Flying cock roaches

Yesterday evening, while reading, I heard what I thought was a small bird flying around the board. I found the "bird" crawling around and then it flew at me.  It looked like a cockroach with wings.

I wasn't convinced it was a cockroach until  a local person confirmed that yes indeed Port Santo has flying cockroaches!  Apparently it's quite uncommon.


Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of it in my haste to catch it and evict it from the boat, but it was big!

Addendum: while recounting the story to a fellow sailor, he told me that he had a roach investation.  Hi solution was quite simple - get a plastic bag and put potatoes inside it.  Seemingly the cock roaches adore potatoes and so you can just grap the bag when full and dispose of potatoes and cockroaches in one foul swoop!

Thankfully, this was the only cockroach we encountered on Embla, so no potatoe traps were required!

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