Cockroaches - small, unpleasant apartment dwellers - always cause a feeling of disgust, rejection and hostility, since their appearance causes a lot of problems for the owner of the living space. For a long time, the mustachioed insect manages to remain unnoticed (since it is nocturnal), lives quietly in comfortable conditions and slowly reproduces. If the mustachioed creature had the temerity to catch the eye of the apartment owner, it means that there are quite a lot of insects, so you need to get rid of them urgently. Why is it not recommended for a person to calmly, so to speak, coexist like a neighbor with cockroaches?
What do small cockroaches look like?
A well-known saying says: “You need to know your enemy by sight.” What do small cockroaches look like? Such insects are characterized by a wide abdomen, short wings and a flat body shape. The most important organ of the body is the tactile antennae, which provide the insect with orientation in space. Three pairs of legs are equipped with suction cups and claws that help them move on any surface. The high speed and agility inherent in small cockroaches determine their penetration into the narrowest cracks, moving not only in the space of the apartment, but also in basements, sewers, attics, and garbage chutes.
Exotic cockroaches
This is perhaps the largest variant of insects living near humans. Such cockroaches can be up to 10 cm. Many people keep giant cockroaches in their homes instead of pets. Insects are also bred as food for reptiles, since they reproduce fairly quickly and do not require special care. They are kept in a terrarium, so these cockroaches do not have nests. Wood chips and food scraps are all you need to breed insects.
No less exotic are sea cockroaches, of which there are about 80 species.
Marble
An example of such an exotic insect is the marbled cockroach. In nature, it lives in South America. Females grow up to 2.5 cm, males are slightly larger - up to 3 cm. The chestnut color and marble patterns on the surface of the body make the cockroach look like a real beetle.
This type of insect lives in the upper layers of the earth, is omnivorous and viviparous, that is, several living larvae emerge from the female’s body at once.
Madagascar
An equally popular type of exotic insects living in terrariums. The main characteristics of wingless insects at all stages are:
- durable chitinous cover;
- wide belly;
- overall dimensions (adults can grow up to 8-10 cm);
- The color of giants can vary from light red to black tones: large adult individuals have a lighter shade of shell.
Despite their impressive size, insects are distinguished by a very peaceful character and even increased timidity. During the day, they prefer to hide in plant litter, coming out only in the dark. Giants react to emerging danger with a strong hiss. This sound is produced by the insect with spiracles located throughout the body.
The Madagascar cockroach is another species of viviparous insect. Small larvae emerge from the eggs directly in the female’s abdomen, after which they crawl out along with fragments of the ootheca. At one time, the female is able to “give birth” to 25 larvae.
Egyptian
This synanthropic insect causes no less harm to humans and animals with its presence. The Egyptian cockroach contaminates food and feed with waste products. In addition, insects carry various pathogenic bacteria and viruses.
Insects eat:
- organic residues;
- dry leaves;
- fecal matter.
Cockroaches can inhabit residential and livestock buildings, as well as rodent burrows.
This type of insect has a flat, oval-shaped body, the length of which does not exceed 2.5 cm. Males have dense, well-developed wings. Body color is dark or reddish-brown. Wingless black-brown females are very similar to small turtles. Their body length reaches up to 4-4.5 cm. A photo of cockroaches of this species is presented below.
The eggs are white in color and up to 0.5 mm in size, and after fertilization, the females of this insect species lay them in a special capsule - the ootheca. In total, there can be up to 18 of them in one capsule.
Small cockroaches that appear over time are distinguished from adult individuals only by their small size (up to 0.7 mm) and the absence of wings. The young insects become sexually mature after 4 molts.
Cockroaches are carriers of disease
From walks on their chitinous coverings, cockroaches bring a lot of different pathogenic bacteria, helminth eggs and fungal spores that come across along their intricate route. In just a few hours, this entire set can end up on the kitchen table, food and dishes. In addition, cockroaches - small pests - are omnivores and are equipped with mouthparts that can grind any food. A considerable range of pathogenic microorganisms is also present in the digestive system of cockroaches and can cause diseases such as pneumonia, meningitis, gastroenteritis, dysentery, salmonellosis, and mycobacteriosis.
The danger comes from the chitinous coverings remaining after molting, the remains of dead individuals, and dry excrement. When mixed with house dust, such substances enter the human skin, digestive tract, and respiratory tract and can cause a number of serious diseases, including allergic rhinitis, bronchial asthma, and dermatitis.
