When I first lifted the lid on my backyard compost pile and saw cockroaches darting through the vegetable scraps, my first instinct was disgust. Like most people, I’d been conditioned to view cockroaches as pests—creatures best avoided, stomped on, or eliminated with chemicals. Their scurrying presence seemed out of place among the onion skins, apple cores, and coffee grounds I had so carefully layered to create rich soil for my garden.

But something about the scene gave me pause. The compost pile wasn’t just alive—it was thriving! What had once taken weeks to decompose was breaking down in days. The pile was hotter, the material darker, and the transformation more complete than I had ever seen before. And the only variable that had changed was the recent explosion of cockroaches. CONTINUED