Each time you have to confront a cockroach, it will always be a terrifying ordeal. These useless, despicable insects somehow always find their way inside our houses. Of course, we cannot just ignore them and co-exist, because cockroaches will find a way to ruin our lives. They do not care if we give them free board and lodging; they give us stress and illnesses in return.
Cockroaches are perhaps the filthiest creatures known to man. They like to live in dirty places like sewers, garbage bins, and cesspools. And boy, do they love these places!
Due to their filthy lifestyle, cockroaches get to carry with them lots of bacteria and viruses, making them crawling disease bombs. They love bacteria, especially bad ones. Like flies, cockroaches will eat anything, be it trash, feces, rotten food, decomposing animals, and even their kind, all of which are breeding grounds for bacteria. When roaches ingest these bacteria, it will stay inside the cockroach’s digestive system. Roaches benefit from their presence as they get some nutrients from them. As payment, these bacteria do not need to pay any rent. Roaches then pass them on through their droppings, urine, saliva, and vomit. Contamination of food and water is a common occurrence, and this makes people sick.
Roaches seem to love everything that we avoid, so is there anything that they do not love? Is there anything that they hate? In this article, we will try to explore that, and Go-Forth Home Services will lead the way for us in this article. Read on.
Overview
There are more or less 4,600 identified species of cockroaches all over the world, except for Antarctica. Not all of them are pests, though. Most of these cockroaches are out in the forests where they are more beneficial to the ecosystem that pests. Only those species that made it near human dwellings become pests.
The most common varieties in the United States are the American, German, Oriental, and Brown-banded cockroaches.
Roaches have oval-shaped bodies, have three pairs of legs, a pair of long antennae, have flat and low lying bodies, and have a pair of wings. They move very quickly but are clumsy fliers.
Lifecycle
After mating with a male, a female cockroach will lay from 10 to 40 eggs. On average, a female can lay up to 30 batches of eggs all her life. They no longer go through a complete metamorphosis, since baby cockroaches already look like the adult counterparts, only smaller and with no wings. Cockroaches can live up to 12 months under favorable conditions. They thrive in warm, humid conditions.
Where Do Roaches Hide?
Roaches are nocturnal creatures, and as such, they go out of their nests only at night. So where do they hide during the day?
Cockroaches, like all creatures, prefer to live near their food source. This could be in the kitchen or dining areas. There, they can easily feed off food particles and drink spills. They also get easy access to uncovered food on the table.
Hiding spots for cockroaches are the following:
- Cracks and crevices on walls. Roaches are so thin that they can squeeze themselves into cracks the size of a credit card. Studies have also discovered that cockroaches love being sandwiched between two objects.
- They hide in drains and grease traps because they love moist and filth.
- Below the kitchen and bathroom sinks because they love moisture.
- Under furniture that has been left undisturbed.
- Around water heaters, because it provides them with heat and water.
- In confined spaces line under a stack of papers, behind the fridge, kitchen cupboards, below sinks, and in cardboard boxes.
Cockroaches Can Spread Several Nasty Diseases
Cockroaches are notorious for spreading lots of deadly diseases.
- Allergies and asthma - Saliva, droppings, and their body sheddings can cause allergies, especially to children and the elderly. Cockroaches can cause allergies and asthma. Signs and symptoms of allergies and asthma include coughing, skin rash, nasal congestion, ear infection, and sinus infection.
- Typhoid fever - Typhoid fever is a life-threatening bacterial disease. It is caused by the bacterium Salmonella typhi. This disease is highly contagious. It is said that children again are the most vulnerable. Transmission is through ingesting contaminated water. One possibility is water being contaminated by a cockroach’s saliva, droppings, or vomit. Signs and symptoms of this disease include a high fever, weakness, headaches, stomach pain, and rashes. Testing of stool samples or a blood test is the best way to know if a person has typhoid.
- Amoebiasis - Amoebiasis is a disease caused by the parasite Entamoeba histolytic and can be acquired when a person eats or drinks food or water that has touched fecal matter, or food that is contaminated with Entamoeba histolytica. Cockroaches can play a role in spreading amoebiasis when food and water are contaminated by their saliva, droppings, or vomit. Symptoms include stomach pain, stomach cramping, and loose stools. As a treatment, the doctor may prescribe antibiotics.
- Shigellosis - This disease is caused by a group of bacteria called Shigella. Shigellosis can be acquired by eating food that is contaminated with the said bacteria. Signs and symptoms of this disease include fever, diarrhea, and stomach cramps.
- Salmonella - This is a common bacterial disease that affects the intestinal tract. Typically, people with salmonella infection show no symptoms. People are infected through the ingestion of contaminated food. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, chills, headaches, blood in the stool, and fever.
Type of cockroaches that are common in the United States
In the United States, you can count only four types of roaches out of the 4,600 species scattered all over the world.
American Cockroach
The American cockroach came from the Middle East and Africa and is said to have traveled to the United States via ships. This type of cockroach is the largest species of cockroaches on this list. It grows to about 4 cm in length and 7 mm tall. They are oval and have well-developed wings. They are clumsy fliers though. American cockroaches thrive in wet and dark places like sewers and pipes in homes and commercial buildings. This type of cockroach is one of the filthiest and is responsible for transmitting diseases like typhoid, amoebiasis, and cholera. An adult female American cockroach can lay as many as 150 eggs per year. They have three developmental stages: the egg, nymph, and the adult.
German Cockroach
This is said to be the most troublesome of this list. German cockroaches are small, about 1.1 to 1.5 inches long. Its color can be tan or black. They like sweet and starchy foods. These are the types you would normally find in restaurants. Their diet consists of meat, sugars, starch, fatty foods, and glue.
Oriental Cockroach
This is a large species of cockroach that can grow to about 18 to 29 mm, while the female is about 20 to 27 mm. They are considered the filthiest among all the cockroaches. Oriental cockroaches are dark in color; they can be black or dark brown with a glossy body. They thrive in dirty, cooler places, and create a strong smell. Their diet consists of garbage and organic material.
Brown-Banded Cockroach
Brown-banded cockroaches grow to about 10 to 14 mm long. They come in tan to light brown with two light-colored bands across their wings and abdomen. They have almost the same features as the German cockroach. You can differentiate the male from the female, with the male having wings that cover their abdomen, while the females’ wings do not cover their abdomens entirely. They thrive in warm dry places, and they hide their eggs under furniture, clothes, cracks on the floor, or wood. They can live up to 200 days.
What Can Repel Cockroaches?
Since roaches love what we hate, like garbage and rotten food, there are things that we love that they hate. Here are some things you can use to repel roaches.
- Essential oils - Cockroaches hate the smell of tea tree oils, peppermint, and lavender. These things disrupt the scent trails that they use to track their food. They die when they are exposed to heavy doses of essential oils as well.
- Diatomaceous earth - Diatomaceous earth is a natural enemy for roaches. When roaches crawl on it, it inflicts tiny cuts on their bodies, causing them to bleed to death.
- Petroleum jelly - You can use petroleum jelly as roach traps, just add sugar and smear it on a piece of cardboard.
- Borax - Boric acid, when eaten by roaches, can kill roaches by destroying the cellular lining of their guts.
- Neem - Neem is a natural roach repellent. Just boil neem leaves for 10 minutes then let cool. Use a spray bottle to spray the mixture on areas that roaches frequent.
If these things still would not work for you, you can call the trusted cockroach control company in Greensboro, Go-Forth Home Services.
For more information, call us now.