What do cockroaches fear most?

• By Vil Malinoshevsky
• About cockroaches

It doesn’t matter whether you are interested in entomology or not, but you should definitely know about cockroaches. All people at least occasionally encounter these insects, and many struggle with them for a long time and not always successfully.

Every day we help people who have been trying to remove cockroaches for months, or even years. And due to the fact that many do not know the key features of the life of these insects, they cannot destroy them. Moreover, people often make mistakes at the very early stage of infestation of a room, when there are single individuals in the room, they allow these single individuals to multiply, and then they can no longer cope with dozens, hundreds, and in some apartments even thousands of cockroaches. Yes, yes, we have seen such premises.

Red cockroaches on the wall behind the stove

Therefore, even if you are not interested in cockroaches at all, you need to know what to do if you encounter these insects in your home. Especially at the first meeting, when it is very easy to kill cockroaches and prevent their mass reproduction. What do you need to know about cockroaches and what do professional exterminators know about them, which allows them to be exterminated in 1-2 hours the first time? And what you don’t need to know about them, what myths about cockroaches need to be thrown out of your head so as not to waste time, effort and money and not give cockroaches a chance to survive and reproduce? Let's figure it out.

Cockroaches can only live next to humans

The most important thing: in Eurasia, cockroaches are insects that can only live next to humans. Insects like them are also called synanthropic. It is human housing, outbuildings, and industrial enterprises that maintain a suitable temperature all year round - these are the only places where cockroaches can survive and constantly reproduce in our climate.

In the tropics, cockroaches can and do live in the wild. Large Madagascar cockroaches, banana cockroaches, car cockroaches live in leaf litter in tropical rainforests, feed on falling fruits and rotting leaves and do not need human proximity.

South American banana cockroach

And the red cockroaches familiar to us have spread throughout the world from India and the Indochina Peninsula. So, at least, scientists think. And there, in warm Southeast Asia, they live safely outside human habitation and outside populated areas in general. And in other warm places on the planet, where they managed to reach with humans, they go out into the wild and survive there due to their omnivorousness and high fertility.

The same goes for black cockroaches.

But in our climate, neither red nor black cockroaches can survive all year round outside constantly heated human buildings.

It is important to understand this so as not to try to scare away cockroaches or drive them away from your apartment or home. Such repelling is ineffective, if not to say that it is ineffective at all. It is almost impossible to scare them away or drive them away, except for a while, because they cannot live anywhere except yours or a neighbor’s house.

Such attempts to scare off cockroaches are similar in their prospects to attempts to scare yourself away from your home. Imagine that in your house someone plugs an ultrasonic repeller into the socket, or lays out tansy, or sprays vinegar on the baseboards so that you “forever” leave your only home. Obviously, you won’t leave your home after this. And the cockroaches won't leave either. Moreover, they are able to exist safely in conditions in which a person would be very uncomfortable.

Does a cockroach live without a head?

The question of how many days a cockroach can live without a head will seem strange to a non-specialist. Of course, not everyone would think of catching a domestic cockroach, tearing off its head and letting it go. But similar experiments have been conducted by scientists.

It turns out that the insect survives for 7-9 days even without a head. This feature is due to the openness of the circulatory system, central nervous system and gastrointestinal tract of the insect. If you remove the head, the blood on the neck will be baked, the blood vessels and other organs and systems will continue to function.

The insect will also continue to breathe, because it has small respiratory organs throughout its body. Areas of the nervous system are also present on the body, and nervous regulation of basic processes will occur in full. A cockroach will die of thirst, but will live even longer than with its head, because the area of ​​moisture evaporation will decrease.

Thus, the vitality of cockroaches is high, and there is no point in hoping that they themselves will die without food in a couple of weeks. The only thing that can be done is to completely deprive them of water, and then they will definitely stop harming humans.

Cockroaches are very unpretentious

All cockroaches need to live is an air temperature in the range of 20 to 35°C, the presence of food and the availability of water. Moreover, they are extremely unpretentious when it comes to the quality of food: any organic matter is suitable for their nutrition. Adult cockroaches and older nymphs live happily, grow and reproduce, feeding on bread crumbs, drops of oil on the walls behind the stove, peeling skin from people, even mold fungi in pipes.

Cluster of cockroaches behind the refrigerator

Scientists in their studies kept cockroaches on a diet of glue, and the insects survived safely. They were fed only soap, and they also did not think of dying. For lack of anything else, cockroaches happily gnaw paper and soft wood, and symbiotic bacteria in their intestines convert this cellulose into a source of energy and essential carbohydrates.

