I was tidying up my place one day when I noticed a thumb-sized hole in a plastic bag that used to hold some bread. I thought a rat had gnawed the hole but upon closer inspection, I realized it was caused by a cockroach!

The hole that I noticed in the plastic bag was fairly big so I naturally thought something like a rat chewed through it. A closer look, however, revealed a series of tiny bite marks spaced closely together, like a pair of miniature scissors was used to cut out a hole.

Roach bite marks

Cockroaches are common here in Taiwan, and are pretty much a fact of everyday life. Most get to be a couple of inches long and what is really freaky is these monsters can fly. In fact, I woke one morning to the fluttering sound of what I thought was a butterfly that had somehow got into my bedroom. I soon realized to my disgust, however, that the beating of wings around my head was from no butterfly but instead was from a roach!

Roach in fridge

Even places that you would consider safe from these creepy critters can still be infiltrated. When cleaning out my refrigerator last week, I found a small roach (fortunately dead) under the vegetable bin. Who knows how long it snacked on my food before succumbing to the cold.

Roach on ice

Though they might conjure up feelings of disgust and revulsion in most people, cockroaches sure are tough resourceful critters.