TYPES OF ROACHES; - ORIENTAL COCKROACH

Oriental Cockroach (Blatta orientalis), also known as the waterbug or black beetle is a large species of Cockroach and found in the Midwest, Northwest and Southern United States. An adult adult oriental Cockroach is about one inch long (2.5 centimeters). Its bright body is dark brown or black. The female has a broad body and looks without wings, but has two small wings without flight (tegmina) below her head. The females resemble the cockroach species of Florida woods and are often confused with it. The male Oriental cockroach has long brown wings (tegmina) covering most of its narrow body. The head of a male oriental cockroach is almost hidden under a large hard neck (pronotum) on the front of the thorax. The cerci in the back of the abdomen are used as sensory organs.

Habitat Of Oriental Cockroach

Oriental Cockroach is a slow traveler. People refer to them as waterbugs because they live in dark and humid environments. They congregate around damp basements, decaying organic materials, drains, porches, under sinks, trawl spaces and sewers. On the outside, they like wet areas like shrubs, under cover of the sheet, cisterns, water valve wells, foundations, landfills, garbage bins, garbage kicks, and under mulch.

These pests need food and water and hot, humid places to hide between 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius) and 84 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Celsius). Eastern cockroaches often go out at night and are good at hiding during a casual inspection of a suspected infested house during the day. Adults and nymphs are slow and often live on or below ground level on the inside. They are not often on the walls, high cabinets, or on the upper floors of buildings. Sometimes a population of eastern cockroaches will hang near leaks in a basement or crawl space. In warm weather, oriental cockroaches like the outdoors, but they move indoors during droughts that seek higher humidity. These abominable cockroaches enter houses under doors, through air ducts, garbage cans or fans, or in food and laundry packages.

Elimination or Control of Oriental Cockroach

A professional exterminator will look for boxes of Eastern cockroach egg that the females have dropped. This is a sure sign that oriental cockroaches have invaded the home.

A professional expert in pest control can use baits with abamectin, boric acid, hydramethylnon, and sulfur amid. They can spray a perimeter insecticide to make a continuous barrier around the house. Boric acid, diatomaceous earth, and silica airgel powder can be sprayed into cracks, crevices, and voids that will stick to the oily surface of the cockroach’s body and dehydrate or poison them to death.
These pests may be harder to exterminate than other cockroach species. Adults can easily die with residual insecticide, but pesticides need to be reapplied because females will hatch more nymphs. It is recommended to aspirate and disinfect the area after multiple pesticide applications.

TYPES OF ROACHES; - BROWN BRANDED COCKROACHES

Brown-banded cockroaches, Supella longipalpa , are common throughout the United States and are occasionally encountered in New England. Brown-banded cockroaches infest homes and other buildings occupied by humans. Brown-banded cockroaches often enter occupied structures unnoticed on furniture or in cardboard boxes. Once inside, brown-banded cockroaches can quickly infest the building, causing physical damage to food and possessions as well as potentially creating health problems for residents.

What do brown-banded cockroaches look like?

As the name of the species indicates, brown-banded cockroaches feature a pair of yellowish bands that contrast with the rest of their brownish bodies. Males have golden-brown bodies with long wings that extend past the abdomen, while females boast a darker chestnut-brown coloration and have shorter wings that leave the abdomen slightly exposed. The distinctive yellowish bands marking the bodies of brown-banded cockroaches are more pronounced during the nymphal stage of development than as adults. Fully grown adults typically measure about a half-inch in length, with extended antennae often making the insects appear much longer.

Habits/Habitat of Brown Branded Cockroaches

Often found occupying a variety of spaces throughout the home, brown-banded cockroaches generally prefer to live in warm areas. The ability to go without water longer than other common New England cockroach species allows the brown-banded cockroach to inhabit a wider range of locations in buildings. The pests frequently live in highly elevated places like cabinets and cupboards. New England residents regularly find the brown-banded cockroach living in closets, clothing, drapes, and behind picture frames. The insects also tend to populate areas in close proximity to computers, radios, televisions, stoves, and other common household appliances that generate heat.

What do brown-banded cockroaches eat?

