Where do cockroaches usually hide in an apartment and can they crawl out of the sewer?

Next you will find out:

1. Where cockroaches usually hide in an apartment and what they need to know about their “nests”;
2. Are there so-called sewer cockroaches and what to do if they suddenly appeared at the entrance of the house;
3. Where cockroaches can live in the kitchen and how to remove these insects from microwaves and other household appliances;
4. What to do if cockroaches climb from neighbors;
5. Are there mutant cockroaches in the dwelling?

... and other interesting moments.

Imagine a typical situation: you are sure that your apartment is in perfect order, cleanliness and comfort maintained. And do not even assume that somewhere in this very cleanliness cockroaches are already hiding - fiends and unsanitary conditions.

But one night you find such a pest on the kitchen table, in a shine polished bath or simply on the floor in the hallway.Usually at the same time the tenants are puzzled by the question: how is it, where did the cockroaches suddenly come from, because the apartment is almost perfectly clean! And if this runaway cockroach is not the only one, then where are the others hiding? ..

We will immediately calm you down: this situation is quite typical, and thousands of people in various parts of our country are puzzled by such questions. For some of them, the apartment is not at all like the standard of cleanliness, while for someone it is quite suitable for a photo shoot in a fashion magazine, however, both there and there cockroaches appear, frighten the owners and most importantly - worsen the general sanitary situation in the house (because they are potential carriers of pathogens).

The less often the apartment is cleaned and the more food waste accumulates in it, the easier it is for cockroaches to survive. However, these insects are able to colonize well-kept rooms: the main thing here is that they maintain the conditions necessary for the cockroaches to live. And considering that there are very few of such conditions, practically everyone can expect to see pests in their home.

All cockroaches need is:

• water - in the sink, toilet, bath, glass on the table or even its remnants in a flower pot. Availability of access to water sources is the main condition for the survival of cockroaches in the apartment (and this is often used in practice to get rid of pests);
• any food in a reachable place - it can be bread crumbs, fruits and vegetables, groceries, burnt pieces of food on the stove or in the microwave. Do not disdain cockroaches and wallpaper glue, splashing oil behind the stove and even soap;
• the temperature in the apartment is above 15 ° С all year round - cockroaches do not live in colder rooms;
• the presence of secluded places where you can hide and wait for the daylight — for example, there may be spaces under cupboards, bedside tables and other furniture, closets with randomly piled things, the back side of the kitchen stove and refrigerator. Cockroaches like to hide in various household appliances (we'll talk about this in more detail later).

In practice, the situation is often as follows: cockroaches are able to find food almost everywhere, and the availability of accessible water sources becomes a crucial factor for their survival.

It is interesting

Experiments show that the glue on a postage stamp is enough for a cockroach to eat for about one month. Be sure: in your house such a mustache neighbor will find something to profit.

At the same time, with an acute shortage of water, cockroaches can compensate for its deficiency with the help of humans - there are cases when these insects gnawed moist epithelium from the lips of sleeping people. Especially in this respect young children are vulnerable.

Another risk factor for the sudden appearance of pests in an apartment is the possibility of cockroaches to easily enter a room, for example, from neighbors. From places where they breed in large quantities, some individuals sooner or later “settle out” because of the growing overpopulation in the population.

Where the cockroaches reconnaissance find suitable conditions, the insects “take root” and actively reproduce, colonizing the room that they have not yet occupied. Especially known for these are the so-called sewer cockroaches, which in the warm period of the year crawl out of the sewage pipes not only in apartments and houses, but sometimes even simply through the streets of cities.

If there is a hotbed near the apartment or house where cockroaches are hidden in abundance, then getting rid of them in a single room can be quite problematic: it is necessary to either isolate the room reliably (which is not usually possible in practice)either fully armed to meet the scouts, fighting with them on their own, or contact the appropriate authorities and complain about the center of reproduction of insects near you.

Remember: cockroaches in the stairwell are the main candidates for the speedy settlement of your apartment. If you simply take their presence on the staircase or near the garbage chute, as a matter of course, not going anywhere and not fighting on your own, then you can most likely expect that most apartments in a high-rise building will soon be infected and simply become a breeding ground for new cockroaches.