In addition, it has been shown that the first instar larvae of cockroaches can live for a long time, feeding only on the excrement of adults. This, by the way, is used in pest control - if you feed an adult cockroach poison with a delayed effect, then part of this poison will then go to the larvae, which do not crawl out at all to where a person can see them. And there, in their shelters, they will die from him. But more on that later.

Now it is important to understand that almost any conditions in which a person can live are suitable for cockroaches. This means that there is practically no point in trying to drive or scare them away from the house. They will not live only where humans will not live. And often they survive safely in places where even humans are unable to live.

For example, sewer pipes and sewer collectors in cities are literally incubators for cockroaches. Especially the black ones, for this reason they were also called sewer, because in the summer they can often be seen crawling out of manholes. Cockroaches multiply in huge numbers in food industry enterprises, in flour and grain storage facilities, if they are not poisoned here. People cannot stay in such rooms for a long time due to the large amount of dust in the air. But it doesn’t scare cockroaches.

How long do cockroaches live?

Cockroaches are insects that live in residential buildings, causing serious discomfort to people and pets. They multiply very quickly and in a short time can fill an entire apartment. It's not that easy to fight them. Even if you manage to kick them out of your apartment, they may reappear within a few months. Many people are interested in the question of how long cockroaches live and why they adapt so well to any conditions. After all, every second person knows about the endurance of these household pests.

Cockroach life stages

They reproduce by laying eggs. To do this, the female usually chooses the most secluded dusty place in the apartment, where no human hand can penetrate. The hatched larva is white and reaches 3 mm in length. Over time, its chitinous cover becomes hard. But the larva becomes an adult only two months after hatching, having survived several molts.

The adult life of a Prussian dog (a common representative of the red color) is 9-12 months, if it is not affected by various negative factors. A black cockroach can exist for two years.

How long do cockroaches live without food and water?

In fact, these insects do not have an urgent need for food. A red cockroach can easily go without food for a month and a half, and a black cockroach can easily survive for up to three months. This is all due to the fact that the metabolism of these household pests is many times slower than that of humans. After all, they are cold-blooded creatures. That is why, once they have eaten, they may not need food for a long time.

However, they need water just as much as humans. This is the same living creature that is not able to live without water for a long time. It is the main component of its cells, which is why a cockroach can only go as long as possible without drinking for a week. For this reason, these pests love to absorb waste, which always contains a sufficient amount of liquid.

Does a cockroach live without a head?

There is a very interesting fact about these insects, according to which they can easily do without a head. And this is very strange, because living organisms usually die without this part of the body. Moreover, both the body and the head can exist separately. All this is due to the fact that their body is structured differently than that of humans. If the head is lost, the circulatory system will simply be sealed with dried blood, and the cockroach will continue its life. Plus, he doesn't need to breathe through his nose like a human. Its breathing is carried out through special openings on the body called “spiracles”.

According to scientists, a cockroach can live without a head from nine days to several weeks. And he dies not because of the absence of this part of the body, but because food cannot enter the body in any other way.

It is not for nothing that the cockroach is called the most tenacious of all insects. After all, he is able to live from several days to several weeks without access to food and water. In addition, he can easily exist without a head. This pest is very different from other living beings because its body is structured differently. Thanks to its special structure, it can survive for a year if it is not affected by negative factors. As for black cockroaches, their lifespan can be up to two years, which is an incredibly long life cycle for an insect.

Cockroaches can eat almost anything that contains carbohydrates, fats or proteins

It is the ability of cockroaches to feed on any organic food that allows them to survive in almost any room. That is, in fact, even the presence of normal “human” food is not a necessary condition for them to live in a particular room. If somewhere there is no such human food, but there is water and a normal temperature is maintained, cockroaches will most likely be able to live there.

So they live in the same sewers, where a person is unlikely to find something tasty for himself. So they live in attics, in the holds of ships, where in the most difficult times they can gnaw each other’s wings from hunger, and according to some evidence, they even gnaw the dry skin on the heels of sleeping people. Similar stories are known, although their authenticity has not been confirmed.

This means that if you put all the food in your house in containers inaccessible to cockroaches, this does not guarantee that you will get cockroaches. Although, the likelihood of their appearance and mass reproduction will be lower - they will prefer to live where there is plenty of food.

