Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on July 2013

Summer welcomes those irrepressible roaches that make a house a home. Find out when the hordes are coming using Goki Ten (gokiburi tenki yoho, “cockroach weather forecast”). This handy service providing both weather and cockroach conditions is from cleaning-product company Lion Corporation—work out the connection. Note your sightings, including area, time, how many, result (i.e. ran away, massacred them all) and the emoticon indicating your subsequent mental state. It’s not entirely clear if users’ contributions actually impact on the map levels, or if this is just a gimmick. But it could provide a useful platform in the case of a zombie apocalypse.