If unsolicited steam baths and especially putrid smells aren’t bad enough, weather conditions along the East Coast also threaten to bring about a phenomenon no New Yorker ever wants to see: flying cockroaches.
The National Weather Service has issued an “Excessive Heat Warning” for the New York City area, meaning the combination of heat and humidity could make it feel like it’s 105 degrees or more outside.
And as DNAinfo reports, this combination creates a perfect storm for roaches to take flight.
“In hot steam tunnels, something with the temperature and the humidity encourages them to fly,” Ken Schumann, an entomologist at Bell Environmental Services, tells DNAinfo. “When it’s warm and steamy that seems to be what they like.”
Srini Kambhampati, a professor and chair of the biology department at the University of Texas at Tyler, tells NBC News that it’s possible roaches are more active in this current weather because their development depends on ambient temperature.
And, “because of the extreme heat, they may be trying to find a more comfortable place in which to live — that is, they are on the move to find a better, cooler place,” he says.
Some New Yorkers have already reported flying cockroach sightings:
THERE IS A FLYING COCKROACH IN MY APARTMENT DO I CALL 911
— Molly Mulshine (@mollymulshine) August 2, 2016
First time I saw a cockroach flying in NYC felt like the scene in JURASSIC PARK when raptors learn how to open doors https://t.co/Erds014SR2
— Adam Sternbergh (@sternbergh) August 12, 2016
So I’m walking up the subway stairs to the street, & I see a big butterfly flying towards me to welcome me home.. NOPE. GIANT COCKROACH. ☠☠☠
— Dan Amboyer (@danamboyer) August 8, 2016
matched on tinder with a flying cockroach
— Marisa Kabas (@MarisaKabas) August 13, 2016
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