Photos of various types of domestic cockroaches

Domestic cockroaches, contrary to the wishes of the person, often become an integral part of the home. They are so accustomed to a comfortable living environment created in well-equipped apartments that in the wild, especially in the Russian winter, most of the species simply could not survive. Therefore, the title "home" cockroaches are deservedly so.

About how and what they live, what types of them are found in apartments and how they look, what danger they bring to us - all this will be discussed further ...

 

Distinctive signs of domestic cockroaches

All domestic cockroaches have a number of common features that allow them to be considered typical representatives of the sub-order Blattoptera. They are insects with incomplete transformation, and in their development they pass through three stages: the egg, the larva, the imago.

Cockroach eggs are packaged in a dense chitin capsule - a swell (the photo shows a female cockroach with a swell):

The larvae look very similar to the adult insect. The photo below shows the larvae of the red cockroach of different ages:

The larvae, or nymphs, make up the bulk of the domestic cockroach population. With each subsequent molt, they increase in size and more and more resemble parents.

It is interesting

Some people manage to observe a strange event: a cockroach suddenly begins to tremble unnaturally, and a white copy of it gets out of it with special efforts. No, this is not a new kind of domestic cockroaches. It looks like an insect in the first hours after molting. Very soon it will acquire a fitting color.

The most important organ of the domestic cockroach is the tactile tendrils that ensure its orientation in space.

Each cockroach has a gnawing mouth apparatus, deftly grinding the most varied food. This explains the omnivorous nature of the insect.

Domestic cockroach has three qualities, thanks to which he is able to lead a hidden lifestyle for a long time, without conflicting with the owners of the dwelling:

1. A flat body, enabling the insect to instantly disappear from the field of view of a person, penetrating into narrow cracks.
2. Three pairs of legs, claws and suckers, helping the cockroach to move on any surface with incredible agility.
3. Activity at night - contributes to the fact that the meeting of the domestic cockroach and man does not happen so often.

Many cockroaches can boast the presence of two pairs of wings. However, the vast majority of species have only the beginnings of an organ intended for flight. Although domestic cockroaches and look like excellent flyers, but they are not. With a synanthropic existence, there is no need for flying, so cockroaches do not fly.

 

Types of domestic cockroaches

In the great diversity of cockroaches, there are not many species that are firmly established in human apartments.

Some members of the wild fauna (for example, the Madagascar cockroach), accidentally finding themselves in our homes, also feel good, but, as a rule, the mass distribution of exotic inhabitants is not observed. However, with proper care, these species of cockroaches brought from the tropics live and breed very well in terrariums, although you cannot call them home pets.

The most popular is depicted in the photo Ginger domestic cockroach:

This is a cosmopolitan who knows no boundaries, confidently settled at almost all latitudes of the globe. It can be recognized by the characteristic yellow-brown, sometimes with a reddish tinge, color. Pronotum has black stripes.

The male is equipped with wings, and a mature female can very often be met with a brood that she drags behind her abdomen, and leaves her only at the time of the release of offspring.

Here is a photo of a male cockroach:

And here is a picture of a female:

Black beetle no less famous for the black wench. Large individuals, emitting an unpleasant smell, often frighten the occupants of the lower floors. Black domestic cockroaches prefer warm and wet basements, warehouses, garbage cans.

American periplanet - one more kind of domestic cockroaches (see photo).

This overseas guest is easily adaptable in Russian apartments. He is very mobile, has well developed wings, is aggressive. It can suffer from pets, and sometimes peacefully sleeping people. One thing pleases: this cockroach does not tolerate cooling at all, even zero temperature is destructive for it.

Residents of the southern regions of Russia and Central Asia are familiar with the rarer species of domestic cockroaches - the nimble Egyptian and slow Turkestan. The latter is willingly bred as food for reptiles. Both cockroaches feel great not only in human dwellings, but also in buildings that contain farm animals.

Photo of Egyptian cockroach:

And here is a photo of a Turkestan (Turkmen) cockroach:

A little more than half a century ago, in the central part of Russia, the home cockroach of ocher-red color with transparent wings and brown stripes began to meet. This insect destroys the prevailing stereotype about synanthropic cockroaches, as if they are attracted only by the kitchen.

Representatives of this species prefer food rich in starch, which is easy to find under the wallpaper and in the backs of old books. His nests are often found in bedrooms, in libraries and offices, in furnishings, for which he received his name - the Furniture cockroach:

 

Cockroaches in the house is not the place

The harm caused by domestic cockroaches is enormous. They not only spoil the aesthetic appearance of the home, but also create a real threat to the health of the occupants of the room. All the evil that these insects deliver to human health is called blattopterosis.

Domestic cockroaches can affect people in different ways, and sometimes meeting an insect has serious consequences. Consider the possible scenarios.

1. Cockroach as a foreign body. Cockroaches tend to hide in narrow cracks, but because they can easily be a living foreign body inside a person. Otolaryngologists sometimes face the problem of finding a cockroach in the external auditory canal or in the nose. It is difficult for an insect to get out independently; it beats inside, exhausting the unhappy patient and forcing him to panic.
2. Cockroach as a provocateur of allergic reactions. The information that the waste products of these insects are powerful allergens is absolutely reliable. By skin tests proved sensitization to allergens of domestic cockroaches in patients with vasomotor rhinitis and bronchial asthma. Especially often people have an allergy to insect chitin covers discarded during moulting.
3. Cockroaches bite. Yes, unfortunately, this fact, which seemed absurd earlier, also corresponds to reality.These insects are not as peaceful as they sometimes seem. Their victims are usually the most defenseless creatures - small children. Spurred by hunger and hunger, domestic cockroaches can nibble the delicate skin of the ear lobes, the red rim of the lips and eyelids of a firmly sleeping baby. The case is not limited to bite marks. Often joins a secondary infection, pyoderma develops
4. Cockroaches - carriers of pathogenic microorganisms. Scientists have proved the presence of not at all harmless bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoa, and even a tick - a cockroach parasite on the body, paws and inside the insect, which, it turns out, is not averse to bite a person.

As you can see, it can be concluded that, regardless of whether red, black or even brown-striped cockroaches are wound up in a house, nothing good can be expected from their presence. It is better to immediately be puzzled by the question of how to deal with them and begin to act without delay.

 

Interesting video: black cockroaches eat chicken egg