Cockroaches, how do domesticated ones breed ?. Breeding cycle of domestic cockroaches

The ability to reproduce in domestic cockroaches occurs after they have passed the last stage of maturation.
To find out how mustachioed domestic cockroaches breed, it is necessary to study their characteristics, sex differences. Indeed, the success of the destruction of breeding insects depends on human awareness.

The breeding period includes the following stages:

Finding the right partner. A female that has reached puberty releases certain pheromones. To do this, she uses the glands that are concentrated in the back. Insects also use wings to attract a partner.
Pairing. Insects move to this stage after mating games, which are accompanied by fanning their wings. The genital plate focuses on the male's body, with the help of which he fertilizes the female. As soon as mating is over, the insects disperse. The male representative goes in search of a new partner, and the female prepares to lay eggs.
Formation of ootheca by a cockroach. The female uses this leathery sac to store eggs with larvae. Indeed, during this period, the embryos need protection and peace. The female carries a capsule with larvae until the embryos are fully formed.
Dropping the ooteca. This stage begins as soon as the embryos have increased in size and become stronger. After that, the cubs are on their own.

Cockroaches reproduce in an apartment much faster, since all the conditions for their development have been created here.

The ootheca shelving process

Among the breeding features of domestic cockroaches, ooteca deposition is also distinguished. To place the leathery pouch, insects choose places that are maximally protected from humans and sunlight. Therefore, it is very difficult to find cockroach eggs.

Each type of arthropod cares for a clutch with eggs in different ways. Under natural conditions, black species get rid of the ooteca almost immediately, so not all embryos survive. It also happens that the entire masonry dies. The house insect ootheca is protected. After all, females lay it only after the embryos have grown stronger and formed.

The degree of maturation of the embryos can be determined by how the larvae of domestic cockroaches look.

One ooteca can contain 20–60 larvae. The duration of their maturation depends on the living conditions. By how the masonry looks, it is easy to determine how suitable the conditions for the development of insects are.

How to remove cockroaches. Purchased insecticides

The chemical industry produces various anti-cockroach products in the form of aerosols and gels. They all contain powerful chemicals that have neuroparalytic effects. Gels are more durable than aerosols. But the sprays act on insects almost instantly. Once in the body of insects, they paralyze the nervous system and cause quick death. Industrial insecticides are toxic to adults, children and pets, so safety precautions must be taken when working with chemicals.

Cockroach insecticides. Illustration for the article is used from open sources

Store drugs should be used in strict accordance with the manufacturer's instructions on the packaging.

Any deviation from the rules can reduce the effectiveness of the insecticide or cause poisoning of the tenants of the apartment.

Cockroaches have the ability to remove poisons from the body using water. To prevent poisoned insects from getting drunk and neutralizing the effect of toxic substances, you need to shut off all sources of moisture:

repair dripping water taps;
after washing dishes, washing or water procedures, wipe the bathtub and sink dry;
do not leave wet dishes;
promptly eliminate drops and puddles of water spilled on the floor or countertop.

Pests quickly adapt to environmental conditions and develop resistance (addiction) to toxic substances. If you constantly use the same remedy, then after a while it will cease to act on insects.

To prevent this from happening, you need to alternate drugs with different active ingredients (the composition of the drug is always indicated on the bottle or tube).

How cockroaches live. Where do cockroaches live and how to find them?

One of the adaptive survival mechanisms of the cockroach family is the ability to hide in the corners of the apartment. If the insects could freely go out into the open areas of the apartment, it would not be difficult to destroy them. But hiding away from the eyes of the owners, the Prussians have a chance to survive even after a "chemical attack" if the jet of chemical does not enter the habitat. How to find places where indoor pests accumulate before they multiply exponentially?

How to determine if there are cockroaches in a home

The barbel behaves cautiously and usually does not appear "in public" in the daylight, so finding cockroaches is not so easy. They make their lair in a darkened place, trying to hide as far as possible and become "invisible". Cockroaches are afraid of light, the rays of the sun, and a single individual is rarely found during the day.

You can find out that cockroaches are in the house by the following signs:

the presence of feces or excrement in the form of numerous small dark specks;
the appearance in secluded corners of brown capsules with eggs (ootheca);
unpleasant specific odor.

