The nightmare fuel is only set to increase as we endure Miss La Niña’s continued existence into the warmer months because you know what simply loves warm, damp environments? Cockroaches. Lawn prawns. Flying, crawling spawns of evil.
Apparently, the beautiful combination of the Australian summer and the ongoing wet weather is simply prime conditions for an onslaught of roaches. Good! Great! Love that for me and my existence in this godforsaken place!
Brisbane pest exterminator Gavin Shill told the ABC we’re very likely going to see a heap of roaches and spiders trying to get into homes as the temperature rises.
“With hotter days forecast later in this week, following the rain we’ve just had, we’re about to see an explosion of cockroaches — the big American and Australian ones that fly into your house — and spiders,” he said.
“They have slower breeding patterns, but when it gets hot they speed up.
“By the end of the week, we should be seeing large numbers of those entering people’s houses.”
Queensland is also seeing an increased number of “lawn prawns” which are literally a type of prawn that live on land and love the damp, wet conditions of peoples’ lawns.
The rain and warmth also create an ideal situation for the plants and weeds in our gardens to grow like berserk which also means more food for critters.
Seriously, Cockroaches need to decide whether they are flying or walking insect.
— 𝔸b𝕒𝕫𝕫 (@abazwhyllzz) October 22, 2022
University of Sydney’s Integrative Ecology Group head Professor Dieter Hochuli told the ABC that the increase in plant growth and the bugs that love to munch them.
“Rainfall promotes high growth of plants and promote the species that eat them,” he said.
“That then means there’s heaps of food for the things that eat other insects. It’s basically a bottom-up driven system where the high primary productivity drives the success of a lot of animals in a lot of systems.”
So essentially more rain and more heat mean more bugs and more chances of us having to deal with them trying to get into the house. Catch me repeatedly trying to trap snails and other creepy crawlies, putting them back in the garden and tersely telling them to STAY OUT.
It also means summer enemy number one is going to have a bumper season this year: mosquitoes.
Godspeed to all who are trying to navigate the bug-filled summer slowly approaching us. Oh and please do not let those awful Sydney cockroaches cross the state line to Melbourne, please.
