About Cockroach Infestation

By DoItYourself.com Staff

There is nothing in the world more hated, and perhaps feared, than that bane of mankind—a cockroach infestation. Long the annoyance and fourth class unwanted resident of major urban cities, the cockroach resists even when resistance is futile. Cockroaches carry germs and disease, as if they weren’t already repulsive enough to have around.

Capable of flight, six-legged, reproductively active and hardy to the point of (organic) invincibility is the dreaded roach. A threat to human health, cockroaches have few redemptive benefits except to displace and trigger tropical and subtropical forest floor elements into a mishmash.

Even the Greeks had a word for the cockroach - "blatta." Cockroaches are most common in tropical and subtropical climates, usually living close to human-occupied buildings or high urban living densities with food and room to grow. Some species such the American or Chinese breeds are present in large populations when supported by food and water from human dwellings and are routinely found in and around garbage or in kitchens or food storage areas. 

Cockroaches live up to a year and are mainly nocturnal, but when singly present may run away when exposed to light. However, infestations increase boldness and daylight activity. Cockroach infestation in cities as populous as New York were long the fodder of spoofs on "Saturday Night Live," mocking the freakish size and boldness of the cockroach and its place it American domestic life.

The female may produce up to eight batches of multiple offspring in a lifetime. These foster batches of 30-40 odd clear roachlings turn darker within hours. A roach female can produce in her lifetime 300-400 offspring. So the presence of many cockroaches implies an exponential threat for future infestation. The "one" that got away may return a million fold.

The female cockroach can be impregnated only once to lay eggs for the rest of its life. Molting and birth rate characteristics affect this reproductive rate with functions of food and room to lay eggs unimpeded. Allowing one single cockroach to live means perpetuating possibly a million eggs.

Roaches are capable of living for a month without food and remaining alive headless for up to a week. The Olympic steeplechaser of insects, the roach can hold its breath for 45 minutes and can slow down its heart rate. Cockroaches have a much higher radiation resistance than vertebrates, while a lethal dose of radiation in a nuclear attack or bioterror wave burst might be 6 to 15 times that for humans.

Natural death of cockroaches probably occurs due to predation by larger animals. Since insects are engineered as vertebrates, nerve gas and toxins from pest control elements affect muscular coordination. The cockroach eventually dies in its upside-down position caused by muscular spasms which often result in the cockroach flipping on its back.

Cockroaches have been around for more than 350 million years with about 4,000 species of cockroaches existing. Only about 22 species, 4 specifically cause all the trouble. The German, American, Brown-Banded, and Oriental cockroaches are the Earth’s Most Wanted urban pests.

Cockroaches often are a health threat. Habits and high reproductive rate of pest cockroaches can lead to large populations spreading disease organisms, contaminating food, causing allergies, and even worsening asthma.

According to the National Pest Management Control Association:

"Cockroaches have been reported to spread at least 33 kinds of bacteria, six kinds of parasitic worms, and at least seven other kinds of human pathogens. They can pick up germs on the spines of their legs and bodies as they crawl through decaying matter or sewage and then carry these into food or onto food surfaces. Germs that cockroaches eat from decaying matter or sewage are protected while in their bodies and may remain infective for several weeks longer than if they had been exposed to cleaning agents, rinse water, or just sunlight and air. "1

The main problem with roaches is that they can live unseen in all areas of a home. Humans often presume infestations have been suppressed when roaches might be present and growing in number in the attic, basements, under bathtubs, kitchen cabinets, between ceilings and insulation, caulking, overflow drains, sewers, in the roof tiles and ceilings, and pipes.

Roaches like moisture and can find their way to multiplying numbers near a leaky pipe between the walls, underneath a broken drain overflow, or in areas long disused, such as storage areas or cabinets and drawers. Surface water can extend the life of a roach long enough for it to scurry under a car (or into a wheel well) or climb up a tree by a window or into a florist's hothouse plant left on the doorstep.

One bomb and one set of roach "motels" won't get rid of a cockroach problem. It’s a battle of numbers. Man-made substances such as Hydramethalmelnon gel or Deltamethrin are necessary to combat structural penetrations and infestations in a house, apartment, office, factory, or school.

Experienced pest control agents should be consulted, as they will know the pertinent facts about local roach contamination trends, infestation tracking, breed fluctuations, as well as effective ways to end the "occupation."

The source of new roaches and addition to the ‘residents” may be ongoing—from a nearby building, or from vehicles carrying food and water from contaminated or infested areas.

Cockroaches have been shown to make group decisions,2 so if one finds a happy home under the often-wet cubbyhole inside your leaky faucet, soon others will too.

Ventilated storehouses where spoiled or broken food containers are aggregated may spawn a huge population that can flow out into field and be carried miles away and spread into widening circles of pest population behavior.

Since the cockroach has few natural predators, man must step into eradicate them. Ammonia, bleach, or chalk powder can be used to fend subsequent roaches away. Those experienced in roach control in domestic areas know: roaches will not cross a line of borax (soda) and in some cases bleach salts or ammonium chloride can be effective (although recommended for industrial use only).

If cornstarch, flour, or food-smelling elements are added to the roach "powder," then roaches are attracted to it and breathe it in. This dust works at a level that makes human size once again an advantage: the dust is mildly acrid or annoying to a human, but to a small insect it is toxic.

New studies related to pest-control developments show cockroaches leave chemical trails in their feces. Other cockroaches will follow these trails to discover sources of food, water, and where other cockroaches are hiding. Thus, constant cleaning can eradicate some of these "messages" left inside your home.

But a major implication of this research is a new technique in cockroach pest control. Cockroaches could be potentially removed from a home by leaving a chemical trail that leads away from the home. Some strays will start to follow the new "breadcrumbs." Since roaches make group decisions, the entire group may be led away. This "collegial" decision making allows the herd of roaches to congregate in self-defensive masses to their mutual benefit.

Cockroaches are not just threats to food and sanitation (and human peace of mind). In 2006, actress Michelle Rodriguez of the television show "Lost" had to take steroid medication while filming on set in Hawaii. Long allergic to cockroach "pollen" (residues), the tropical environment made roaches and their by-products everywhere on the islands, and everywhere on the set, a health hazard.

A 2005 NIEHS national study3 on factors that affect asthma in inner-city children shows that cockroach allergens appear to worsen asthma symptoms more than other known triggers. Conversely, studies show only 10 percent of homeowners nationwide feel that cockroaches are a health concern versus a just a chore.

So pest control at the domestic level needs to be stepped up to meet both market demands and unrecognized health threats to families. Industrial development of better and more efficient domestic and industrial cockroach pest control adapts to meet the demand of current environmental and consumer allowances for toxic substances and safe materials for use in the house and other human occupied buildings where roaches grow.

Biological control of cockroaches by wasps has been somewhat effective, but cannot control infestation. Strangely a house centipede is the most effective control agent of cockroaches. Most people are loathe to use this technique inside their home as a logical defense against roaches, however.

Preventative measures include sealed food storage, secured garbage cans, frequent and aggressive kitchen and food preparation cleanliness, and regular vacuuming. Home and building construction quality and structural design quality and integrity also co-vary encouragement of cockroach infestation with water leaks, cracked porcelain, faulty drains, and undisputed spaces in walls or unseen areas.