We had a case of a call to the post office, where cockroaches lived in the warehouse. There were no products there at all. Only boxes, parcels and envelopes. And among all this, cockroaches roam around. Simply because there is a bakery behind the wall. It would seem, why don’t they live only in the bakery, but climb into the warehouse without food and water? But this is already a strategy for the survival of the species.

So be prepared: if your neighbors often leave fried potatoes or half-eaten bread on the table, and even more so do not close the trash can, then cockroaches may appear on yours, even if there is not a single random crumb anywhere in your apartment.

But cockroaches need water much more urgently.

In rooms where there is no water at all, there are either no cockroaches at all, or they live here if they can quickly get into neighboring buildings for a watering hole.

Where do cockroaches live in an apartment?

Gaps and cracks are the most suitable places for cockroaches to hide. Since they need water, food, and warmth for a comfortable stay, they prefer to settle in the kitchen, bathroom and toilet. Cockroaches live in the kitchen:

• under the sink, refrigerator, peeling wallpaper;
• inside kitchen appliances;
• near the trash can;
• in cracked baseboards, ventilation holes, the space between the wall surface and the wall cabinet.

In the bathroom, pests look for hidden places under mirrors, in cabinets and protective boxes that disguise pipes. A lot of free space for their habitat is located under the plastic panels that are often used to line sanitary rooms. When the colony of insects grows, they begin to move to other rooms, hiding under baseboards and in furniture.

Cockroaches are cautious and timid insects. They live nocturnally and are difficult to detect, especially when their numbers are small. When the population of individuals increases, there is a shortage of food and space, they begin to move openly during the day. You can determine the presence of cockroaches in the house by the following signs:

1. Insects go out at night in search of food and water, actively leaving their shelter. If you suddenly turn on the lights in the kitchen, you can see them on the countertop or gas stove.
2. The presence of unwanted neighbors is determined by black secretions, clutches of eggs, larvae, and remnants of the chitinous layer. Feces can be seen under sinks, in kitchen drawers, and on door hinges.
3. An unpleasant odor appeared. The black type of cockroaches secretes a biological substance with a specific odor. If there are many individuals, this smell is irritating to the human body.
4. A person becomes allergic to indoor dust. The dust contains fungal and mold spores, and also contains particles of the chitinous covering of insects, which they lose during molting, and their excrement.
5. Trying to hide under the baseboard, wallpaper and other secluded places, the insects quietly crunch and rustle. These sounds can be clearly heard at night.

We suggest you read: How to get rid of late blight

If you were able to spot one longhorned beetle, there may be a nest somewhere. To prevent the proliferation of parasites, it is necessary to thoroughly inspect the entire house. First, they look into the kitchen and bathroom:

• armed with a flashlight, they illuminate dark corners, spaces, crevices;
• if you can look like a large accumulation of parasites, larvae, ootheca, remains of chitinous cover, then this is a nest of cockroaches;
• all living insects and larvae can be crushed with slippers, but the use of insecticides is also necessary;
• using a steam generator you can make insects crawl out of cracks and gaps in the baseboards;
• It is more convenient to work with the device if you put a narrow nozzle on it;
• sometimes the steam generator is replaced with an aerosol can containing an insecticidal substance.

Methods of destruction

It is necessary to get rid of cockroaches immediately after they are discovered, otherwise they will quickly multiply. The more parasites there are, the more difficult it is to remove them. To combat, traditional methods or chemicals are used. The most popular means:

1. Insecticidal pencil, chalk. It is applied to pipes, baseboards, back walls of furniture, corners. Having tasted the insecticide, the insect dies.
2. Insect repellent gel. The drug has a nerve-paralytic effect. When ingested, it causes paralysis, which leads to the death of the cockroach. The product is sold in tubes or syringes. This allows you to apply it pointwise.
3. Spray aerosol. The substance is sprayed into the air. Before using an insecticide, you need to make sure that there are no children or animals in the house, since the poison contained in the drug is toxic.
4. Poison traps “Raptor”, “Taiga”, “Raid”. The device emits a fragrant smell of food that attracts insects. When they get inside the trap, a toxic substance sticks to their paws, which they spread among other relatives.
5. Ultrasonic device. The device emits high-frequency waves that adversely affect the nervous system of insects. They begin to panic, run erratically, cannot find food, and lose interest in mating. Living conditions become unfavorable, they leave their home. It is not recommended to use the device if there are pets in the house.

