Roaches
Roaches are one of the most important insects to pest control industry. They are mostly found in premises like homes, restaurants, offices, factories or warehouses. They mechanically transmit gastrointestinal diseases like food poisoning, dysentery and diarrhea. The powder from their skin and dead bodies may cause allergies and trigger asthma especially in children and sensitive people. They also cause odor in food.There are many species of roaches. It is very important to identify the species since each species have different behavior and require different methods of control and eradication. Roaches enter your premise through many different ways like:
- Through cracks and crevices on walls, around pipes and vents
- With furniture from an infested area like storage or another premise.
- Boxes from infested premise or grocery.
The most common species include:
- German roaches
- American Roaches
- Oriental Roaches Cockroach
- Brown-Banded Cockroach
- Smoky-Brown Cockroach
- Australian Cockroach
- Asian Cockroach
Most common (½ to 5/8 inches long)
Lives up to 1 year
Mostly found in the kitchen and bathrooms
Pale to medium brown with two dark stripes on pronotum
Active at night
Prefer to rest on porous surfaces like wood
Success due to:
- Large numbers(30-48) in capsule (ootheca 4-8)
- Greater possibility of pesticides resistance
- Egg carried and protected by female till hatching
- Clustering help protect young and small size easy to hide
- Can Adapt to eat almost everything
- Largest common species (1 ½ inches long)
- Lives a little longer than a year
- Egg dropped by female within a day after forming
- Reddish-brown
- Developed wings with male extending slightly beyond abdomen<br>
- Prefer to live in dark and moist areas such as basements, crawl space, bathtubs, sewers, drains, attics etc
- Eats decaying organic matter, starch syrup and can live without for 2 months and 1 month without water
- Can fly
-Female 11/4 inches long with non-functional wings and male 1 inch with covering ¾ of abdomen <br>
-Dark brown to black
-Egg carried for 30 hrs and 16 in each capsule
-Live in dump areas, crawl spaces, mulch beds, sewers , and basements
-Get into and out of building depending on the weather.
(i) Light brown with transverse bands across wings
(ii) inch long
(iii)Capsule has 18 eggs and glued to protected area (curtains, furniture etc.)
(iv) Found on ceilings, walls, lights furniture in homes mostly
(v) Active at night and can fly
(i) Dark mahogany brown
(ii) 1 inch long
(iii) Wings longer than body
(iv) Capsule has 24 eggs
(v) Lives in tree holes and enter building in firewood around doors, windows, under eves, crack and crevices, chimney, attics etc.
(vi) Move freely in and out of buildings
(vii) Eat almost anything.
(i)Reddish-brown with yellow stripes along front edge of wings, dark spot on pronotum and yellow on top of thorax and abdomen
(ii) 1 to 1 ¼ inches long
(iii) Capsule has 24 eggs dropped in crack and crevices and hatch in 30 days
(iv) Feed on decaying plant materials and starch
(v) Lives outside but will readily enter buildings
-Almost identical to German cockroach but different in behavior
-Lives in moist and mulching
-Active at dusk
-Adults readily fly and enter through doors, windows, crawls etc.
-Very susceptible to pesticides
There are several methods that can be used to control and eradicate roaches. They include:- Proper sanitation
- Baiting
- Trapping
- Use of IGRs (insect growth regulators)
- Use of residual pesticides (as per label)