Like other cockroach varieties prevalent in the New England , brown-banded cockroaches feed on human foods, food residue, and other organic materials commonly found in homes and offices. Book bindings, paper products, and wallpaper paste can also make up the diet of brown-banded cockroaches. The insects will even eat pet food, fecal matter, and dead animals.

Their Reproduction

All brown-banded cockroaches hatch from eggs that females carry in an egg case measuring nearly a half-inch long. Each case holds between 13 and 18 eggs, with a typical female producing as many as 14 egg cases during her life. After two days of carrying a freshly produced egg case, females glue the case to ceilings or doors, underneath furniture, behind picture frames, or in the corners of cabinets, cupboards, or closets. Newly hatched brown-banded cockroaches, called nymphs, emerge from the eggs in about 50 days. Nymphs mature by molting between six and eight times to reach adulthood in five or six months. On average, brown-banded cockroaches live for a total of roughly 200 days.

Problems Caused by Brown-banded Cockroaches

The brown-banded cockroach poses similar health threats to humans as other species of cockroaches common to New England. While scavenging for food, the insects often leave behind fecal matter and other contaminating debris on edible items and kitchen surfaces. People who unwittingly prepare food on surfaces contaminated by brown-banded cockroaches or consume bacteria spread by the insects may contract food poisoning. The molted skin of brown-banded cockroaches is also known to produce aggravating allergens that can induce asthma attacks, especially in children.


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DIFFERENT TYPES OF ROACHES

Does the very idea of a cockroach make you shudder in horror and revulsion? Almost certainly because, along with spiders, the roach is the most hated and repulsive bug on the planet. Worse still, there are over 4,000 types of roaches. Hence it is important to get to know more about the roaches around your home.

Some of the more common species include German cockroaches, American cockroaches, brown-banded cockroaches and Oriental cockroaches. German cockroaches (Blattella germanica) are one of the most common species. These insects typically live up to 12 months and produce more eggs than other species.

GERMAN ROACHES

The German cockroach (scientific name: Blatella germanica) is a small roach that rarely grows bigger than about half an inch. This type of roach is dark in color, almost black, and has two darker stripes running down its back. It may be small, but it is found all over the world. The German cockroach is the head honcho when it comes to these kinds of pests. It used to be thought that this little critter originated and was named in Germany.
The German roach really excels when it comes to reproduction, and if you get them in your house, they can quickly become a problem. This little creature can grow from egg to mature adult in just 60 days. As they have few predators in a human home, they can reach alarming numbers in just a few months.
This roach can fly, which makes it even scarier when it thrashes around. It looks huge when flying, especially with its leathery wings open and beating hard. Flying is risky for the roach though, as it then becomes vulnerable to predators. Birds feeding on this type of cockroach help to control its numbers. It might surprise you to learn that this roach, like all its cousins, is unlikely to do you any serious harm, A dose of food poisoning is about the worst it can do to you. It’s strange how it scares us and yet it is pretty harmless.


 AMERICAN ROACHES

The American cockroach (scientific name Periplaneta americana) is the largest of the common roaches. Not only is it big, but it’s also a frequent pest in our houses. This is a reddish brown roach that moves very fast when it needs to get out of the way. In fact, this little creature is one of the fastest crawling bugs alive.American cockroaches can actually run at speeds of over 200 miles per hour. They can grow up to two inches in length, but are pretty flat, at just a quarter of an inch tall. This makes it easy for them to slide under small gaps very easily.

American cockroaches live primarily outdoors, but it’s not uncommon to find them inside a structure. They are typically found in sewers and drains, and are most common cockroach species found in city sewer systems. It’s been reported that more than 5,000 individual American cockroaches were once found in a single sewer manhole. In the Southern United States, American cockroaches are often spotted in shady, humid areas like flowerbeds and underneath mulch piles. During summer months, they can also be found outdoors in yards and alleys.

American cockroaches will move indoors when they experience a food shortage or a significant change in the climate. In general, American cockroaches prefer warm, moist and dark environments with temperatures between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. They often enter structures by being brought in on human belongings, coming up from the sewer system via drains or occasional mass migration from other structures, dumps, etc., during warm weather.