We suggest you read: Boric acid for cockroaches - reviews, recipes and how to get rid of the balls

Folk remedies use balls made on the basis of boric acid. To prepare them you need to mix:

• boric acid – 1 sachet;
• boiled egg and potatoes - 1 pc.;
• flour;
• sunflower oil.

The prepared mass is rolled into balls and placed in places where parasites accumulate. Once they touch the substance, they will begin to die.

If cockroaches live in neighboring apartments, it will not be possible to completely eliminate them. Having exterminated one group of insects, another will take their place. This can be avoided by treating the entire apartment building, including the basement.

Cockroaches definitely need water

Cockroaches cannot live without water. They need it at least in some form. Whether it be drops in the sink, water in the toilet, condensation on the window, damp dust in a dark damp corner, even the flow of sewage in the sewer - this is enough for them. But if somewhere there is no water at all, cockroaches do not appear there, or disappear from there immediately after appearing.

Sometimes they try to use this need for water to remove cockroaches. But in practice, it is almost impossible to “dehydrate” an apartment. There will definitely be water left somewhere. Cockroaches can climb into the pipe in the sink and get to the siphon, which always contains water - it here prevents the smell from the sewer riser from escaping from the sink. They can also drink from coffee or tea cups in the trash can, or from a flower pot. This means that it is unlikely to be possible to get rid of them by depriving them of a source of water. Although theoretically it is possible.

Male black cockroach licks condensation from the wall

For example, cockroaches do not live in silos where grain is stored, although there is a huge amount of husks and crushed grains on which cockroaches can feed. The fact is that it is this husk that absorbs all the moisture that may be in such a tower, and there is simply nothing left for the cockroaches here. But next to such storage facilities - in their annexes, in toilets, in basements - there are sometimes thousands of cockroaches.

Lifespan of a black cockroach

By definition, this cockroach is black in color with a clearly visible glossy sheen. The length of the male is 25 mm, the female is up to 32 mm.

On a note! Unlike their red relatives, black cockroaches move only on a horizontal surface; movement in the vertical direction is inaccessible to them.

Another difference: black cockroaches live mainly in the natural environment and can occupy some voids in basements, storm drains, and sewers.

Their life cycle is similar to that of the Prussians. It directly depends on seasonality and climate. In the warm season, the period from egg to adult is approximately 200 days, in the cold season – up to 800 days.

How long a black cockroach lives depends largely on environmental conditions, but on average, male black cockroaches that have reached sexual maturity live 110-160 days, females - 35-180 days.

During this time, the female lays about 8 capsules (oothecas) with eggs - 15-16 pieces each. About 30 hours after the capsule is formed, it drops it somewhere in a secluded place, where the nymphs appear.

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.

Main types of domestic cockroaches

Cockroaches periodically fill apartments and even private houses, then their populations decline until the next wave of human habitation.
At first, the discovery of new substances toxic to insects reduced their population, but not for long, insects quickly adapted and now not every Dichlorvos takes them. The technological revolution in kitchen and household appliances has led to the creation of a strong electromagnetic field from each appliance. The advent of mobile phones has increased harmful background radiation. And people suddenly discovered that cockroaches had become rare.

People suddenly discovered that cockroaches have become rare

Over time, the number of mustachioed parasites increased and the fight against the Prussians in the kitchens began again. Insects are able to quickly adapt to various poisons and external influences.

Only cold is harmful to domestic cockroaches. They can starve for a month, but they do not go into suspended animation and cannot tolerate the cold.

It is difficult to find red-whiskered parasites in private houses with stove heating. But heating systems of various types eliminated the temperature difference when they were heated in the morning and evening, and the rest of the time the hut cooled down.

Cockroaches cannot tolerate cold

Nowadays, several species of cockroaches live near humans:

• redheads;
• black;
• furniture;
• American

They all have 2 pairs of wings and make people wonder whether cockroaches fly or not. After all, in the kitchen they only run away very quickly from the slipper when the light comes on. The rigid front wings protect the insect's body and, if you don't look closely, they can be mistaken for covering the body. Thin transparent wings hide under them, like May beetles and other flying beetles. Those species that are specially bred live in a separate group.

Redheads are constantly called Prussians and are sometimes even considered a separate species of insects, they are so different from their fellows. In Russia, it is believed that red mustachios were brought from Prussia. In Europe, this type of pest is called Russian, hares.

