Oft-repeated

 

Oft-repeated

One of my favourite songs is ‘All God’s creatures got a place in the choir.’ The version here is by Makem and Clancy.

The song was written by the American folksinger Bill Staines (1947-2021)

One of my oft-repeated phrases is that everything has its place in the world.

All things in nature contribute to the ecosystem, though it’s sometimes hard to appreciate the role of the less attractive.

One that makes people shudder is the cockroach. They have been in existence for about three hundred and twenty million years.

Associated with decay, dirt, and disease, there are four thousand, six hundred species, and of those, around thirty are associated with humans. They live in a wide range of locations, from Arctic to Equatorial, and the members of most species are insignificant and innocuous. Many are social, gregarious animals, living in close proximity to each other, for protection and to reproduce.

They range in length from 3.5 mm to 97 mm and most of them are rusty brown in colour, though the Domino cockroach is black with white spots.

Repulsive as they are, they are vital agents in the removal of decaying matter, like dead animals, plants, and leaf litter. They are one of Nature’s refuse collectors.

They also enrich the soil with their droppings. They are an important food for animals, like birds, reptiles, and small mammals.

As they dig through soil and fallen leaves they function as aerators, breaking up and improving the earth. Some even assist in seed dispersal.

They have been studied extensively in the fields of locomotion and antibiotic research.

Nonetheless, cockroaches do not live in isolation, and where there is one, there will be others nearby, possibly dozens, or even hundreds of others.