The presence of mustachioed insects can be determined by the unpleasant odor in the apartment, which most often comes from black cockroaches. This is especially noticeable when there is a significant accumulation of them. How to get rid of domestic cockroaches in an apartment?
Cockroaches are not dangerous to people
The most common fear associated with cockroaches is the alleged transfer of infections from waste accumulation areas to residential premises. People see how cockroaches run across tables, over food, climb into bread bins, and immediately imagine in vivid colors that just a couple of hours ago this same cockroach could be crawling in a garbage chute, or swarming in the sewer, and now it is trampling bread with these same paws . And he probably picks up various bacteria and viruses in the sewer by the handful, and in a clean kitchen he throws them into the bread...
A cockroach on the handle of a knife - a couple of hours ago it could have been rummaging through the trash can
This is nothing more than speculation. Those cockroaches that live in the apartment run along the walls and floors in the apartment. And, for example, your child, who touches the floor and walls in the apartment with his hands, himself collects in his hands the same garbage that cockroaches can carry onto food or dishes. That is, the cockroaches already living in the apartment do not pollute it with anything new.
Yes, cockroaches can really be swarming in the garbage disposal now, and an hour later they can already be running around your table. But this rarely happens. Single individuals can never move so far. Basically, all these pests move within just one room. Those cockroaches that get into an apartment will clean their legs and antennae many times before climbing onto food, and they will almost certainly not leave sewer or garbage microflora on the food.
Be that as it may, there is not a single case known in which it would be reliably established that a person became infected with any infection that was brought into the room by cockroaches. Cockroaches do not carry any specific human diseases and do not infect people with them.
But what makes cockroaches really dangerous is the allergens they leave in the apartment. Their chitinous shells contain several very aggressive allergens to which many allergy sufferers react. It is believed that a significant part of allergic rhinitis of unknown etiology in people, especially young children, occurs precisely because of an allergy to the shed chitinous covers of cockroach nymphs or to the remains of dead insects. These shells are destroyed over time, their particles fall into dust, are inhaled by humans and cause an allergic runny nose. And if you do not find out that the cause of this runny nose is cockroaches, then after it becomes chronic, it can become complicated and provoke bronchial asthma.
Remains of chitinous coverings of red cockroaches found in the apartment
Similarly, by the way, the remains of cockroaches, which are ground with cocoa beans on plantations and factories in tropical countries, then end up in chocolate and also cause allergies, only this time food allergies, with hives, dermatitis and other troubles. Moreover, scientists believe that almost half of cases of chocolate allergy are actually an allergy not to chocolate, but to particles from the bodies of cockroaches ground together with cocoa beans.
According to sanitary standards, 100 grams of a natural chocolate product - in the same bar, or in candies - can contain up to 60 particles of cockroaches’ bodies visible under a microscope. And this is not considered an excess or any violation of sanitary standards. Moreover, such surprises are equally contained in both simple cheap chocolate and elite bars. Ironically, the less chocolate there is in a chocolate product, the fewer cockroaches there are.
So the main danger of cockroaches is allergies to them.
About little black cockroaches
The black cockroach is a prominent representative of its compatriots; it enters apartments mainly from sewers, basements and garbage cans. It has been observed that this individual does not rise above the 5th floor, so it causes the greatest trouble to residents of the lower levels. Small black cockroaches in an apartment, the presence of which indicates poor sanitary conditions in the room, do not disdain any food; in its absence, they feed on scraps from the trash can.
In terms of reproduction speed, they are superior to their red counterparts, who also prefer to live close to humans.
The red cockroach (in common parlance “Prusak”), characterized by an elongated body and light red color, has become so firmly established in living quarters that getting rid of it and its brethren is a rather tedious and time-consuming task.
By the way, such insects regulate the number of their numerous colonies independently.
Cockroaches almost always get into new, not yet infected premises themselves.
Moreover, if they can get here, they will do it.
For example, if they live with your neighbors and can get into your apartment through an open window or through the ventilation, they will get into your apartment. Whether they will then stay here and live permanently depends on whether they find suitable conditions here. Most likely, they will find it and live. But even if they don’t find them, they will definitely check your home or other premises for suitability for their cockroach life.
Sometimes people bring cockroaches into some premises themselves. For example, cockroaches usually arrive in all supermarkets, canteens, and restaurants in boxes with imported products. And no matter how carefully they are hunted down here, sooner or later these guys will arrive again with a new delivery in some box.