Blacks are larger than reds. They never live with them, or rather, they kick out their weaker relatives when they begin to occupy the apartment. They most often live in basements and garbage bins. They prefer damp rooms. In multi-storey buildings, apartments on the first floor are attacked.

Furniture bugs, dark and small, feed mainly on cellulose and live in furniture and bookcases. They are not kitchen pests; they live in living rooms, offices, and libraries.

Sailors brought black cockroaches from America, which settled in garbage dumps and basements and feed on waste, rotten meat, and rotten vegetables. They are perfectly adapted to life, breeding not only on ships, but also on trains and vehicles. The Americans quickly overran all areas except the far north. Scientists believe that a species of cockroaches from the tropics is capable of withstanding radiation several times greater than what is permissible for humans.

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.

Cockroaches. Types of insects

Today, there are a huge number of arthropod insects around the globe. So how many species of cockroaches are actually known to scientists? There are already more than four and a half thousand species and this is not the limit, since new species are constantly being discovered and they claim that this will continue indefinitely, since cockroaches are constantly changing. They get used to new living conditions, climate, poisons and eventually evolve.

Everyone knows that arthropods are the most resilient living organisms on earth, and their ancestors appeared even earlier than dinosaurs. Entomologists have proven that ancient insects were practically no different in appearance from modern ones. The only thing that has changed is the reproductive system. A shell has appeared that protects the eggs during laying - edema. In ancient times, there was a large loss of offspring due to arthropods leaving eggs to fend for themselves without any protection.

Every country and every continent has its own cockroach.

Cockroaches in Russia and the Near Abroad

Types of cockroaches in the apartment.

• Prusak. At home, you can very often find a red cockroach. Of course, it is familiar to everyone and is considered the most popular in Russia. The body of such an individual is slightly flattened, light brown or dark in color. This insect loves warmth and places where there is a lot of food. That is, it settles in any living space.
• Black beetle. O also prefers the comfort of home, but does not refuse to live in garbage chutes, garbage dumps, basements and other dirty habitats. It can mainly be found in apartments on the lower floors. It often scares people with its appearance, because this species often reaches large sizes.
• White cockroach. Contrary to misconception, the white cockroach does not belong to any particular species. The insect takes on a white, almost transparent appearance after molting. Residents of apartments, seeing white insects, think that these are albinos that were born due to constant darkness. But in fact, albinos do not exist among arthropods. Such insects can be very rarely found, since they most often hide in cracks and other places hidden from human eyes.

Street cockroaches. Kinds .

• Central Asian cockroach. This species of arthropod lives in the south. It differs from its fellows in appearance and ability to fly. The insect has a yellow head and a brown, brown or black belly.

For most people, the sight of pests will cause a storm of negative emotions , but there are also individuals who specifically keep arthropods in their homes as pets.

Cockroaches don't bite people

Even the largest representatives of cockroaches are harmless. For example, giant Madagascar cockroaches hiss when frightened and hope to scare away the offender, but they almost never use their jaws.

Moreover, Prussians and black cockroaches do not bite people.

These games with cockroaches are completely safe

There is an opinion that with a very large number of cockroaches in the room and a complete absence of food here, these insects can gnaw the skin of a sleeping person. There is even allegedly evidence that on ships in ancient times, cockroaches gnawed off the skin of people's fingers.

In fact, today in no residential building can a situation arise in which cockroaches become so hungry that they begin to bite people. They can go from any room to where there is normal food that is safe for them. And there is always enough food for them in human housing.

As a rule, people want to consider bumps on their bodies to be cockroach bites when they convince themselves to the last minute that there are no bedbugs in their house. Some people are terrified of bedbugs, others cannot admit to themselves or their relatives that bedbugs live in the house, and they come up with any explanation for the bumps on their skin - including trying to explain to themselves that they are being bitten by cockroaches.

In fact, there is no documented case in which it would be reliably confirmed that a person was bitten by a red or black cockroach. If you can photograph something like this, please send us such confirmation. It is very interesting.

Plus, in such quantities that cockroaches in housing are critically short of food, they do not accumulate here. When there are a lot of them, some of them spread out into neighboring rooms and their number in the apartment never exceeds a certain threshold. Although…

Cockroaches reproduce very quickly

This is especially true for red cockroaches. This is the key to their survival and the reason why they are so difficult to fight.

