Cockroaches have been around since the time of the dinosaurs.
As a matter of fact, these insects are incredibly hardy.
They generally prefer warm, dark, damp environments.
Needless to say, it is incredibly important that action be taken immediately to rid your home of cockroaches the first instance you see them.
The reason why is because some female cockroaches can remain pregnant forever and produce up to 150 offspring per year. Here, take a look!
Cockroaches will crawl around in very filthy and disgusting areas.
If they then walk around parts of your house were you typically prepare food, or otherwise engage in everyday activity, there is a reasonable chance that you may become infected with bacteria or other diseases that the cockroaches carry around with them.
Some children are even reported to have acute asthma symptoms as a result of cockroaches being present in the home.
So, what are you supposed to do if you are confronted with this problem?
One of the easiest things you can do right away is to purchase do-it-yourself cockroach spray and begin applying it liberally to areas where the roaches themselves are found.
However, many people oftentimes find themselves feeling a little bit squeamish about this process.
Therefore, it is not unusual for many people to seek out a professional service that will get rid of the cockroaches. Check out how this guy does it:
Something that needs to be understood about these pests is that the American cockroach is the largest of all the roaches.
They can grow to be approximately 2 inches in size.
However, they are not considered to be the dirtiest or stinkiest.
That dubious designation goes to the Oriental cockroach.
Ironically, the Oriental cockroach is actually from Africa.
In the final analysis, you really need to make a determination as to whether or not you are comfortable taking care of the cockroach problem yourself, or if you would instead prefer to allow a professional company to handle the job for you.
Either way, immediate action needs to be taken to the extent you do discover roaches around your home or place of business. It’s really a health issue more than anything else.
Anatomy of a Roach
Roaches wear their skeletons on the outside of their bodies.
What if you skinned your knee and white blood came out? If you’re a cockroach, no big deal. Cockroaches bleed white blood.
Roach mouths work sideways. Try it sometime.
Cockroaches have six hairy legs. The tiny hairs found on each leg give them their sense of touch.
Cockroaches have 6 legs and least 18 knees!!! Take a look at this:
Many cockroaches can fly and have beautiful diaphanous–or see-through–wings. Tinkerbell would be jealous of these cockroach facts.
You outgrow your clothes; roaches outgrow their skeletons. As roaches grow, they shed their external skeletons several times a year.
Soft food moves through a cockroach’s gut in 48 hours.
A cockroach heart is nothing but a simple tube with valves.
The tube can pump blood backwards and forwards in the insect. The heart can even stop moving without harming the roach.
Here’s a big one someone found in Australia…
Roach Reproduction
Pregnant for life? The cockroach facts are that it doesn’t sound like much fun, but some female cockroaches mate once and are pregnant for the rest of their lives.
Female roaches produce an odor, called pheromone, that attracts males and drives them wild.
When a male cockroach is interested in a female, he gives her a wrapped gift and takes her out to dinner–well, sort of.
Males transfer sperm to females in a nice, “gift wrapped” package called a spermatophore.
Some males cover the package in a protein-rich wrapping that she can eat (yum!) to obtain nutrients to raise her young.
The cockroach facts are that some female roaches incubate their egg cases in their bodies until they are ready to hatch.
These babies stay with their mothers a day or two after they are born. Here’s some baby cockroaches being born.
Roach History
A cockroach family tree would be mighty big and long!
Cockroaches are thought to have originated during the Carboniferous era, which ended 280 million years ago.
They have been abundant ever since and are some of the most primitive winged insects.
All American pest roaches–like most American humans–were immigrants.
If you were to collect one of every species of cockroach found in the world, you’d need a lot of jars to put them in. There are some 5,000 species of cockroaches worldwide.
Pest cockroaches are native to western Asia and northern Africa.
Cockroaches were carried all over the world in wooden ship. They were the sailors and stowaways of the insect world.
Sir Francis Drake once captured a ship which was overrun with millions of roaches.