The photo below shows the cockroaches on the wall in the entrance of an apartment building:

On a note

Each district of major cities of our country has its own regional SES. If cockroaches climb from neighbors or from an entrance, then first of all it is necessary to call in SES. And they will tell you what to do next: wait for the inspector, call private services, or get rid of yourself.

Keep in mind that the Sanitary and Epidemiological Station is a state structure, and while its partly bureaucratic mechanism is working, it is easier to call a private pest control service,either still agree with the neighbors and poison the cockroaches on their own.

 

Optimal places for cockroaches shelter in an apartment

If you are serious about bring cockroaches from their home, it is very useful to have an idea where the shelters of these insects are usually located.

So, where are cockroaches most often hiding in an apartment? As a rule, these are secluded places located near the source of water and food, for example:

1. cabinet under the sink;
2. pipe section from the upper drain hole in the sink to the siphon;
3. secluded places near the bin;
4. slots behind kitchen furniture;
5. space under the bathroom;
6. closets in the closet;
7. refrigerator heat exchanger (usually located behind and at the top of the case);
8. the back side of the cooker;
9. household appliances (microwave, TV in the kitchen, computer, etc.).

In most cases, insects usually breed for kitchen furniture and large-sized household appliances (refrigerator, dishwasher, stove), because no one here is disturbing them, and before the sink with water and the trash can with food - “foot fee”. The abundance of food, access to water and the heat generated by technology, form an ideal habitat for cockroaches in such places.

For example, sometimes tenants are horrified when, during disinsection works (or simply during repairs), they move furniture and find literally hundreds of fattened cockroaches and their larvae just behind the furniture. In some apartments, insects, for example, behind the fridge, are capable of forming almost a continuous fluttering "carpet". Here, on the floor, chitinous covers of cockroaches, left after molting, dry shells of cockroach eggs (eoteka) and black points of excrement are piled up in abundance.

Examples of such shelters are shown in the photos below:

In the meantime, when going to take cockroaches, you need to remember that they only go to watering places where there is water available for them - in sinks and baths. So, it is better to place traps and poisons here, and not just somewhere near the refrigerator or stove.

On a note

Actually, cockroaches do not have a nest - they simply gather in the most secluded places, forming sometimes significant accumulations. Therefore, sometimes it may seem that such a cluster of them, which usually looks like a rather dirty and very unsightly place, is a real nest.However, strictly speaking, this is not a nest, since cockroaches have no organization.

However, this does not mean that you should not look for a “cockroach's nest”: if you find the main places of accumulations of these pests, then it is much easier to fight them.

The photo shows what a large cluster of cockroaches in the apartment looks like:

In some cases, the apartment of less prosperous neighbors may become the main source of cockroach contamination of your clean and well-kept home. Usually, it is the houses of alcoholics that cannot be cleaned for years or, no matter how bitter it is to realize, the apartments of single and frail elderly people who are no longer able to maintain cleanliness and order are real farms for growing these insects.

It is from here, from the neighbors, that cockroaches sometimes climb in hordes into the nearest apartments, eventually settling on all floors. Therefore, if you do not want to meet insects in your room, then conduct explanatory conversations and educational work with your neighbors, and if necessary - engage SES. Remember: if you don’t complain and take action, then the neighborhood with cockroaches will be provided for you for many years to come.

It is interesting

The main habitat of cockroaches in nature is leaf litter in tropical rain forests. Here insects sometimes swarm in huge quantities in close proximity to the main source of food - rotting vegetation and falling fruits.

In higher latitudes, cockroaches also live in forests, but here their habitat is replaced by meadows and ruins of stones, and in South Africa - by mountain slopes. In any case, cockroaches come from places with an abundance of vegetation and frequent rainfall, so they are so dependent on water.

