Richard Schweid
The Cockroach Papers
A Compendium of History and Lore

"Nature's evolutionary success story, the indestructible cockroach, gets the full treatment in Schweid's zesty survey of roach fact and fancy." — Kirkus Reviews

Much to our chagrin, the Cockroach Era may never end. With the imminent passage of another millennium, the time-defying evolutionary star takes the prize for best species yet again.

Human beings, the most sophisticated members of the animal kingdom, bow at the feet (all six of them) of these blessed beasts: cockroaches are built for survival, and, despite all our efforts, these masterpieces of evolutionary design are here to stay-come rain or shine, in the Americas or Asia, after biological warfare or nuclear fallout.

The Cockroach Papers, a unique, personal history of the roach, enlightens us about these most annoying and indestructible household pests. Blattella germanica is the most common U.S. cockroach (but it is just one of the five thousand species scientists have identified). In teeming fellowship roaches inhabit our bathrooms and kitchens. They live behind walls and under floorboards, in the dishwasher and the oven. They eat the crumbs we drop and drink deeply from the moisture left after a long shower or from a leaky toilet. Their menus are varied, including feces, dead humans, and their own young, among other delicacies. They also have a particular taste for warm sour beer.

Cockroaches are pure instinct, straightforward sentient machines. Despite their reputation as dirty disease-carrying vectors, roaches are obsessed with cleanliness as much as the most immaculate of housekeepers. Their technique for reproduction is highly sophisticated, and it is considerably more efficient than that of human beings.

Schweid recounts the roach-human relationship, which he culled from historical accounts, interviews with exterminators (the new heroes of the modern, infested society), chemists, entomologists, and personal experience. Peppered with quotes from literature and folklore, The Cockroach Papers is the most interesting exploration of the most unwelcome and tenacious of insects.

Richard Schweid was born in Nashville. He is the author of Hot Peppers, Barcelona, Catfish and The Delta. He lives in Barcelona.