You flip the light switch in your kitchen and watch hundreds of little brown bodies flash across the floor and table looking for hiding places. You are beyond concerned; you are disgusted and angry. Cockroaches rank high on the list of creatures we never want to see in our homes. Hundreds of horror stories exist describing their resilience, persistence, and overall putrescence. Do they deserve this reputation? Below is a list of 14 cockroach bad-boy facts.
- There are more than 4,000 types of cockroach, 30 of these will try to invade your home.
- Cockroaches can live without a head. Due to small breathing openings called spiracles all along their body, they do not need a head to breathe. The only reason they die is they can no longer drink.
- They can go without food for a month and a half, but only a week without water.
- Everything is on the menu. While most Cockroaches prefer sugar and anything that is fermenting, desperation can force them to eat soap, hair, leather, grease, paper, wallpaper glue, and even bookbinding.
- A crack the thickness of a dime won’t keep a cockroach out of your house. They can squeeze through tiny openings and are thigmotrophic, meaning they like the feeling of a tight fit.
- They can produce their own vitamins. Cockroaches have a symbiotic relationship with bacteriods living within their body; roaches don’t have to ever worry about the nutritional value of their food.
- Disease is their friend. E. coli, Salmonella, typhimurium, Entamoeba histolytica, and the poliomyelitis virus can all be carried and spread by cockroaches. It doesn’t end there; scientists have discovered that ground up roach nerves can kill germs.
- A cockroach can hold its breath for more than 45 minutes. As a coldblooded insect, they often restrict breathing in order to regulate body temperature.
- After being underwater for 30 minutes, a cockroach will still be alive.
- It takes 36 days for a hatchling to become an adult.
- One will soon be hundreds. A female roach can lay a sac (ootheca) that contains nearly 40 eggs. She can produce several ootheca in her life time, resulting in approximately 400 offspring.
- In a nuclear holocaust, cockroaches would outlast humans. A roach can resist a lethal dose of radiation 15 times higher than that of humans.
- Roaches can run. The fastest was clocked at 3 miles per hour. It might not sound very quick, but if the cockroach were the size of a human, it would be going nearly 200 miles per hour.
- Cockroaches can sense infinitesimal changes in air movement and can react within 8.2 milliseconds or 25 times faster than a human.
Despite this list of terrifying facts, a licensed pesticide applicator can make quick work of these cockroach bad-boys. At Interstate Pest Control, we will make sure you don’t learn about the secret life of cockroaches first hand. We know all of their behaviors and how to eliminate even the most serious cockroach problems. You will be smiling in satisfaction each time you turn on a light.