COCKROACH
Quick facts
- Cockroaches hide during the day and become active at night.
- Cockroaches carry diseases that can cause food poisoning or diarrhea.
- Their saliva, feces and cast skins can irritate allergies and asthma in people, especially children.
- Cleanliness is very important to reduce cockroach infestations. It is best to hire a pest management professional to treat them.
Cockroaches can be major pests in restaurants, hospitals, warehouses, offices and buildings with food-handling areas. They secrete a substance which can stain surfaces and produce bad odors. They can also destroy fabric and paper products.
How to identify cockroaches
Four kinds of cockroaches can infest homes:
German cockroach
Brown-banded cockroach
American cockroach
Oriental cockroach
Submit a sample to an insect specialist or a pest management expert if you have trouble identifying the type of cockroach you have.
Only a small percentage of the actual number of cockroaches in a house, are seen.
Correct identification of cockroaches is important as there are many insects that look similar (e.g. long horned beetles, crickets, leaf-footed bugs and ground beetles).
GERMAN COCKROACH
BROWN BANDED COCKROACH
BROWN BANDED COCKROACH
BROWN BANDED COCKROACH
BROWN BANDED COCKROACH
BROWN BANDED COCKROACH
AMERICAN COCKROACH
BROWN BANDED COCKROACH
AMERICAN COCKROACH
ORIENTAL COCKROACH
ORIENTAL COCKROACH
AMERICAN COCKROACH
COCKROACH EGGS
ORIENTAL COCKROACH
COCKROACH EGGS
- A cockroach has a flattened, oval body and long antennae (about the length of their body).
- When looking at a cockroach from above, its head is hidden from view.
- It has six strong legs covered with spines.
- Many adult cockroaches have fully developed wings, but only few fly.
- Young, immature cockroaches resemble adults but are smaller and do not have wings.
Life cycle of cockroaches
- A cockroach has three stages during its life cycle: egg, nymph and adult.
- Adults lay eggs contained within dark-colored egg cases (size and shape of a dry kidney bean).
- Depending on the species, an egg case contains between 16 - 50 eggs.
- Eggs hatch into young cockroaches called nymphs, that are more numerous than adults.
Source: University of Minnesota Extension
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