The outside walls of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Bern are crawling with cockroaches. A catastrophe, says the exterminator. Nothing new, says the church.
The Church of the Holy Spirit next to Bern’s train station is affected by a cockroach invasion. – Nau.ch
the essentials in brief
- At night, the walls of the Holy Spirit Church in Bern are covered in cockroaches.
- The oriental cockroaches are difficult to control, says a pest expert.
- The church works with exterminators and traps – but the vermin come every summer.
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Bern, 11:18 p.m.: Nau.ch reader Lukas Nawidat* (20) is on his way home. He walks past the Church of the Holy Spirit next to Bern train station – and is taken aback: there are numerous vermin crawling on the facade of the church, some up to five centimeters long.
“At first I thought they might have some kind of nighttime mating ritual there,” Nawidat told Nau.ch. But a few weeks later, the animals were still there at night. There must have been at least 50 of them.
Close-up of a cockroach in front of the Holy Spirit Church in Bern. 
The church has been struggling with the vermin for years. 
These are oriental cockroaches. These are particularly difficult to control. (Symbolic image)
“It’s really disgusting. Especially for the homeless who sometimes sleep in front of the church. It’s dangerous.”
Exterminator Christoph Nellessen is also shocked: “I’ve seen a lot – but never anything like this,” he tells Nau.ch.
And: “Cockroaches are pathogens,” he confirms. “I don’t want to imagine what it’s like to have them in your sleeping bag.”
Warmer winters make invasion worse
The pests are oriental cockroaches – these are particularly difficult to combat.
Nellessen speaks of a “catastrophe”. Especially because the problem is likely to increase in the future: “The winters will not be as cold anymore. That means the animals will survive the cold months too.”
Is your home infested with cockroaches?
90%
No, fortunately not.
2
No, fortunately not.
The cockroaches are a well-known problem for the church, says Carmen Hess, communications manager for the Reformed Church in Bern. “For us, this comes back every year.”
The problem increased when the station reconstruction began. The church is now working with a pest control company and has set up traps, says Hess.
But: “Many of the older buildings in the city of Bern have this problem – the Church of the Holy Spirit is not alone.”
*Name changed by the editors
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