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American Cockroach

AMERICAN COCKROACH - Some of their more common names are water bug, sewer roach, palmetto bug, large roach, and yard bug. These are primarily an outside roach but they will move indoors in search of food and water. These are the largest of the common roaches growing to about 1.5 inches. You will usually find these roaches outside in mulch and ground cover where it is moist and dark, in trees if they have openings, in palm trees, sewers, boxes, and cracks in concrete. When they move indoors you will find them in moist areas such as basements, around pipes, mechanical rooms, around sinks and bathtubs, in drains, and especially in sewers. If a drain trap or floor drain dries then that gives them an entry from the sewer and they will come up into the structure. So running water into drains of infrequently used sinks will prevent them and the foul sewer gases also from coming into the structure. Also, adding a tablespoon of vegetable oil will slow the evaporation of the water in the traps.

BIOLOGY- The adults are reddish brown with a yellow border on the back of the pronotum (head and thorax region). They have well developed wings but seldom fly, they can glide for long distances though. Their egg case is stockier and darker brown or reddish brown in color. It contains 14-16 eggs which will hatch in 50-55 days. The female will deposit the egg case near food and water or will cement it in a protected location such as in decaying wood or under bark of a tree. She will produce about one egg case a week until anywhere from 15-90 are deposited. The young nymphs are grayish brown in color until they molt enough to get their reddish brown color. It takes from 160 to 970 days to reach maturity depending on climatic conditions. In room temperature a female can live for about 400 days while the males will live for a shorter time. They will feed on a variety of foods but prefer decaying organic matter. They can carry organisms that cause disease because of the areas they inhabit like drains, sewers, and garbage cans. Then when they contact our foods or preparation surfaces they deposit these organisms on to them.

CONTROL - To really control American roaches one of the most important steps is to improve sanitation. Now because these are mostly outdoor roaches we are referring more to cleaning up outdoor debris, mulch, water leaks or wet areas, and making sure trees arent touching or overhanging the house from which they can glide or climb onto your place. Also try to caulk and seal up any crack or entry way for them to enter your home. Remember, this helps but will not guarantee extermination or prevent an infestation. For outdoor treatments you can use granular insecticides such as Talstar EZ or PL Granular Insecticide to put a 4-10 foot perimeter around the structure, and baits such as Maxforce Granular Bait, and Niban Granular Bait. You can also use liquid concentrate residuals to spray a perimeter around your structure such as Onslaught and Demand which are microencapsulated for extra long residual, also Suspend SC, Talstar Pro, Demon WP, EcoPCO WP-X, and Evercide are good choices too. Use these to put a 4-10 foot perimeter around your house and make sure you hit any and all entry points such as pipes and cables going into the house, and around windows. Once they move in then you should focus on the inside and how they got in. Control can be achieved using various baits such as Maxforce FC Roach Gel Bait, DuPont Roach Gel Bait, or Niban FG and Maxforce Granular baits. Baits work well because of the transfer effect. Roaches consume the bait and pass it to other roaches so you get a more of a kill. You can use residual liquid insecticides such as Onslaught, Evercide, Suspend SC, Demand CS, Talstar Pro, Demon WP, and dusts such as EcoExempt D, Borid Dust or Delta Dust, crack and crevice aerosols such as Cy-Kick, Invader, Intruder, and PT-565 Plus XLO. You can also use environmentally friendly and safer pesticides such as EcoPCO WP-X, EcoEXEMPT Granules, EcoPCO AR-X, EcoPCO ACU, and EcoEXEMPT D Dust. One of the most important things to use is an Insect Growth Regulator called Gentrol. This is basically birth control for roaches; they will grow up to adulthood but will be unable to reproduce thus breaking their life cycle. It is very simple to use, you mix the concentrate with water and the residual insecticide in your sprayer, or if you select Point Source then you break the ampule and place the disc where it is needed. The best approach for an infestation is to use a combination of products such as a granule, bait product, an aerosol, a dust for voids, and a residual liquid, depending on whether the infestation is indoors or out.

Geographic Location(s): Found nationwide.