 

Unusual places of shelter

Do not forget that in addition to the "standard" shelters, cockroaches can sometimes hide in the most unexpected places:

1. Microwave. Cockroaches here are mainly in search of food, fallen or sprinkled with food and then burned. Insects get here usually through a block with the electronics of the device.
2. Fridge. As a rule, cockroaches accumulate in the warmest place of the refrigerator - behind (its heat exchanger heats up to high temperatures, due to the heat extracted from the internal chambers).Insects themselves cooled by the camera usually get accidentally with the products - salads, vegetables, bananas.
3. Dishwasher. Cockroaches are looking for water here, and can not get out on their own. Sometimes they get here with dishes, which were fed with leftover food.
4. System blocks of computers and laptops. The transfer of such a device from one apartment to another is often the cause of infection of the new premises with cockroaches.
5. Toilet cisterns - cockroaches inhabit them mainly because of the proximity to the water.
6. At the entrance, cockroaches are most numerous in the garbage disposal, but sometimes they are also found in elevator shafts and electrical panels.

What to do if cockroaches have chosen one of these (or some even more unusual) places in your apartment? Of course, it is necessary to remove insects from these shelters, but sometimes it also has to be done differently.

For example, you can remove cockroaches from the microwave by turning off the device from the network and plugging one of its technological openings behind the cotton wool dipped in liquid ammonia (a pharmaceutical 10% solution will do). If some cockroaches hide in a block with electronics, then they will quickly leave the microwave from the smell of ammonia.However, it should be prepared that after the weathering of ammonia, pests can again go inside in search of food and shelter.

You should not try to drive cockroaches out of the microwave with the help of powerful insecticides - in this case, not for long and poison yourself.

It is interesting

Cockroaches love the smell of wood and, if possible, stick around wooden objects. Therefore, people often report to the SES that a cockroach found a nest in its cage with sawdust where the hamster lives, or in an old plywood messenger box.

Finally, in the southern regions of our country, as well as in Central Asia and in Ukraine, cockroaches can live normally in the streets of cities and even in the fields around villages in the summer. Black cockroaches in exceptional cases can even winter in nature.

 

Sewer cockroaches: are there any?

In almost any city, cockroaches inhabit the sewer system. And the reasons for this are quite obvious: there is enough food (do not ask - what) and water, high humidity and more or less comfortable temperature for them.

It is not surprising that the sewage system insects often climb into the house and crawl out through the sink and bath in the apartment. And such people from the sewage system clearly do not improve the sanitary situation in the room ...

Sewer cockroaches are no different from "ordinary" apartment. In our country, they are common Prusaks and black cockroaches, in Europe American cockroaches are also added to these species.

In an apartment or house, they cannot be distinguished from insects that constantly live behind a bedside table or under a sink. One can only assume that the cockroaches found in the bathroom or toilet, could come from neighbors, and could recently crawl out of the sewer.

On a note

In many newspaper news from around the world, there are regular reports of sewer cockroach invasions in large and seemingly prosperous cities. Naples, Paris, Istanbul, San Francisco, Moscow with an enviable regularity are faced with such a cockroach epidemic. There is nothing surprising in this: in some years the number of cockroaches in the sewage system is growing at a particularly rapid pace. In summertime, they crawl out to the surface and look for suitable places to settle. And the citizens who are used to cleanliness start to panic and cut off the phones of the Sanitary and Epidemiological stations.

Get rid of sewer cockroaches can be the same methodswhich are used to combat any other cockroaches: treatment of the premises with insecticidal preparations, placement of traps and poisonous baits, prevention of the entry of insects into the room. All these actions can be performed either by the apartment owners themselves, or these tasks can be placed on the shoulders of professional pest control.

 

Mutant cockroaches from the sewer - true, or fiction?

But mutant cockroaches, which are fashionable today to talk on forums or take journaling notes - nothing more than fiction. All reports of mutant cockroaches known today are easily refuted even by a specialist biologist and a simple enthusiastic young naturalist.

For example, reports of the appearance in the basements of houses of cockroaches with gills, which adapted to the aquatic environment in the sewage system, appeared after the discovery of ordinary water beetles-swimmers in the bathrooms by several residents of Ukrainian cities. As they say, fear has big eyes, and people want to become victims of “mutants”.

Here is a picture of a red cockroach:

And here is a photo of a swimming beetle:

On a note

There is nothing surprising in the fact that a cockroach climbs out of a toilet bowl or from a pipe in a bathroom.These insects swim well and can survive for a long time when fully submerged in water. In laboratory experiments, individual red cockroaches came to life after an hour of stay under water, so a journey through the sewers for such a Spartan would not be stressful at all. Therefore, by the way, it is worth remembering that if the cockroach is lowered into the toilet, it will simply move down the sewer pipe and almost certainly will not die, but will only find a new habitat for itself with an abundance of food and water.

