Roaches have always plagued homes. People tend to think that if they see one roach then there really isn’t a problem and no need to call an exterminator to get rid of them.
Unfortunately 1 roach may be a warning that more are lurking nearby. Because they are nocturnal you’ll rarely see a roach during the day. A simple test to see if you have roaches is walking into the kitchen late at night and turning the light on. Most often, if there is a roach infestation in your home, once the light is turned on you will see roaches scattering everywhere. Leaving you to wonder if they all produced over night and what will the next day bring?
The three common roaches in our area are the German and American roach which live up to a year and the Oriental roach which lives 1 to 6 months.
During their short lives:
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1 female German cockroach in a years time can produce 300-400 offspring.
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1 female American cockroach in a years time can produce 150 offspring.
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1 female Oriental cockroach can produce as much as 288 offspring in a 6 month period.
Of course these offspring are maturing and reproducing as well, increasing the population at an alarming rate.
Another sign of a roach infestation is the odor that you and others will notice when entering your home. The smell is described as oily and musky. Not an odor that can easily be masked by air fresheners from your local store.
Letting a roach infestation go without seeking professional services will only make matters worse. They can make the cleanest of homes look unsightly. They carry diseases which can cause health issues to you and your family and while you are asleep they are walking across your dishes, pots and pans, appliances and countertops on their nightly run searching for food and water.
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.
