I was riding the E train once( the E train is a local train that goes up the east side of Manhattan). Someone came passing through one car and into the one I was in and a large roach fluttered in. Good God every woman and a few men went nuts. The thing landed on the floor of the car a few feet from me. I stood up and bought my Timberland construction boot down on it hard, twice to make sure it was dead.
They have giant flying cockroaches in Southeast Asia (shudder). They really fly. And when you kill one, his buddies appear and haul off his body right away. I always wondered whether they were cannibals or just pallbearers.
Here in the Southern US we have Palmetto Bugs that normally live outside, but sometimes make their way indoors. They are ... utterly horrifying.
If the NYC regular cockroaches are that big and flighty, well, I reckon I’ll just stay down here.