Huge, creepy crawly insects have returned to the corner of East Charleston Boulevard and Main Street. Life Downtown couldn't be any better.
A little background: During the bulk of the 1960s through to the early '80s, Morgan Pest Control was home to a cluster of 6-foot-tall, metal cockroaches. They were mounted to the building until thieves took care of them, one by one. As they disappeared, Morgan replaced them with ones made of black paint, with red beady eyes, reminding Las Vegas of the fate that awaits those who don't use an exterminator regularly. Or what the world would look like if things at the Nevada Test Site went terribly wrong.
An all-over paint job and general spiff-up of the two-story building last fall left it shiny white but generic-looking without its signature roach collection. Las Vegans weren't happy.
"We received all kinds of letters and phone calls complaining about the bugs being gone," Morgan Pest Control's Kathy Cerasoli said. (Disclosure: One of those phone calls can be credited to the Consumer.)
A few weeks ago, the bugs showed up again, thanks to artist Tony Ceraolo. First it was a slew of ants walking through some grass. Then a scorpion in a palm tree. Next, a black widow. And finally, a cluster of big, black, nasty German cockroaches.
Cerasoli says the depicted insects are a good representation of those they deal with regularly. "We live in the desert," she said. "We have it all here."
Dead bugs are proof positive your exterminator does a good job, says Cerasoli, and the folks at Morgan Pest Control have been killing bugs dead in Las Vegas since 1955.
The Las Vegas kills have always included a lot of "water bugs" or traditional black cockroaches. We also see a lot of scorpions from the Mojave Desert or inside palm trees from Arizona. Spiders and ants are just about everywhere you want to be.
Morgan Pest Control. 384-7134.
Most exterminators charge about $30 per month for an average-sized house. It's a good idea to make a standing appointment with the bug service you like best—$360 per year is a good way to keep icky insects away. Just because you don't see bugs, doesn't mean they're not there.
Anne Kellogg is a native Las Vegan with a thing for purchasing stuff. E-mail her at
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