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‘Christie Cockroach’ Cruises to New Jersey Cockroach Derby Victory

In August, a giant Madagascar hissing cockroach designated to represent New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie handily sped past another roach designated as Barbara Buono, Christie’s challenger in the November election. The 17th New Jersey Cockroach Derby took place on the Cook College Campus of Rutgers University, where the New Jersey Pest Management Association held its 66th annual clinic, tradeshow and clambake.

“In the past two Cockroach Derby races the winning roaches represented John McCain and Mitt Romney, respectively, so a win by the Christie cockroach may or may not reflect the outcome of the actual election in November,” said Len Douglen, the association’s executive director.

In a series of trial races, the two cockroaches, both far larger than a typical German cockroach, demonstrated their speed as they scurried down a six-foot-long Plexiglas “race track” while onlookers cheered on their “candidate.”

The men and women responsible for preventing and solving the many problems that pests represent, members of the New Jersey Pest Management Association, attended the annual Clinic in order to update their knowledge at a day-long series of seminars by some of the nation’s leading experts on various aspects of pest control.

The event was held in a vendors’ tent in the parking lot of Hickman Hall on the Cook College campus, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J. The Clinic drew about 600 members of the association as well as some out-of-state attendees.
 

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Roaches Make Uninvited Visit to White House

Cockroaches are the latest maintenance issue to re-emerge in the 213-year-old White House, Yahoo News reported.

It was just a cockroach, one of millions around the world. But this one had a White House address, making it pretty special. Special at least to the reporters with workspace in the often-troubled basement of the press offices. Already this year, they have been treated to flooding, soaked carpet, mousetraps and the wondrous odors of mold.

“It was the size of a small drone,” said Martha Joynt Kumar, professor of political science at Towson University, who led an effort to capture the bug.

Kumar, who has worked out of the press offices studying the president-press relationship for almost four decades, wanted to turn it into the General Services Administration, the agency responsible for the building. “I wanted to bag it so that the GSA would know what kind of issue we had,” she said. “I chased it. But it got away behind some wiring.”

The incident recalled the Carter administration’s battle with rodents in the White House during the late 1970s, the article noted.