Basic Roach Information

[Konrad]

Hope you don't mind me cutting and pasting some text.

Cockroaches 101, my bread and butter (so to speak):

Cockroaches can be present in almost any place inhabited by humans. They move quickly and are especially active at night. Characteristically, most roaches hide in cracks and crevices or between surfaces that provide darkness and cover. Inside buildings, roaches move freely between rooms or adjoining apartments using wall spaces, plumbing and other utility installations. They can be carried into structures in food and beverage boxes, grocery sacks, animal food and other household goods.

Cockroaches can eat almost anything, but they are especially partial to starchy foods and meat products. They feed on such diverse items as cereals, pastries, chocolate, milk products, beverages, cooked potatoes, glue, book bindings, wall paper, animal food, fresh or dried blood, excrement, dead animals and leather products.

Damage

Disease Transmission. Cockroaches can carry organisms that cause human diseases, including food poisoning, dysentery and diarrhea. However, roaches have not been associated with serious disease outbreaks in the United States.

Repulsive Odor. Most cockroaches produce a secretion or chemical that has a repulsive odor. This characteristic odor can be detected in infested areas.

Allergy. Roaches can cause allergic reactions in some people. The response is caused by roach "allergen" that is ingested with contaminated food or inhaled when dried fecal particles and fragments of ground-up bodies of dead roaches are mixed with house dust.

Anxiety. The sight of cockroaches can cause considerable psychological or emotional distress in some individuals. Cockroaches usually do not bite, but their heavy leg spines may scratch.

There are 55 species in the U.S.

Only 5 live in Nebraska, but that's irrelevant I guess. Seeing roaches at night is more common, and suggests a lesser infestation. If you see roaches running amok in the daytime, THAT means you probably need a pest control tech such as myself.

[Les]

We raise Madagasgar roaches in our office. We get 30-40 babies per year and give them away to innocent strangers. They get about 2" long and hiss like crazy when touched. They are pretty friendly and the people that visit office love to touch them. They must live quite a long time. We are inspected by the Mich Dept of Agriculture every year and the guy always tries to make us get rid of them. Like Konrad said, they don't bite but scratch the heck out of you when they run up your arm into your sleave!

Here in wonderful tax-happy Michigan they are taxed as personal property and cost me about $6.00 per year in tax.

I'll try to figure out a way to mail them if someone wants one.

[Les]

This one is not quite big enough to eat yet.

Download Attachment: MVC-006S.JPG

38.24 KB

[mommabear3502]

Ick. That's just wrong. I'm not a girly-girl who is afraid of all bugs, but roaches gross me out. It could be because when I was in college, I lived in a duplex with white trash next door who didn't believe in paying for trash service when they could just pile up the trash bags on the patio.

[Mobettermark]

While vacationing in Florida many years ago, we were aghast to fing huge cockroaches in our hotel room at the Palm-Air Lucaya in Sarasota, if I remember correctly. Well we reported our findings to the front desk help, and they were not surprised at all to hear it. They called them "Palmetto bugs". I understand they are prevalent all over Florida and other warm climate areas. I suppose thats what you get at the slum beachfront [:-crazy] a bit unsettling.

[homnspector]

"BASIC ROACH INFORMATION

Disease Transmission. Cockroaches can carry organisms that cause human diseases, including food poisoning, dysentery and diarrhea. However, roaches have not been associated with serious disease outbreaks in the United States.

Repulsive Odor. Most cockroaches produce a secretion or chemical that has a repulsive odor. This characteristic odor can be detected in infested areas.

Allergy. Roaches can cause allergic reactions in some people. The response is caused by roach "allergen" that is ingested with contaminated food or inhaled when dried fecal particles and fragments of roaches are mixed with house dust."

Scared me, I thought for a minute I stumbled onto the drug forum or the NORML site!