While Australia might be the undisputed heavyweight champion of weird, disgusting fauna, New York is making a title run. Long known for subway rats and plain vanilla cockroaches, and still recovering from a bed bug infestation, the city recently unleashed a new kind of horror on its citizens: A nigh-immortal Asian species of cockroach that can survive cold and snow.

“About 20 years ago colleagues of ours in Japan reared nymphs of this species and measured their tolerance to being able to survive in snow,” says Jessica Ware, who is an assistant professor of biological sciences at Rutgers-Newark. “As the species has invaded Korea and China, there has been some confirmation that it does very well in cold climates, so it is very conceivable that it could live outdoors during winter in New York. That is in addition to its being well suited to live indoors alongside the species that already are here.”

Horrifying.

This is the first documented instance of the species being found on American soil. It was first spotted by an exterminator in 2012 on New York’s High Line, an elevated park on Manhattan’s West Side that serves little purpose beyond harboring exotic insect infestations. The cockroaches looked different to him from what usually crawls around New York, so he sent the carcasses to the University of Florida for analysis.  The recipient, study co-author Lyle Buss, contacted the Smithsonian, which in turn brought in Ware because she had published several papers on cockroaches in the past.

Dominic Evangelista, a biologist working towards his doctorate in Ware’s lab, conducted tests on the sample’s genetic characteristics. His findings confirmed the nightmares of approximately eight million people: The roach traps on the High Line had captured Periplaneta japonica.

Its path to the land of the free is uncertain, but the researchers suspect it stowed away in the soil of the imported plants used to ornament the High Line.

“Many nurseries in the United States have some native plants and some imported plants,” Ware says, “so it’s not a far stretch to picture that that is the source.” Evangelista adds, “If we discover more populations in the U.S., we could trace their genes back to try to figure out their exact sources.”

Both researchers noted that such a job would be a monumental undertaking.

The implications of the species’ arrival are unknown at this time, but the Rutgers research team predict that there’s likely no need to panic. Mostly, because the new species’ proximity to native roaches would make for the most unsettling reality TV competition in recorded history.

“Because this species is very similar to cockroach species that already exist in the urban environment,” says Evangelista, “they likely will compete with each other for space and for food.” And as they compete, says Ware, “their combined numbers inside buildings could actually fall because more time and energy spent competing means less time and energy to devote to reproduction.”

If there’s a silver lining to the news, it’s that the potential for the two species to mate and spawn an unstoppable Super Roach is low. “The male and female genitalia fit together like a lock and key and that differs by species,” Evangelista says. “So we assume that one won’t fit the other.”

Given that assumptions have never, ever had disastrous consequences, his assurance should come as a great comfort to those living in the tri-state area.

Those hoping to reduce their odds of death-by-disgusting-cockroach are encouraged to clean regularly, reduce clutter and pray to the deity of their choice. Ware adds that a dehumidifier could be useful in culling their numbers, as dry air harms their eggs. Wall Street is bracing for when New Yorkers create a mini-bubble by purchasing literally all the dehumidifiers that ever were and ever will be. Now is a good time to invest.

Though the news may come as a bit of a reprieve for those living across the Hudson, not so fast: So far, Ware says, there have been no documented New Jersey sightings, but “they do very well as hitchhikers.”

Horrible, terrible hitchhikers.