American cockroaches are especially common in larger commercial buildings such as restaurants, bakeries, grocery stores, food processing plants, hospitals, etc., where they usually infest food storage and food preparation areas, boiler rooms, steam tunnels and basements. These pests can also infest homes by easily passing underneath doors lacking weather stripping or entering through basement windows and garages. Once inside a residence, American cockroaches usually make their way into the kitchen, bathroom, basement or laundry room in search of food and water.

American cockroaches feed on many kinds of food, but they show a particular fondness for fermenting material. Outdoors, they tend to eat decaying leaves, fungi, algae and small insects. Indoors, they eat crumbs found under appliances, in drains, behind kitchen cabinets and on the floor. They will also eat pet food that is left uncovered.

American cockroaches are filthy pests, and their presence in the home can pose a severe health threat. Cockroaches have been reported to spread at least 33 kinds of bacteria, including E. coli and Salmonella, as well as six kinds of parasitic worms and at least seven other kinds of human pathogens. They pick up germs on the spines of their legs and body as they crawl through decaying matter or sewage, and then transfer the germs onto food or cooking surfaces.

The saliva, urine and fecal droppings from American cockroaches contain allergen proteins known to elicit allergic reactions and asthma attacks. As such, cockroaches are a common trigger of year-round allergy and asthma symptoms, especially in children.

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COCKROACHES

The Cockroach is featured in the "La Cucaracha" meaning "The Cockroach" that is a traditional Spanish  folk-corrido or song that became popular in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. The song is about the concern of a cockroach that has lost one of its six legs and is struggling to walk with the remaining five.

The cockroach, having been present on the planet amongst the first insects, currently has no proven origin. Scientist know that most roaches have come from the tropical regions all over the world and adapted to colder conditions - having over 300milion years to do so. The roach is suspected to have come onto the scene around 355 million years ago with the earliest roach-like fossil. They call this specimen a roachid, or the blattopteran. The fossil doesn’t exactly mimic todays roach with it being remarkably close to its cousin in evolution, the praying mantis, which does share features in this fossil.

The distribution of cockroaches is worldwide. They have evolved to live alongside humans and they do it well. The cockroach, like most insects, gained passports to any country through the aid of man. During the early centuries through trade routes, the Roach species became an invasive species on every continent humans inhabited. They are more prevalent in the tropical regions, but they can survive anywhere humans have established homes and food sources.

The Cockroach has been on the planet for approximately 250 to 300 million years. This dates back to as early as the Carboniferous times. Theories have speculated that the ancient ancestor of the cockroach predates the dinosaurs. During this insect order’s time on Earth, it has changed very little, keeping its features primitive or ancient like previous generations. It was said that the cockroach was amongst the first great expansion of the insect species.

The roaches appear to have achieved the optimum body form and other key features early in their evolution history. The theory is that the cockroach evolved the feature to fold their wings over their body to allow them the vital protect they needed. The traits gave the roach the ability to hide from predators and to escape various dangers to survive extinction where most insects were not successful.

Scientists also state that the development of the ootheca or egg sac carried by the female cockroach gave critical parental care and protection to sustain numerous generations allowing the species to survive countless millennia. Cockroaches have been clearly traced back to ancestral fossils that have remarkably almost the same morphology as current day roaches. Roaches have the innate ability to adapt to any situational condition that arises.

Another helpful adaptation is that cockroaches harbor a wide variety of symbionts in their gut as well as fat bodies. Scientific theories make the association that the microbes present have played a large role in the adaptation, evolution, and survival of cockroach species. The hind guts of most cockroaches, apart from one family of five species that have been examined, harbor a wide variety of microbes, including ciliates, amoebae, flagellates, and various prokaryotes. These microbial organisms all are believed to play a major role in digestion and the efficiency of the roach.

Cockroaches have simple needs; food, warmth, moisture and shelter. They are attracted to food that has been left out on the counter, dirty dishes in the sink, and crumbs laying on the floor. They are also attracted to moisture, such as from a leaky pipe underneath a bathroom sink or a wet bath mat on the floor.

TYPES OF ROACHES AND THEIR HEALTH IMPLICATIONS.

to be continued.