This is how, by the way, cockroaches spread throughout the world. Red cockroaches conquered America, Europe and Africa; American cockroaches, on the contrary, migrated with bananas across the ocean and now breed in basements throughout southern Europe and are found even in Ukraine.
However, cockroaches most often get into apartments and private houses from their neighbors. This is not difficult for them - they run quickly, in the warm season they can live on the street and move between houses, and sometimes even breed in the fields. And they always start up simply because they can get into a new room - there are no special reasons for their appearance.
And this is very important: if you know that in residential areas cockroaches come from neighbors and come here on their own, it means that there are some holes, cracks, openings in the apartment through which these insects can get here. This seems obvious, but this leads to a critically important conclusion: if cockroaches once got into you through such passages, then they will be able to get in again in the future. And if such passages are not blocked - sealed, sealed, siliconed, covered with a net - then even after complete destruction they will sooner or later be able to appear here again. This means that even ideal professional treatment in such a room will provide only a temporary effect. We'll come back to this a little later.
If small cockroaches appear: what to do?
An effective drug in the fight against cockroaches is the Dichlorvos aerosol, which ensures the rapid death of insects provided that they are outside their burrows at the time of treatment. The surviving individuals, after the chemical wears off, will calmly return to their previous way of life. The disadvantage of using this method is the risk of poisoning pets with toxic chemical vapors, for which such treatment can sometimes even lead to death.
Small cockroaches in the bathroom, kitchen and apartment in general can be destroyed with gels (“Dohlox”, “Liquidator”, “Killer”, “Raptor”), sold in large syringes and ready for immediate use. The product should be applied along the baseboard around the perimeter of the room in small drops at a distance of about 10 cm from each other. In just a week, cockroaches will not come to stay in the apartment they have lived in and will leave it forever.
It's easy to kill cockroaches
And all the problems with exterminating them are related to the fact that it is much more difficult to prevent them from getting into the room again.
It is simply surprising that most people understand this, but do not take any measures to find and block the entry points of cockroaches into the premises.
For example, we regularly communicate by phone with customers of an online store that sells insect repellents. And many quite sensible people tell us that they have poisoned cockroaches many times with various means. These remedies work, the cockroaches disappear, but then appear again. And when we say that in this case there is probably a repeated migration of cockroaches from neighbors, people agree and say that they understand this.
The most amazing thing is that, realizing this, they continue to look for a new super-effective remedy that could both destroy cockroaches and prevent their reappearance. People cannot answer the question of how such a remedy could work to prevent cockroaches from getting into the apartment. Apparently they are hoping for a miracle.
But there is no miracle. The whole secret of exterminating cockroaches is to find, while they are living in the apartment, through which holes and cracks they get in, then seal these routes of entry, and then poison those insects that are already in the apartment. Moreover, such blocking of the “entrance gate” is an inexpensive procedure. Usually it requires a tube of silicone sealant or a can of polyurethane foam, which is enough to seal the cracks and holes found. And during normal renovations in an apartment, there are usually very few such entrance gates - literally two or three small cracks, in the bathroom or kitchen. Why people don’t do this, but prefer to live with cockroaches for years, fight them and look for more and more new means to destroy them, is a big mystery to us.
There is another life hack for those who don’t want to seal cracks and holes...
Traps against cockroaches
Safer and more effective in the fight against cockroaches are traps (for example, Raid or Raptor), which are small round boxes with poison inside and several entrances.
Such devices are equipped with special Velcro, so they can be attached almost anywhere. A long period of exposure, safety, absence of fumes and harmful odor are the advantages of using such products. A red cockroach that has been trapped becomes infected and infects the rest of its relatives.
Against cockroaches – boric acid
You can “treat” cockroaches with the most dangerous poison for them, causing death - boric acid. It is recommended to sprinkle this powder on the area where the trash can is, baseboards, sinks, ventilation holes, bathrooms, and toilets. For humans, such a drug, inexpensive in cost, is completely harmless, so you can safely sprinkle it on suspicious surfaces. It is worth considering that insects are very sensitive to powder that is harmful to them and most of them sense it a mile away. In this case, you can play on a specific feature of cockroaches: curiosity.
Whiskered insects are very curious. If, for example, you put a bright candy wrapper on the windowsill and watch it for a while, then a cockroach or even several will definitely appear in your field of vision and approach an unfamiliar object in order to examine it.
