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Cockroaches
Cockroach
Okay, let's get a few things straight about cockroaches. They are not all the same, they don't all live inside, and they are not out to hurt you no matter what you might think. There are 4 main types of cockroaches in South Florida, we will discuss each one. There is the American cockroach, the Brown-banded cockroach, the German cockroach and the Oriental Cockroach. Each one of these 4 are very different and unique, let’s see how…
The American Cockroach
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These are the roaches that we most often misidentify as Palmetto Bugs. They are the big ones that fly in your living room and everyone goes running scared. They are outside pests that will sometimes make their way inside to look for a warm place to sleep or food. They will not survive inside your home. American roaches will eat just about anything, including plants and other insects. These guys like to live in warm, dark, damp places; this is why you will most often see them in or around sewers, pipes, in basements or in or around drains. They are the fastest roaches, running up to 3mph.Brown Banded Cockroach
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The Brown Banded Roach gets its name from the 2 light brown bands that are on its back. These cockroaches often hide their eggs in your furniture and they usually live about 5 to 6 ½ months. They eat things like wallpaper paste, book bindings and sometimes nylon stockings. Brown banded roaches hate light and avoid it whenever possible, they do not require as much moisture to live as most roaches, thus, they will live in any room in your house rather than just the kitchen or bathroom.German Cockroach
This is the most common cockroach all over the entire United States. These roaches will eat just about anything, so long as it is sweet, floury or non organic (such as books and toothpaste). They will live about 100 -200 days and mostly live in the kitchen, bathroom or other places where you eat and drink. This is a very active species that lay a large number of eggs each cycle (they can produce up to 10,000 offspring in a year) and build up a resistance to insecticides very quickly, all of which make them very hard to control. If you think that you have these, please call a pest control professional immediately.
Oriental Cockroach
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These are large and very dark roaches. They are the dirtiest of all the roaches, and unlike most roaches, they prefer cooler weather. These roaches are actually not even remotely from the Orient, they are actually from Africa; they came over on trade ships which are probably where they got their name. They live in sewers, wet decaying areas, crawlspaces and piles of leaves. You will rarely find these guys inside your home, unless they traveled in from wood, or other sources.
