Wildlife // Living in Harmony With Wildlife
Living in Harmony With Cockroaches
Although there are more than 3,500 known roach species in the world, only five species are abundant in households around the U.S.: German (Blattella germanica), Brown-Banded (Supella longipala), Oriental (Blatta orientalis), American (Periplaneta Americana), and Smoky-Brown (Periplaneta fuliginosa). These common species are various shades of brown in color, and they are usually less than two inches long. Cockroaches are opportunistic, so unlike most animals, they thrive in human environments. The insect’s incredible ability to adapt to almost any environment on Earth leads to frequent close encounters with humans, and unfortunately, the typical response is, needless to say, less than hospitable. In fact, homeowners in the U.S. spend nearly 5 billion dollars a year on pesticides in a vain attempt to create “pest-free” homes. Not only are these substances toxic to children and companion animals, they only provide a quick-fix solution to chronic problems with roaches. The best way to remove roaches from your home is to simply keep a clean house. Eliminating sources of food, water, and shelter is a far more effective—and certainly more humane—way to resolve conflicts with these critters.
Did you know?
Cockroaches first appeared on the Earth in the Paleozoic era, approximately 400 million years ago, and they have changed very little since then. These insects have probably withstood the test of time because of their amazing inherent ability to survive extreme disturbance events such as floods, droughts, and fire. Although cockroaches have preferred food sources, if they’re hungry enough, they’ll eat almost anything. Even products that most humans would not consider edible, such as starch-based paints, wallpaper paste, envelope glue, and bar soaps, provide critical nutrients for these tiny animals. Cockroaches can also hold their breath for up to 40 minutes and can run about 59 inches per second—proportionally, that’s three times as fast as a cheetah!
Cockroaches can even withstand heat equivalent to that of a thermonuclear explosion. A “rem” is the dosage of radiation that will cause a specific, measured injury to human tissue, and radiologists have found that humans can safely withstand a one-time exposure of 5 rems. Believe it or not, the lethal dose for the American cockroach is 67,500 rems and for the German cockroach, it is between 90,000 and 105,000 rems! No wonder some think these resilient insects will be the last living things on Earth!
Humane Cockroach Control
As for most unwanted guests, the best offense is a great defense. Cockroaches are incredible survivors—they aren’t going anywhere! That said, the best way to keep roaches and other insects out is to make your home as undesirable to them as possible. Killing cockroaches is cruel and futile. Unless you make your home less attractive and accessible to them, killing some roaches will simply create a void that others will soon fill—it’s just a matter of time.
To roach-proof your home, keep food in tightly sealed containers, never leave dishes unwashed—especially at night—and wipe off your counters thoroughly. Water is a precious resource for roaches, so even a few drops in your kitchen sink would be the equivalent to a couple of glasses to you and me. Keep typically moist areas dry, sweep floors, and vacuum frequently. After your companion animals have eaten, wash their bowls. Use garbage cans with tight-fitting lids, and remove stacks of newspapers, magazines, and cardboard boxes from your home promptly. Those big cleaning jobs that you put off far too long can be a huge source of attraction to roaches, so pull out refrigerators, stoves, and freezers and clean behind and beside them. Wash the outside of the appliance and vacuum dusty areas around motors. Clean under burners and clean under the stovetop by lifting it. Be sure not to forget the inside and outside of the oven and the broiler area, if you have a gas stove. It is important to remove grease—this is a popular food source for cockroaches.
Outside your home, remove stacks of firewood near the house to eliminate hiding places and food sources for both cockroaches and termites. Put a few inches of gravel in your water-meter box to reduce moisture. Thin out vegetation growing near your house and keep windows and doorways screened and well-sealed with weather-stripping and caulk.
Once you have taken away food and hiding places for roaches, bay leaves, cucumbers, garlic, or catnip can be placed around your home to repel them. Gentrol is an insect-growth regulator that eliminates the reproductive potential of cockroaches without killing them. You can call 1-800-248-7763 or visit http://www.pestproducts.com/gentrol_igr_concentrate.htm for a local distributor of Gentrol.
If you would like to trap and release the roaches humanely, make your own live traps by taping newspaper to the outside of a glass jar, smearing Vaseline along the inside of the lip of the jar, and placing food (fruits, bread, vegetables) inside. You will find that the roaches who climb into the jar are unable to climb back out through the Vaseline, and you can release them outside.
In the end, just be glad that your houseguests are not members of a cockroach species recently discovered in Borneo—their bodies are four inches long!
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