The situation is similar with white cockroaches, which people always meet in houses, but which, at the suggestion of the media, have begun to be talked about here and there as mutated monsters. The white cockroach is not a mutant, but simply a recently faded individual, having dropped its colored chitinous cover and has not yet had time to form a new one (see the example in the photo).

In general, talking about mutant cockroaches is not entirely correct: the emergence of any serious functional mutation and its fixation in the insect population (especially if it concerns, for example, the development of the aforementioned gills) takes millions of years — much more than in this world. there is a sewer and water supply.In this regard, it would be very naive to believe that the sewage system in your house is so unique that cockroaches in it experience such serious evolutionary changes in just a few years.

However, invisible to the human eye changes in the body of cockroaches still gradually occur - for example, under the influence of chemicals. It is not a secret for anyone that for many years of hard struggle between man and this insect, the latter has adapted (some will say - mutated) to survive even when poisoned by any insecticidal agent: this is why the industry offers us more and more new and more advanced preparations.

On a note

By the way, it is naive and talk about the fact that cockroaches will be the only living creatures that will survive a nuclear war. This is another myth. Cockroaches are indeed more resistant to the short-term effects of radiation than humans, but long-term loss of radiation fallout is just as destructive for them as it is for all living things. Cockroaches do not differ in their "anti-nuclear" properties from other insects, and in case of a corresponding cataclysm they will die out at about the same speed as, for example,flies or ants.

 

Cockroaches are not in the apartment: where else can these insects meet in the city

It is logical to assume that if conditions suitable for the life of cockroaches will be maintained in a place outside the immediate human habitation, insects will be able to live there. Let us recall at least cockroaches in the stairwell and in heating mains throughout the city.

But this is only the tip of the iceberg. In fact, cockroaches in the city are hiding in a huge number of places.

1. Warehouses of food products and imported products. Here, by the way, among the bunches of bananas and boxes with oranges, you can even meet representatives of exotic species that sailed to us from overseas.
2. Supermarkets and their warehouses. Despite receiving certificates from SES, almost every such room provides shelter to a huge number of cockroaches. In some places, insects even manage to filter into the trading rooms and scare customers with their appearance.
3. Underground. Indeed, the climatic conditions here more or less meet the requirements of cockroaches, especially at the stations. In the subway, an abundance of debris accumulates, which can be a source of food for picky insects.Not surprisingly, cockroaches in the subway - it is, in general, not uncommon.
4. Kitchens of restaurants and cafes. Yes, absolute cleanliness in such establishments is observed only in the guest rooms. What happens in the kitchen and who is hiding there among the pans is hidden behind well-closed doors.
5. Greenhouses, in which cockroaches are simply blissful in the warmth, high humidity and abundance of normal, natural food for them.

This list can be continued for a long time: attics and basements, markets, MAFy, greenhouses, food industry enterprises, canteens of schools and universities - wherever food is kept warm, cockroaches can start sooner or later. And the talk that the cockroaches have left the cities recently seems to be the same myth as the opinion that these insects will survive the nuclear winter.

On a note

If you find yourself in Egypt, Jordan or Israel and you want to experience the thrill - walk around the backyards in the tourist quarters in the early morning when the owners open a cafe and sweep the cockroaches out of them at night. Here you can meet marble cockroaches, and American, and even more rare, and in such quantities that it is time to ask the question: who eats more in this cafe - tourists or insects ...

So do not be alarmed if you suddenly meet a red mustache acquaintance in your favorite supermarket or in a cozy cafe. Even with a careful approach to maintaining order, the owners of the institution are not always able to prevent insects from entering it.

Ordinary citizens should remember that cockroaches most often get into the house from neighbors or from an entrance, and hide here in the most unexpected places. And if meetings with these pests become too frequent, then it is necessary to apply to the disinsection services, or else to start an independent struggle.

 

An interesting video: another hot news about “mutant cockroaches” ...

 

Cockroaches from sewers occupy the first floors of a multistory building

 

Killing cockroaches with special glue traps