Therefore, boric acid can be disguised as an attractive ball. To prepare the poison, you need to mix 30-50 grams of the drug powder with raw egg yolk (or bread crumbs or grated potatoes) until it becomes mushy. Then you need to stick small balls (about 1 cm in diameter) and place them in places where a massive accumulation of cockroaches is expected to occur. It is advisable to perform this operation at night. Small cockroaches will not feel the disguised boric acid, but they will definitely begin to explore the ball itself and, touching it with their antennae, will doom themselves to death.
Since insects do not transmit a signal of danger to their relatives, new individuals will approach the cunning bait, become infected and crawl away mortally ill. Using this method, you can completely get rid of cockroaches in 3-4 weeks, depending on their number. There is a possibility of cockroaches reappearing; it may be the hatched offspring left in the eggs by the female insect. Therefore, it is recommended to repeat the method with boric acid, and the cockroaches - small and large - will disappear forever.
Types of domestic cockroaches
There are several dozen species of mustachioed pests known. Most of them are found in the wild. There are 7–10 common varieties living in houses and apartments. A close acquaintance with them will help you unmistakably find out which “neighbor” has settled in the house and find the correct measures to combat it.
Ginger
The most popular species, often occupying city apartments and village houses. In common people, barbels are also called Russian Prussians.
Interesting differences between Prussians:
- light yellow, brown, brown (often black) color;
- rapid reproduction (5–10 adult Prussians turn into a colony in a month);
- omnivorous - they eat fresh or spoiled foods, eat paper, fabric and paper wallpaper.
For domestic Prussians, the kitchen is considered an attractive room. Regular general cleaning and timely removal of the trash can will help partially reduce the risk of barbels.
Black
Black longhorned beetles rarely settle in houses, breeding in sewers and garbage dumps. The outstanding feature of the street pest is its size; adults easily reach one to two centimeters.
A long body is not an obstacle to entering an apartment. It is difficult to control pests of this species, since large longhorned beetles are easily adaptable and get used to chemicals.
White
Insects turn white after molting; during their life, pests are capable of shedding their chitinous cover up to eight times. Apartment neighbors usually hide in secluded places, so it is very difficult to take a photo or video of an unusual alien.
American
Despite the name, Africa is considered the homeland of the aliens. From the hot continent they came to Europe, then to America. Pests have a number of characteristics:
- adaptation (American longhorned beetles have rapidly spread across continents and can easily withstand high temperatures);
- aggressive nature (pets and people can be harmed by cockroaches, but it is better for a child not to come into contact with insects - there is a risk of getting a painful bite, read more here);
- incredible mobility - the pest moves quickly, it is difficult to mechanically destroy an American representative of the cockroach genus.
Insects of this species do not tolerate low temperatures. In village houses, it is not difficult to remove pests, especially in winter, in order to deal with the mustachioed family, you need to freeze the room.
Turkmen and Egyptian
These representatives of the Cockroach family are not called tropical for nothing. They are found only in warm regions. Egyptian and Turkmen insects do not strive for comfort, but settle in the owner’s outbuildings, sheds, and gardens. Insects are happily eaten by pets, snakes, and lizards.
Furniture cockroach
We became acquainted with the first furniture insects in Russia not so long ago. Often they are also called bed ones. These are representatives of the family who often live in beds and upholstered furniture. The main differences between the pests are their bright orange color and transparent striped wings.
The favorite food of this type of cockroaches is foods rich in starch. The furniture pest happily eats wallpaper glue and damages old books (often limited to the spines).
Central Asian
The last representative of apartment pests, most often inhabiting apartments and houses, that we want to talk about is the Central Asian large cockroach. The insect has a dark (often black) abdomen and a yellow head. In young individuals the color is light, darkening with age.
The species is distributed only in the southern regions of the Russian Federation. Occupies various premises - residential buildings, outbuildings.
Killer composition: flour + alabaster
An effective remedy for cockroaches - red, rather unpleasant insects - is a combination of alabaster and flour in equal proportions. The resulting mixture should be sprinkled on the areas where insects are most concentrated. When alabaster enters the body, it hardens and turns into plaster, which causes the death of mustachioed individuals.
Cockroaches are small, brown and black insects that cannot stand the smell of ammonia, so a washed floor with the addition of this substance will repel them for a while.
