50 Insect Life : Its Why and Wherefore 
love the hours of darkness, and do 
not generally issue forth until the light 
has been extinguished, when they seem to 
move about with very great activity, 
being able, apparently, either to mount a 
wall or flat surface, or to career about on 
the ground at a great rate. As to their 
food, they are ready for anything and 
everything, being proverbially voracious, 
and may be said to be truly omnivorous, 
devouring whatever comes in their way. 
Probably one of the reasons why they are 
so intensely unpopular is because what 
they do not actually consume they spoil 
by rendering it unfit for consumption. 
Those who have been in the haunts of the 
cockroach will not have a pleasurable 
recollection of the peculiar foetid odour 
which the insect seems to impart to 
everything which it comes into contact with, 
whether it may chance to be an article of 
food, wearing apparel, or possibly even a 
pair of old boots. Leather is frequently 
destroyed by them. 
There is no doubt that the cockroach 
is a splendid scavenger, and probably in 
his native lands, where there is a noted 
