American Cockroach
Facts
- Adults can be slightly more than 50 mm (3 inches) long.
- Both male and female adults can fly.
- Eggs are deposited in a protective capsule-shaped, dark-colored case called the ootheca. Each case can contain about 16 eggs.
- Under ideal conditions, full life cycle can be completed in as little as 5½ months.
- Cockroaches spread disease, contaminate food and cause allergies, they pick up germs on their legs and bodies as they crawl through decaying matter or sewage and then transfer these germs to food or onto food surfaces.
- Normally live outdoors, very common in sewer systems. Indoors, they forage under appliances, in drains, kitchen cabinets and on the floor, feeding on food crumbs.
- Produce a chemical called an “aggregation pheromone.” Odor of this chemical causes roaches to stay together in groups.