Westwood (1869) stated that _Pycnoscelus surinamensis_ was very destructive in orchid houses feeding on buds and young shoots. Later Westwood (1876) exhibited the bulb of an orchid from Ecuador which contained six species of cockroaches: _Blatta orientalis_, [_Periplaneta_?] _americana_, [_Nauphoeta_?] _cinerea_, [_Leucophaea_?] _maderae_, and two others unknown to him. Fullaway (1938) stated that cockroaches damage root tips, buds, and flowers of orchids. _Periplaneta americana_ has been said to eat the root tips and blossoms of orchids (Taschenberg, 1884) and to devour the open flower petals of _Cattleya_ orchids as well as the aerial roots and flower spikes of _Vanda_ orchids (Rau, 1940a). Wainwright (1898) stated that _Periplaneta australasiae_ had been observed in an orchid house in Perthshire where over a period of three years it had caused a good deal of damage. Skinner (1905) reported that _P. australasiae_ in greenhouses in Pennsylvania showed no preference for any one plant but ate both plants and flowers of orchids, roses, and carnations. Lucas (1918) received specimens of _P. australasiae_ which had played havoc with orchids especially _Cattleya_ and _Vanda_. Morse (1920) reported that both _P. australasiae_ and _Pycnoscelus surinamensis_ were obnoxious in a conservatory in Massachusetts where they gnawed the tips of the aerial roots of orchids. Swezey (1945) in Hawaii stated that the following cockroaches have been reported as occasional minor pests on orchids: _Blatta orientalis_, _Blaberus discoidalis_, _P. americana_, and _P. surinamensis_; he further stated that _Graptoblatta notulata_ had been intercepted at Honolulu on orchids from India. Watson (1907) stated that _Blatta orientalis_, _Periplaneta americana_, and _Periplaneta australasiae_ were injurious in the tropical plant houses at Kew: "at night they come out and run or fly about among the plants, devouring flowers and leaves like rabbits. Such plants as _Eucharis_, _Crinum_ and _Alpinia_, when in flower, have little chance in the palm house, where the cockroaches are most abundant; they also find out the ripening bananas and soon devour them." Raffill (1910) stated that in plant houses in England _B. orientalis_, _P. americana_, and _P. australasiae_ commonly, and _Nauphoeta cinerea_, _Nauphoeta flexivitta_, and _Pycnoscelus surinamensis_ more rarely, are extremely destructive to plants. Flowers having a strong perfume, such as orchids, _Eucharis_, _Crinum_, and _Hedychium_, were often attacked while other flowers nearby were left uninjured.