lower East Side, it seems like the waterbug inspires only disgust and sadism.

MAN: I step on them. That’s what I do when I see one. WOMAN: The other day there was one in my house. And I was scared, screaming. GIRL: We smashed it with the slippers. WOMAN: And I put some poison, spray. BOY: I just like get the feeling I want to kill it. I don’t know why. It’s to relieve stress, I guess.

REPORTER: Twelve year olds Jawan Ellis, Juan Carl Vidot and Jonathan Solero live in the projects way East off Delancey. They say the big cockroaches are all over the place.

KIDS: Before I saw a wasp fighting a cockroach. KID: We find a book of matches, and go upstairs and get some alcohol and throw it on the cockroaches and they be dizzy and we let them on fire and let them burn. And we be like ‘burn baby burn, and disco baby!’

REPORTER: But every now and then, you might meet a New Yorker for whom the waterbug inspires something other than the urge to kill. In Tomkins Square Park – surrounded by crickets and lightning bugs – Chris Perry says he’s given up killing the big roaches that used to enter his Bronx apartment.

PERRY: Like I usually put them in a jar, slip an envelope underneath, take it to the window, throw it out, it will come in again next week but I don’t care. REPORTER: So you never kill them? PERRY: I used to squash them but it’s a mess, and I no longer believe in hurting them. They’ll be around a lot longer than you, me, they should be respected and yeah, I think they should be emulated.

REPORTER: After 300 million years, maybe roaches have earned some respect. And things could be worse. In southern cities they can hang out on the sidewalks all year long if the weather is warm enough. For WNYC I’m Beth Fertig.