Cockroaches

The Apr-May, '96 issue of National Wildlife magazine reported on a solution to the cockroach problem. Below, as subsequently reported by the July-Aug, '96 issue of Spectrum and then by New Heaven New Earth newsletter.

In 1990, the cockroach problem at a public school in Allegan, MI was so bad that children were carrying cockroaches home in their lunch boxes and pant cuffs. Regular insecticides were ineffective - the bugs had developed a resistance. In desperation, a local exterminating company took the radical approach of creating an artificial ecosystem inside the school that was hostile to the cockroaches. Two of the cockroach's natural enemies were introduced: nematodes and tiny wasps the size of pinheads. Neither posed a threat to humans but quickly eliminated the cockroach problem at a cost less than conventional methods. Biological pest control is now used in all Allegan's school, making it the first US school system to replace pesticides with natural methods.