Cockroaches Going Extinct?

As a former Manhattan resident, who suffered through the ignominy of roaches following me to three other cities to which I later moved -- and infecting my brother's apartment after he took possession of a teak credenza that had lived in New York City with me -- this story warms my heart. The Roach That Failed [New York Times]. It appears that the development of hydramethylnon bait (commercially sold as Combat) in the mid-1980s has been so successful that there have been "90 to 95 percent reductions in cockroach populations, across the country."

So the insects that have lived with mankind since the ancient Egyptians and can survive a nuclear bomb are finally on their way out. Now if only we can do the same thing with the other major scourge of human beings -- mosquitos.

 Posted by glenn