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Nearly everyone is familiar with the urban legend that cockroaches could survive a nuclear explosion. The Discovery Channel’s MythBusters team decided to put this rumor to the test and concluded that because of their simple bodies, it is possible that cockroaches could, in fact, continue to exist.
Another rumor is that the presence of cockroaches indicates a dirty home. Relax! Don’t grab the mop just yet. Your home can be meticulously clean but if there are cockroaches in the building, they will seek out food and water and your home or pantry may supply them with the small amount of food they need to survive. The presence of one cockroach may signal that the population is low because of a lack of food to maintain a community.
There are basically four kinds of cockroaches in which we are interested: American, German, Oriental and Brownbanded. As with any pest, we need to know with which variety we’re dealing. Each of them prefers a different area in your home, so identification is important for best control.
By Any Other Name
American cockroach — More commonly found in restaurants, bakeries, grocery stores and other facilities where food is prepared, the American cockroach prefers warm, moist places. These cockroaches have a fondness for fermenting foods, such as bread soaked with beer. They mostly confine their foraging to the basement and ground floor of a building.
Both the adult male and adult female are 1-1/2 to 2 inches long. They’re reddish brown and have long wings that cover their abdomen. A female deposits nine or ten egg cases in a crack or crevice. Each case produces approximately 14 young in about 45 days.
What’s in a name? That which we call a cucaracha by any other name is still a cockroach. Nearly everyone in Florida is familiar with palmetto bugs. These creatures, which grow to a length of 1-1/2 to 2 inches long and are black in color with wide, glossy bodies, are also cockroaches that are related to the American cockroach. When disturbed, palmetto bugs often emit a strong, nasty odor that leads to it being called the “stinking cockroach,” which might be uttered about cockroaches in general.
German cockroach — Light brown in color with two dark stripes on the shield-shaped section behind the head, these cockroaches are about 9/16th of an inch long. They like warm, humid atmospheres and generally inhabit kitchens and bathrooms where they are found near plumbing fixtures, in cracks and crevices in cabinets, under drawers and kitchen sinks. When severe infestations occur, German cockroaches may be found in other sections of a structure. They can disperse in large numbers from areas of high population densities to infest other areas. This species has the highest reproductive potential of all the common pest cockroaches.
Oriental cockroach — About 1 to 1-1/4 inches in length and dark brown, almost black, Oriental cockroaches are often called water bugs. They are commonly found around damp places, which includes drains, leaky water pipes, under refrigerators, inks, washing machines and floors. These pests forage mostly on the ground floor of buildings and, occasionally, thrives in adjacent landscaping. An Oriental cockroach produces a strong smell and is considered one of the dirtiest of all the cockroaches.
Brownbanded cockroach — The adult Brownbanded cockroach is about a half-inch long. An adult male is golden brown and has a narrow body with its wings extending beyond the tip of its stomach. The adult female is dark chestnut brown, has a tear-shaped body and its wings do not completely cover its stomach. Both sexes have distinctive horizontal yellow bands. The females often glues her egg case on furniture or in appliances.
Like Us Like It or Not
Like us, cockroaches are omnivores. For the most part, they’ll eat anything organic; mostly dead or immobile things. They’re known to eat the glue off of a postage stamp, envelope or book binding. Fortunately, they rarely bite humans.
Inexpensive Roach Trap
An inexpensive roach trap can be made using a deep smooth-walled jar with some roach food inside, placed with the jar touching a wall or with sticks leading up to the top. Once inside, the roaches cannot climb out. An inch of water or stale beer will ensure that they drown. This method works well with the American cockroach, not so much with the German cockroach. A small amount of petroleum jelly can be spread on the inside of the jar to increase slipperiness.
While this method may work well to catch one or two cockroaches, it isn’t very practical or effective for dealing with a roach infestation. Apparently neither is a nuclear blast, but the pros at Insect Protection Pest Control can help you rid your home or business of these pests using proven environmentally sound and pet friendly methods. Call them today for a FREE consultation.
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