American Cockroach

Cockroaches have inhabited the earth for more than 250 million years. There are over 4,000 kinds with only 30 being the kind to be near human dwellings. There are American ones, Asian (perhaps the most destructive), German, Surinamian, Peruvian, and Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches… Brown Cockroaches, Wingless Cockroaches… and they are all coming to eat your Cheerios and Cornflakes because they love your cereal even more than you do. More money is spent to control cockroaches in the United States than any other pest. They are the number one urban pest throughout the world.

Wingless Cockroach

Amazing bodily feats

The average roach-infested household contains more than 20,000 roaches.
Roaches can live up to 20 days without food and 14 days without water.
They can flatten their bodies and crawl through a crack thinner than a dime.
Cockroaches can survive radiation up to 12 time greater than humans.
Cockroaches are startled by the smallest of air movements and can run for cover in less than .05 seconds.

American Cockroach

Among the dirt and filth

Roaches may transmit a wide variety of diseases and cause common allergic reactions previously thought to be caused by dust. They have been implicated in the spread of tuberculosis, leprosy, cholera, dysentery and typhoid. However, they are not considered to be disease vectors, that is they do not actively transmit any virus or bacteria. If they come out of the sewer for example, they may carry pathogens on their bodies and passively transmit those pathogens by close contact. They frequently enter buildings by coming up through drains.

Madagascar Hissing Cockroach

True Survivors

Cockroaches will eat anything – food, leather, hair, and the glue in book bindings. They can live off the toothpaste residue in your toothbrush. They are cannibals and take a particular liking to each others’ excrement. In extreme cases roaches will feed off people.

Madagascar Hissing Cockroach

Cockroaches do of course deserve their place in the natural ecosystem, but does that include our cupboards? Maybe they are here so that if there is ever a nuclear war at least some form of life will survive here on earth. But they will need to find something else to eat after humans are gone and can’t leave bread crumbs any more.