An adult cockroach lives for about six months to a year. During this time, the female manages to bear and lay from four to eight oothecae with eggs. Such a capsule with eggs, when seen on a cockroach, is sometimes mistakenly considered one egg. From each such ootheca emerge from 8 to 56 nymphs, which over the next 50-60 days molt 7 times and turn into adult cockroaches. That is, already two months later, these small cockroaches themselves will reach the age when they begin to reproduce.

By the way, immediately after molting, each cockroach remains white for several hours. These are not albinos, as is sometimes mistakenly believed. These are just nymphs with body coverings that have not yet hardened...

At the same time, cockroaches do not have any natural enemies in the apartment - no one eats them here on purpose, and even if some domestic animal does this, it eats insects only occasionally, just when they meet. The general population of insects in the apartment does not suffer from this.

As a result, the number of cockroaches in an apartment, under conditions suitable for them, grows very quickly, one might even say rapidly. Consequently, even minor delays in their destruction, including attempts to try to remove them using unreliable means on the principle of “maybe it will help,” end in hundreds of cockroaches behind the refrigerator and shock for the owners, to whom the exterminator shows such nests.

For example, watch the video from the processing, where the master discovers many hundreds of cockroaches in the apartment:

In red cockroaches, this ability to reproduce quickly is especially noticeable due to their peculiar care for their offspring.

Prussians protect their eggs

Not so directly that they protect them and drive predators away from them. Their care is different: females carry oothecae with eggs at the end of the abdomen almost until the very moment when the larvae hatch from the eggs. Thus, the eggs, which could be eaten by any predator or even another cockroach, are always with the female, who can escape in case of danger. And the larvae emerging from these eggs themselves hide quite effectively.

Ootheca of the red cockroach shortly before the larvae hatch

Due to this, by the way, red cockroaches displace black ones in those places where these species are found together.

The fact is that female black cockroaches lay ootheca a few days after the entire capsule has formed, and for several more weeks such ootheca simply lies where the mother left it until the nymphs hatch from the eggs. If red cockroaches find this capsule, they happily eat it. Thus, in those places where red and black cockroaches live next to each other, the red ones completely destroy the new generation of black ones, and the more Russians appear here, the less chance the eggs of black cockroaches have to survive.

For this reason, the black cockroach, although it remains a widespread species, is much less common than the red one.

Interestingly, the same feature that ensures the high survival rate of red cockroach eggs also makes it easier to control.

There are almost never any eggs of red cockroaches in the room, which means that after good disinsection, nymphs should not appear here.

This feature is especially clearly visible when comparing the baiting of cockroaches with the baiting of bedbugs. Bedbugs often have to be poisoned twice because after the first treatment, eggs remain in the room, which are not affected by insecticides. As a result, when baited, adult bedbugs and larvae die, but new larvae hatch from the eggs after a few days. They grow, begin to bite people and need to be re-poisoned before they reach maturity.

Red cockroaches do not have eggs indoors. Such eggs are either carried by the female, or after laying, larvae hatch from them within a few hours. The probability that at the very moment of treatment one of the females will lay such a capsule and nymphs will emerge from it at that very moment is minimal. Even if this happens, all newly hatched nymphs will immediately come into contact with the product that has not yet dried and die. This means that in one treatment you can destroy all the cockroaches in the apartment. Moreover...

Cockroaches die from most insecticides

We have already tested more than 40 drugs based on various insecticides. In the form of an aerosol, almost any means kills red and black cockroaches.

So, in our experiments, cockroaches from different apartments and from different industrial enterprises were successfully killed:

• Get Total and Get Express
• Executioner
• Chalk Mashenka (!)
• Boric acid and borax
• Karbofos
• Cifox
• Combat
• Sinuzan
• Averfos
• Lambda Zone
• Various aerosols from the Raid and Raptor lines
• Hector from cockroaches

It was not possible to kill the cockroaches with Phenaxin powder, permethrin-based smoke bombs and several gels. We believe that the point here is not so much in the active substance, but in the preparative form of the products themselves. For example, an aerosol with fipronil quickly killed cockroaches that had not previously been “taken” by a gel based on the same fipronil.

In any case, cockroaches indoors can be completely exterminated at one time with a relatively inexpensive means. If this fails, it means that the product is being used incorrectly. If you manage to destroy cockroaches, but then they appear again, it means that the places where they enter the room are simply not blocked.

