An Interview with a Cockroach

Cockroaches have been around since the beginning of time and it seems that no matter how hard you try, they just never go away. They continue to adapt to most any environment and weather conditions and are believed to have originated more than 280 million years ago, in the Carboniferous era.

If we were to have an interview with a cockroach we would certainly learn some interesting things:

Take for instance their circulatory system. Did you know that roaches breathe through little holes in each of their body segments? This basically means that they are not dependent on the mouth or head to breathe. If the roach were headless, it could actually live up to a week before dying of thirst because it did not have a mouth to drink water.

Roaches don’t have to have a food source daily as do humans. Because they are cold-blooded insects they can live without food for a month but would continue to need water to survive.

Cockroaches are worldwide and there are more than 4,000 species. The world’s largest roach found in South America is six inches long with a one-foot wingspan. Average cockroaches can vary in size from ½”- 2″ long. The most common roaches encountered in our area are:

• German Cockroaches
• Brownbanded Cockroaches
• Oriental Cockroaches
• American Cockroaches

We would also learn that roaches like to brag and are quite proud of their young.

Imagine trying to hold your breath for 30 seconds … impossible to accomplish by most everyone. Did you know that a cockroach will hold their breath often to help regulate their loss of water and can continue to hold its breath for 40 minutes? They can also survive being submerged under water for half an hour. As far as speed? In one hour a cockroach can run up to three miles. This allows them to spread germs and bacteria throughout a home very quickly.

As far as family life; Newborn German cockroaches become adults in as little as 36 days and a one-day-old baby cockroach, which is about the size of a speck of dust, can run almost as fast as its parents.

Roaches are interesting insects but they are also unwanted pests when they are found in our homes. If you are experiencing problems with roaches protect your family’s health by scheduling pest control services for your home.