The H.M.S. “Bounty” was so infested with cockroaches that Captain William Bligh, a British admiral known for his mean temper, disinfected the entire ship with boiling water.
The cockroach facts are that a some people develop allergies to cockroaches, including skin rashes and respiratory problems, such as a condition similar to asthma.
Miscellaneous Facts
Picture a cockroach in a winter parka and mittens. Pest cockroaches can withstand freezing temperature of 32 degrees but will die if the temperature goes much below that.
They’re better off if they have a chance to become “used” to the cold.
Roaches use their feelers as noses.
The world’s largest roach is six inches long with a one-foot wingspan.
The world’s largest roach lives in South America.
Some roaches are tiny and live in ant nests.
Tropical cockroaches are often brightly colored green, yellow, red.
Most species of cockroaches live in the tropics.
No food for a month–not even a crumb? Roaches can go without eating for a month but will only live a week without water.
It’s hard to sneak up on a roach. They have one great big nerve connecting their tails to their heads, alerting them to danger from behind.
Roaches have faster reflexes than humans–even faster than Michael Jordan’s.
Roaches can swim and hold their breath for 40 minutes. But they breathe through their sides–not their noses–which makes it tough to come up for air.
American cockroaches are quick little varmints. They can run up to three miles per hour.
Male cockroaches weigh less than female cockroaches, and males can fly and flee faster.
Cockroaches are supreme couch potatoes. They spend 75 percent of their time resting.
How can you tell if a cockroach is resting or trying to remember what it came into the room for?
Resting roaches point their antennae up and forward, and at about a 60 degree angle from one another.
The cockroach facts are that cockroaches can crawl into some astonishingly small spaces.
Young roaches need only a crevice .5 mm wide–or a space as thin as a dime. Adult males can squeeze into a space of 1.6 mm–or the size of a quarter.
Pregnant females need the most space of all to hide: 4.5 mm or a space as wide as two stacked nickels.
Disgusting Facts
Cockroach kidneys look like a bunch of writhing snakes. (Yak!)
Roaches live all over the world, including the North and South Poles. In extremely cold places, however, they survive by moving in with humans.
Do you run away when your big brother takes off his smelly tennis shoes? Not roaches. They recognize family and friends by their distinctive odors.
No, it’s not an albino. If you see a white cockroach, it has just shed its skin.
A cockroach that has just shed its skin is white with black eyes. (Just call it Casper the Cockroach.) After eight hours, however, it will regain its regular shell coloring.
Ever think about how cockroaches climb walls? They have a set of little claws on their feet designed for that very purpose.
Cockroaches in your gourmet dinner? Maybe not as a main dish, but they have been used in sauces, condiments and as appetizers.
Don’t complain next time you have to swallow cough syrup. You could be taking a dose of cockroaches instead!
Processed cockroaches have been used to cure illnesses and physical disorders for centuries.
More cockroach tea, anyone? Brewed from cockroaches, this tea has been used to treat dropsy–a kind of sickness or inflammation.
Next time you have trouble going pee, and your urinary tract just doesn’t want to go with the flow, why not try dried and powdered Oriental cockroaches? They are said to make a dandy diuretic.
Eat too much pizza? Cotton candy? Thanksgiving dinner? Some people eat cockroaches fried in oil and garlic as a cure for indigestion.
If you’re ever stung by a sting ray, remember to mash up a mess of cockroaches to apply as a poultice to the wound.
The cockroach was once a guest of honor in European homes, and it was customary to release them in new dwellings.
A vampire’s dream: blood that sloshes around freely in a body.
Roaches’ blood does just that. They have no blood vessels to speak of. (Though cockroaches are probably too small for your average vampire to bother with.)
The Headless Horseman? Er… Horseroach? For a while anyway.
A cockroach can live a week without its head. It only dies because without a mouth, it can’t drink water.
And those are the cockroach facts…hope you had fun learning!