All of a sudden we’re finding these big dark bugs in our basement. I thought they were black beetles but after looking on the Internet, I think they’re cockroaches! Isn’t it kind of late in the season for cockroaches to appear? D. W., Roslindale, MA If your pests are indeed cockroaches, they’re probably oriental cockroaches.
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We’re lucky here in the Northeast when it comes to cockroaches. Ours don’t fly…at least hardly ever. In warmer, southern parts of the U.S., larger cockroaches of more tropical origin are common. In Florida, the quite large (1-1/2 to 2 inches long) American cockroach (they call it the “palmetto bug”) can be seen climbing walls
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German cockroaches are, without a doubt, the perfect domestic pest insect. Like our domestic pets, our domestic pests have adapted to living with people and in our dwellings. And they’re good at what they do. German cockroaches eat what we eat, they like the comfort of our homes and the fact that we keep our
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Look Out for Roach Eggs When Licking Envelopes! Did that headline grab you and get you to read further? If so, you’ve just fallen victim to another really tall tale. Internet urban legends like the one below have a life of their own, circulating for years as they are forwarded to entire mailing lists. Many
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We know that the average household cockroach is ferrying around a boatload of germs on its body on any given day. We also know that, at least in the lab, cockroaches can transmit those diseases to people. However, cockroaches don’t transmit disease directly into our blood stream through a bite like mosquitoes or ticks, but
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It does happen. A couple of different cockroaches can live in sewers, but the American cockroach is the most common sewer roach. This roach is large, about 1-1/2 inches long, and it can fly. See Do the Roaches Suddenly Seem Bigger? Home, Sweet Sewer! From the cockroach’s viewpoint, a sewer is a perfect home. Roaches
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A rolled-up newspaper? Seriously, the answer to your question isn’t simple. We could discuss the fastest way, or the least toxic way, or the most effective way to kill cockroaches. Let’s assume you are talking about our main structural cockroach pest, the German cockroach. These are the primary control methods used today: Cockroach Baits Baiting
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You know how dogs sniff each other’s poop to get information on the other guy, what he’s been eating lately, and his general health? Well, cockroaches do the same thing, sort of. For a long time, entomologists have known that cockroaches possess some kind of aggregation pheromone that attracts them and causes them to group
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Here’s a new fun fact about cockroaches. They can bite with a force 50 times their body weight. Who ever figured that out? A European research team headed by Tom Weihmann set out to study insects’ mandibles, otherwise known as jaws. They strapped ten American cockroaches upside down onto a “table” with their heads immobilized
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