a spray of mist

Last night I saw a cockroach crawling around on the floor. I sprayed it with Baygon but it continued crawling slowly around. It was taking too long to die, and I wanted to sleep early, and in peace. It was then I remembered the Mortein in my parent's room, left collecting dust because my mother condemned it as it couldn't kill lizards effectively.

(I tried explaining to her that lizards were not insects and Mortein was an 'INSECTicide' but she wasn't convinced.)

So the Mortein has a cool nozzle for more directed, less random spraying, and it blasts insecticide in a visible cloud. One blast, and the cockroach scuttled up the cupboard, did a backflip and landed on the floor, wriggling its bottom legs that hadn't yet been paralysed. I sprayed it again, and it flipped itself upright, then flipped over again. By which time, it had tired itself thoroughly with the acrobatics, and could only flail its legs.

I watched it for a while more, and when I saw that it would be dying an agonising death, decided not to spray it again.