Here are some interesting facts about one of the most common pests in Bermuda.
Cockroaches are scavengers.
Most roaches prefer sugar and other sweets, but they will eat just about anything: glue, grease, soap, wallpaper paste, leather, book bindings, even hair. And cockroaches can survive a remarkably long time without food. Some species can go as long as six weeks without a meal. In nature, cockroaches provide an important service by consuming organic waste. As with houseflies, when cockroaches take up residence among humans, they can become vehicles for spreading diseases as they scuttle about the home. Feeding on waste, trash, and food, they leave germs and droppings in their wake.
Cockroaches reproduce quickly.
The lifespan of a cockroach is usually one year. Other species like the German cockroach have shorter lifespan of less than 200 days. In any female roach’s lifetime, she can produce 6 to 8 egg capsules or anywhere between 200 to 300 offspring that is approximately 6 generations a year. Potentially, one female German cockroach and her offspring could produce a combined number of 300,000 roaches in a year at optimal condition. This means that if you are not paying attention, a relatively small number of roaches can easily develop into a full-blown infestation that’s difficult to eradicate when they are in an environment with access to food and water.
Cockroaches have been around for a long time.
If you could travel back to the Jurassic period and walk among the dinosaurs, you would easily recognize the cockroaches crawling under logs and stones in prehistoric forests. The modern cockroach first came to be about 200 million years ago. Primitive roaches appeared even earlier, about 350 million years ago, during the Carboniferous period. The fossil record shows that Paleozoic roaches had an external ovipositor, a trait that disappeared during the Mesozoic era.
Cockroaches don't need a head to survive.
Lop the head off a roach, and a week or two later it will still respond to stimuli by wiggling its legs. Why? Surprisingly, its head isn't all that important to how a cockroach functions. Cockroaches have open circulatory systems, so as long as the wound clots normally, they aren't prone to bleeding out. Their respiration occurs via spiracles along the sides of the body. Eventually, the headless cockroach will either dehydrate or succumb to mold.
Cockroaches are attracted to alcohol.
An American cockroach is attracted to alcohol! They are mostly attracted to the alcohol which has hops and sugar in it. They love beer!