Things were going pretty smoothly, until you started moving the broken-down boxes and a swarm of cockroaches scattered in all directions. Surprised and horrified, you jumped back in surprise and disgust. You started to look into how to get rid of cockroaches, but then you got swept up into another home project and your pest control efforts got put on the back burner. Before you know it, you saw another roach—this time in your bathroom. After another month, you noticed one of these gross creatures show back up in the garage.
You need to find the eggs. A nest. How do you know where to look? Did you know there are 55 different species of cockroaches found in America? Probably not. Because most people will only ever come into contact with a few of them: Oriental, Turkestan, smoky brown, brown banded and the aforementioned German and American varieties.
German Cockroaches are probably the species that will bother you the most. Similar to brown banded cockroaches, German roaches prefer indoor environments. People tend to find these creatures in bathrooms, kitchens or food prep and storage areas.
First, you should know that you are mostly likely to run across this type of cockroch in areas where food is prepared. That means kitchens, grocery stores, restaurants and bakeries. Ready for more bad news? Worse, these large, reddish-brown critters have working wings, meaning they can fly if you startle them. If your property becomes a successful food source, watch out.
Roach eggs are bound together in a case called an ootheca. Other insects, including praying mantises, lay these protective cases which can hatch into several hundred baby roaches. Female German cockroaches keep the ootheca on their body until the eggs are ready to hatch. To make sure her babies are kept safe, the cockroach will hide before dropping the egg case.
The average gestation period for a German cockroach is 28 days. Brown-banded cockroach: Brown-banded cockroaches carry about 16 eggs per ootheca. The female cockroach will keep the ootheca with her for about a day or two and then adhere the egg case to a piece of furniture, wall, cardboard or another rough surface. The eggs start to hatch in about 50 days.
Oriental cockroach: Oriental cockroaches carry an average of 16 eggs per ootheca. Female oriental cockroaches drop egg cases in warm sheltered areas with abundant food. The incubation period lasts around two months. Nymph Stage The cockroach nymph stage begins when the egg hatches and lasts until the cockroach baby reaches adulthood.
It takes about days for an American cockroach to reach adulthood from the egg. German cockroach: German cockroach nymphs are darker than adults and have a tan stripe on the back. These tiny creatures begin to search for food immediately and grow fast in ideal conditions.
After the final molt, they emerge with ready-to-use wings. If you have ever seen a particularly long cockroach, then you may have seen a female carrying its egg case on its abdomen. The egg case, an ootheca, of a German cockroach typically carries 30 to 40 eggs. The German cockroach will carry this egg case up to nearly the time when the eggs are ready to hatch, and once the new baby roaches hatch, they are initially bright, white nymphs.
In three to four months, those baby roaches will develop into fully grown adults. The number of eggs a single cockroach can produce will vary from species to species. Potentially, and with optimal conditions, one female German cockroach and her offspring could produce , roaches in a year. This means that if you are not careful, a relatively small roach infestation can quickly develop into a much larger problem that needs to be dealt with quickly.
Due to the relatively quick reproduction cycle, a few cockroaches can rapidly grow to an infestation. At their peak, females can produce two egg cases a week, each containing up to 16 eggs, but after that, their reproductive capacity declines to about one case a month. The eggs incubate for six to eight weeks. In her lifetime, one female produces an average of young. These roaches, sometimes referred to as "black beetles" or "water bugs," grow to about an inch in length and are dark brown to black in color.
Their life span is highly variable -- from 34 to days -- and during that time, females produce an average of eight egg capsules, each containing about 16 eggs.
After carrying the capsules between 12 hours and five days, females deposit them in a warm, sheltered place where the babies, called nymphs, can find nourishment when they hatch. The other three common roaches have wings but almost never fly, but these ones, who like warm and dry habitats, do.
Females, who live from 13 to 45 weeks, carry egg capsules for about 30 hours before sticking them in well-concealed spots, such as behind pictures or under furniture.
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