We have completely removed cockroaches from apartments many times. In one heavily infested apartment, we even shot two videos: one before treatment, so that you could assess the degree of infection and look at the procedure for disinfestation itself, and the second, three weeks after the persecution, when not a single live cockroach could be found in the apartment.

In most cases, DezinCity specialists poison cockroaches with exactly this result; in the most difficult situations, after the second treatment, not a single cockroach remains in the apartment. And the exterminator always warns the customer that if cockroaches once got into the apartment, then in the future they will be able to do this again and will probably do so. People nod their heads in understanding, promise to find and block all ways for cockroaches to enter the apartment, but forget about this exactly at the moment when the exterminator leaves the apartment. But they remember after a couple of weeks, when they notice new newcomers. That is, when it is too late to eliminate the routes of their penetration.

Cockroaches are not afraid of repellers

Neither ultrasonic, nor electromagnetic, nor magnetic resonance. Such repellers are nothing more than dummy toys for those who want to try their luck before a normal pest control and throw away a couple of hundred rubles with the expectation of “what if it helps?” Will not help. Even theoretically, there is no principle according to which a signal from such repellers could scare away cockroaches. But in fact, such repellers are nothing more than a box with a light bulb, for the blinking of which the buyer, in fact, pays money.

Not a single case has been confirmed in which such devices would get rid of cockroaches

At every second treatment, experienced exterminators listen to stories from clients that before calling the service, a person tried to fight cockroaches with repellents, but was unable to completely remove the insects. Moreover, people seriously believe that a certain ultrasonic signal from such a device, plugged into an outlet, is really effective against cockroaches, capable of scaring off and even killing these insects. It’s only a pity that over the years of treatment, specialists have not found a single cockroach that would have suffered from the repeller. But more traditional methods are quite effective. For example…

How long does a cockroach live without a head?

The answer to the question of how long a headless cockroach lives is close to the figure from the question about water. And yes, it’s absolutely true that they don’t die right away! Having lost its head, the cockroach will not die from blood loss, because the vessels will be sealed with clots and the system inside the body will continue to work. Also, he will not suffocate, because cockroaches breathe with their bodies, not their heads. They will not lose their nervous system either: nerve nodes are scattered throughout their body, which are sufficient for basic reflexes. So the body will live without a head as long as water resources allow, which will be impossible to renew without a head.

It seems that this information about cockroaches gives reason to argue with the statement that man is the crown of creation, and to think: why did Mother Nature not bother to reward us with the same impressive abilities in the field of survival?

AfterText #1

Cockroaches die quickly at high temperatures and frost

It is known that cockroaches generally cannot tolerate negative temperatures. In this regard, they are even more vulnerable than bedbugs: bedbugs can survive long-term cooling down to -5 - -10°C, and cockroaches die at -5°C within a few hours.

Likewise, both red and black cockroaches die in less than an hour at air temperatures above +45°C.

This means that you can destroy them indoors, for example, using an industrial heat dryer. They warm up the air to 50-55°C, this temperature is maintained for 1.5-2 hours, and there are no live cockroaches left here. Moreover, such a disposal will be completely safe for people and pets - cats and dogs.

Cockroaches are active at night

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Please describe the origin of the cockroach and how to fight it, preferably using folk remedies.

A.M. Morgunov.

Black cockroaches and red cockroaches live in natural conditions and in dwellings if they are heated in winter.

Cockroaches are active only at night; during the day they hide in cracks in walls, kitchen furniture, behind baseboards, heating pipes, etc. They feed on food, various food waste, cotton wool, wool, and paper.

Prussians are polyphagous, feeding on flour products, sweets, and book bindings that contain glue or flour paste.

Cockroaches lay eggs in two rows in a special chitinous capsule, the so-called ooteca. The number of eggs varies among different species. The hatched larvae already resemble adults. The larvae molt 5-7 times. Black cockroaches reproduce 5 years after hatching.

To combat cockroaches, the folk method of “freezing” has been used since ancient times. They opened the windows and doors wide and cooled down the living space. At a temperature of -5°C, cockroaches die after 30 minutes, at a temperature of -7°C - after 1 minute. There was even a popular expression “cockroach”, which means not to light the stove.

Compositions of food baits for killing cockroaches:

1. 10-20 g of boric acid are mixed with 10-20 g of starch, pour boiling water to a total mass of 100 g, bring to a boil, but do not boil. The mass, cooled to 60-70°C, is applied with a brush or cotton swab to the back walls of kitchen furniture, baseboards, cracks, etc. are treated.

