It's hot, it's humid, and whereas New Yorkers are hiding in their homes to stay cool, cockroaches are trying to beat the heat by going airborne and taking flight.
That's right, the annoying insects that usually crawl around the city (and sometimes into your food if you're unlucky) will now be taking to the skies thanks to the ongoing weather conditions in New York City.
Known as American Cockroaches, the roaches fly using a second pair of wings, that lie beneath an outer pair that are used for protection. Under normal circumstances, seeing these insects mid-flight would be a common sight in states like Florida and Texas, where they are referred to as palmetto bugs, for their habit of hanging out on palm trees.
As opposed to southern states that have hot and humid weather, New York is generally cooler, meaning that flying cockroaches are generally fewer. However, with the high heat and humidity that is expected to continue until 8 p.m. EST (hopefully), roaches will be taking to the sky.
"At those temperatures, when they gets exceedingly high, moisture in their bodies is evaporating from the little spaces in between their hardened segments, so they're definitely trying to move around to cool off," said cockroach expert Dr. Dominic Evangelista.
For what its worth, these roaches don't fly in the truest sense of the word. Rather, they glide, traveling from a higher spot to a lower one, and can only go as far as a city block.
"Compare a bird to a chicken," said Hao Yu, a resident entomologist at Bell Environmental Services, "[roaches aren't] true fliers as you would define a bee or a dragonfly."
As for why that's the case? Evolution.
Compared to other locations, New York City has a high density of trash cans and an ample food supply which has prompted roaches to rely less on using their wings to travel from one source of food to another.
"As the evolution occurred, their wings became and less important to them. There's so much food around," said Rich Miller, owner of Broadway Exterminating. "They don't use their wings like they used to."
In other words, yes, you might come across a flying cockroach, but it likely won't be flying around for too long.
Of course, that's of little solace for anyone who does come across one, even more so when those roaches get a little too close for comfort.
