Roach Clippings

“They first hitched rides in soldiers’ bread baskets to the Middle East 1,200 years ago — much earlier than previously thought … They reached Europe, where they would get their name, only 270 years ago, probably aboard European colonial ships. Global trade in the 19th and 20th centuries allowed the scavengers to infiltrate most of the world’s nooks and crannies, and indoor plumbing and heating enticed them to stay.” NYT (Gift Article): How the Cockroach Took Over the World. “A genetic analysis of the German cockroach explained its rise in southern Asia millenniums ago, and how it eventually turned up in your kitchen.”