2. Take three medium potatoes, do not peel them so that they do not boil, make 2-3 punctures with a fork. They put them in water, and two eggs in shells are dropped in there. Cook over low heat for 2 hours. Drain the water, but do not pour it out, take out the eggs, peel them and remove the whites. Boiled potatoes, egg yolks, 20-30 g of boric acid are kneaded until smooth. If the mass turns out to be thick, dilute with drained water. From the resulting mass they make balls or put it with a spoon into jar lids, saucers, sockets and place it in places where cockroaches hide.

Compositions of drinking bowls:

1. A 1% aqueous solution of chlorophos is poured into bottles by inserting a cotton or gauze wick. The bottles are placed in the same places as the bait.

2. Chlorophos 0.5%, sugar 20%, water 79.5%.

To combat cockroaches, our industry produces liquid pesticides - insecticides, which come in aerosol packaging. The most commonly sold products are “Karbofos”, “Dichlorvos”, “Chlorophos”, “Prima”. These products are convenient to use for treating certain areas where cockroaches are located. When using the drug, the can is held upward with the spray head at a distance of 25-30 cm from the surface to be treated.

Pyrethrum powder - dried and crushed flowers of Caucasian, or Ladmat chamomile, which is harmless to humans - has an effect on cockroaches. The powder is sprayed with a rubber bulb in places where overnight guests gather at the rate of 20 g of powder per 1 square meter. m.

It is known that cockroaches cannot tolerate the smell of ammonia, which is added to the water when washing the floor.

E. Dark-skinned.

Read other articles on this topic here.

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...

Can cockroaches live in the cold?

How often do you come across insects outside in winter? We think that during the winter you manage to forget what mosquitoes, flies and forest ants look like. This, in principle, is the answer to the question of how long cockroaches live without heat - not at all! At temperatures below zero, Prussians fall into suspended animation, and at -5˚C, both adults, nymphs, and eggs die. Less pampered species can survive in a subzero environment for several hours, but their death is inevitable, since they live only in warm places, and cannot independently maintain the body warm.

Cockroaches can and should be poisoned by teaming up with neighbors

This is obvious: if cockroaches live with neighbors, then it is from the neighbors that they can migrate to you after destruction. If you team up with your neighbors and poison cockroaches in all neighboring apartments at once, then there will be no re-infestation - the cockroaches simply will have nowhere to come from. Provided, of course, that not a single treated apartment borders an infected premises.

Therefore, re-infestation occurs much less frequently in private houses: they do not border on other premises at all, and in order to infect them, cockroaches must come here through the street, which happens relatively rarely.

You can protect your apartment from cockroaches even if the whole house is infested with them.

Very often we hear statements that it is impossible to protect yourself from cockroaches, because they have already crawled throughout the house.

But exterminators, even in infested houses, saw apartments without a single cockroach. And such apartments are not always ideally renovated. True, there are almost always cautious and prudent people who live there, who know that a tube of silicone sealant costs much less than professional pest control or a kit of cockroach killers. In such apartments, the joints between pipes and walls are insulated, the entrance doors are sealed, there are small mesh on the ventilation, and there are no cockroaches. Although literally behind the wall of such an apartment, insects are literally swarming.

The most important thing: to protect your apartment from cockroaches in this way, you do not need to make new repairs here. Pointed, cheap, but correct solutions will be quite enough to completely block cockroaches from accessing your chambers.

Where do cockroaches hide in an apartment?

Insects take refuge in the most inaccessible places for humans. To maintain life, cockroaches need access to water, food and warmth. Most often, pests live in the kitchen or bathroom.

Favorite places for cockroaches in the kitchen:

• space under and behind the refrigerator;
• space under the sink;
• behind and inside kitchen cabinets;
• inside household appliances;
• ventilation hole.

In addition to the above-mentioned places, cockroaches hide in baseboards, borders, curtains, and the space under the wallpaper.

Common habitats of cockroaches in bathrooms:

• under wall cabinets and mirrors;
• under the bath;
• in the finish hiding the pipes.

If the bathroom is lined with plastic panels, then cockroaches are provided with additional hiding space.

As the colony of pests grows, they colonize other rooms. Cockroaches crawl into wooden furniture, under baseboards, and inside household appliances. If the apartment is not in the best cosmetic condition, cracks have appeared in the floor and walls, and the wallpaper has peeled off, then pests will not bypass these areas either.