The Cockroach 
53 
soaked in milk, you will find that in the 
course of time it will uncoil itself and 
approach you when called. I had one 
once for some years, and lent it to anyone 
who was troubled with cockroaches. It 
simply needs to be shut in the room where 
you have any trouble, and when the 
shadows of night draw on it will commence 
operations. And you will not have to 
wait long before you discover that you 
have the best trap in the world. To those 
who live in districts where circumstances 
make it difficult to obtain a hedgehog, 
or get a patent trap, a piece of wood 
covered with coarse sugar or treacle floating 
in a broad dish of water will generally 
do its deadly work. 
There is just one little favour I would 
ask before closing. Don’t call cockroaches 
blackbeetles again. Why ? Because, 
simply, they are not beetles at all ! 
Neither are they by any means all black — 
in fact, the greater proportion of them, 
especially the smaller species, are brown. 
