AMERICAN COCKROACHES CONTROL

The American Cockroach is the largest species of cockroaches and is known to be called the Waterbug. Its scientific name is known as the Periplaneta Americana. Despite its name, it is known that the American Cockroaches did not originate in America but was in fact from Africa and was shipped into American lands by boats and other global shipping and trade facilities. With the boats being the carriers of these cockroaches, strains of this kind of cockroaches have reached other parts of the globe including South America, Spain, Taiwan, India, Portugal and even South Africa. The cockroaches were said to have first reached American soil as early as 1625.

AMERICAN COCKROACHES ANATOMY, GROWTH AND SIZE

The average length and height of a full grown American cockroach reaches around 4 cm long and 2 cm in height. Young cockroaches would just look like an adult except that these cockroaches would have wingless features. The American Cockroaches have a reddish brown color on their back regions (behind the head region) with a yellowish color on their sides or margins.

The American cockroach can be divided into three distinct parts or portions. The body, the wing section and the abdomen. The body is covered with a pronotum. A pronotum is a plate-like covering that acts like a shield and is usually present in other insects as the thorax portion. Its body is seen as oval and flattened. The wing section covers the hind wing of the cockroach along with the long segmented antennas and mouth parts.

The American Cockroach has three stages of development starting from an egg, to a nymph and finally the adult stage. Unlike other insects, cockroaches do not lay eggs but lays “egg cases” which generally houses all the eggs. They are about 0.9 centimeters in length and is shaped like a purse. After nearly two months the eggs hatch and the nymph stage of the roaches being. This takes around 6 months to 1 year to mature. From the adult stage they can live up to one year and female cockroaches can produce up to 150 eggs at this time.

TRAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS

The American cockroach feeds on decaying organic matters. This could range to a variety of food and stuff but they are known to be particularly attracted to fermenting foods such as fruits and the like.
 

HABITAT

The American cockroach is said to thrive in warm temperatures. They can only survive in temperatures averaging around 29°C. Due to this, they generally cannot adapt to dry areas unless they have access to water. Their main breeding grounds are damp or moist areas. They generally cannot survive in cold or warmer continents but due to the development and increase of residential areas, buildings, and other houses, the American cockroaches was able to adapt and live in these areas. This is why cockroaches generally live in the basements or sewers of buildings and the like.

The American Cockroach is known to be the fastest of all running insects. Thus, they can travel very fast and can quickly run into tight and closed areas such as cracks and even the gaps under the door.  Fastest known recorded speeds of roaches run up to 3.4 miles per hour allowing it to easily run pass 50 of their body lengths in just one second. Like many insects, roaches have compound eyes having over 2000 eyes in each lens.
 

RISK

The dangers that these pests can present to a human is found in the secretions that they produce which can even alter the taste of the food. Cockroaches can also pick up disease-causing bacteria which they can pass on or leave on the foods they touch. This could lead to poisoning and food infections. Examples of the bacteria that they can pick up are salmonella. Their feces which can be mixed in house dust may also trigger allergic reactions or asthma to residents.