Beer against cockroaches
You can insidiously take advantage of the love of cockroaches for beer by pouring a small amount into the bottom of a jar, greasing the inner edges of the glass container with Vaseline and leaving it in the place where the insects are supposed to live. The next morning the jar will be filled with cockroaches. With this method, only those specimens that crawl out of their holes will die. Females involved in laying eggs and packing them into the ooteca, a special chamber at the end of the abdomen, will remain inside and are guaranteed to ensure the appearance of new offspring instead of the destroyed ones.
White cockroaches - who are they?
Hypotheses refuted by scientists:
- White insects are insects mutated by high doses of radiation that emit gamma rays. They are indeed capable of acquiring mutations, but this will require a powerful radioactive source, which is impossible to encounter in a human home.
- They are representatives of albinos - the rarest individuals who are congenitally lacking pigmentation. If this were true, then the likelihood of meeting them would be negligible.
- An albino is not a cockroach at all, but a new insect unknown to science. Agree, it is naive to believe that a representative of a new species was able to hide from taxonomists developing new taxonomic units.
- The lack of pigment in the white cockroach is a consequence of its lifestyle in secluded dark places. The theory was criticized due to the fact that no relationship was found between exposure to light and the intensity of the color of the cockroach.
Interesting! Some chlorine-containing insecticides can temporarily inhibit pigment synthesis in animals. This may be the reason for the temporary fading of the color of the poisoned insect.
In fact, an albino is a nymph that has just shed its small chitinous scales, and not a new species of cockroach.
White individuals are less common than others for two reasons:
- the chitinous cover is colorless for a short time: after 4-6 hours the pigment gives it a light brown color;
- During molting, insects are vulnerable, so they hide in secluded places where they will not be taken by surprise.
As a result of molting, the larva forms a young, colorless chitinous cover under the old shell. Pigmentation promotes its hardening and begins a few hours after the scales are shed.
The last moult transforms the nymph into an adult, which in the first hours of life is also devoid of color. Soon the pigment accumulates, and the insect takes on its usual appearance.
Curious facts
Those who like to kill cockroaches in a sudden way should be aware of the extreme resistance of such insects to physical damage. Therefore, swatting it down is not enough; you also need to either grind it thoroughly, or sprinkle it with boric acid while still half-dead and release it to its relatives.
Interesting information: thanks to a specific gene, called “knockdown” by scientists, cockroaches can imitate their own death. Smelling the smell of poison, the insect loses consciousness, falls with its paws up and stops breathing.
After lying down for a certain period, he comes to his senses and calmly continues his sabotage activities.
Preventive measures
As preventive measures against the spread of cockroaches in the home, it is recommended to use the following recommendations:
- Maintain perfect cleanliness in the kitchen and in the apartment as a whole. There should be no crumbs on the tables and floors, and greasy deposits on the walls. The trash can should be taken out in a timely manner, without putting it off until tomorrow.
- Store seasonings in glass, hermetically sealed containers.
- Wash dishes and sinks promptly.
- Do not leave containers with prepared food or grocery bags open.
- Cover the air vents with a grill or fine mesh.
- Cockroaches can live for several weeks without a head, which has been confirmed by repeated experiments.
- Many species can fly (the synanthropic American or Lapland cockroach).
- Whiskered insects may not breathe for 40 minutes. This property contributes to the retention of water available in the body when it is impossible to replenish it.
How to detect a cockroach nest
For example, Prussians (light red beetles) look for the most secluded places. However, like other types of cockroaches. It can be absolutely any cracks into which they fit, even peeling wallpaper. However, they are unlikely to live in a place where food and water are too far away and too close to the nearest occupants. Therefore, most often the habitat of these creatures is the toilet, bathroom or kitchen.
But this is only the beginning, because even knowing their habitats, it is impossible to say exactly where they are now, because in these rooms there is always a lot of furniture and secluded places that are impossible to reach even with great effort, not to mention exhaust hood or ventilation. And how, in this case, to find their nest? Let's give some recommendations on this matter.
At the very first stages of their appearance, the caution of cockroaches is incredible, and therefore even at night they can not always be detected. But, as we said, if one was discovered, then there are others.
If you want to make sure of this, take a flashlight and look through all the secluded places. These could be gaps between the wall and furniture, the space under the bathtub or sofa, shelves and dusty places. Also look at those places that can serve as a source of their appearance - ventilation ducts.
At a minimum, the kitchen should definitely have ventilation. Perhaps they are located behind walls, hiding a considerable amount of space, or under a floor that is poorly secured.
