The Beetle has bad memories about sharing a room with
what seemed like a thousand cockroaches in Gilgit in
Pakistan a few years ago and was afraid that they would fly
on to her bed. (Before you ask, no, Beetles are not friends
with cockroaches, they are sworn enemies, but we try and
live and let live.)

Did you know that most cockroaches have wings, but they
can only fly when temperatures are quite high. And what’s
more, cockroaches are omnivorous, i.e. they will eat
anything, including each other if there is nothing else
available.

One internet source, maybe urban myth, states that a
cockroach can live up to nine days without its head before
it starves to death. They have amazing scuttling abilities:
one US study showed that cockroaches are capable of running
at 50 body lengths per second on a treadmill – the
equivalent of Carl Lewis doing the 100-meter in 1.09
seconds!