The excrement is visible under the wallpaper, in the corners, near the baseboards, in the grooves of the doors. This is a signal that red insects have settled in the apartment, with which you need to start fighting.

The Prussians go “hunting” at night, crawling out of their shelters in search of food and water. If you quickly turn on the light in the kitchen, then they run away in different directions. It is the kitchen that attracts insects the most. Here you can always find crumbs or food debris, replenish water supplies.

For your information: Most often, cockroaches can be found in those apartments where unsanitary conditions are created. If the house is kept perfectly clean, there are no dirty dishes and no source of water in the sink, then it will be difficult for cockroaches to find food. The colony will not die out, but it will not grow either.

Where do cockroaches usually live?

Having moved from neighboring apartments, where the territory has already been captured, from dirty entrances and basements, the Prussians first of all populate the kitchen and bathroom area. It is a wonderful habitat with everything you need.

There is food and water in this area, so cockroaches disappear during the day.

under the bathroom or sink;
behind the back wall of the refrigerator;
in secluded places of kitchen shelves;
in the microwave;
behind the bathroom mirror;
in cabinets and boxes.

They wait out time and sit in ventilation ducts, on exhaust filters, in drain holes, in flowerpots and even in dishes that have not been used for some time. If the kitchen is sheathed with plastic panels or a stretch ceiling, then a large space is created where barbel lovers like to live.

When the colony grows, all residential and non-residential premises in the house are gradually settled. Cockroaches hide beautifully

in the cracks under the skirting boards;
in the closet with clothes;
behind the heating pipes that are adjacent to the wall;
in pantries and closets;
in cluttered premises;
in the corners of furniture;
under the wallpaper;
behind the door frames;
in the cracks that occur between the wall and the floor.

The oldest species on earth especially loves to settle in household appliances. Cockroaches live behind the refrigerator, microwave oven, in the old TV picture tube, computer system unit. It is warm here and favorable conditions for life have been created.

In warm areas, the cockroach family is able to live in nature, but it is more comfortable and nourishing next to a person. In cities, longhorns settle in areas with dumps, next to a garbage chute, and master basements. If winters are warm, they are found near food waste all year round.

Note: Sometimes the Prussians populate household appliances already in the store, and the unsuspecting owner brings home uninvited guests who willingly explore new habitats.

Where to find a cockroach nest?

If at least one barbel is found on the wall or sofa, then you should carefully inspect the apartment. Most likely, more than one pest has already appeared in it and their main habitats are hidden somewhere.

The cockroach nest is a cluster of red insects, where the remains of the chitinous cover, excrement, ootheca, nymph-larvae, and dead individuals are located. The exterior of the shelter can be seen in the photo. Here cockroaches breed and live, spending most of the daytime. At night, they leave their shelter in search of food.

Finding a nest is easier when you know the insect's lifestyle. A cockroach can go without food for a month, and without water - only a couple of days. You need to look for a cockroach den in a room where there is a source of moisture. But if the colony is large, then the nest can be anywhere. Most often it is well hidden.

Barbel prevention

To prevent uninvited guests from appearing in the house, it is recommended to follow preventive measures:

keep the apartment clean;
do not leave food and drink leftovers on the table;
carry out general cleaning (inspect secluded places).

In addition, you can take note that an adult pest, as well as a cockroach larva, cannot stand the smells of geranium and lemon. That is, to prevent insects from appearing, you can put several flower pots with flowers on the windowsill. Lemon peels, unlike other food leftovers, can be left on the kitchen counter and in the sink overnight.

How cockroaches spread. Reasons for the appearance of cockroaches in your apartment

There is practically no such housing that cockroaches have not visited at least once. It often seems that there is not the slightest reason for their appearance. Let's try to figure out what conditions they need for a comfortable stay and where the cockroaches come from in the apartment.

Appearance

The most common in human housing are red cockroaches, or Prusaks. These are one of the smallest representatives of the Tarakanovs order, the length of adults does not exceed 1.5 cm. Everyone knows what a red cockroach looks like: an oval flattened brown body, long whiskers, wide-set eyes. Very young insects are lighter in color, beige; during molting, they can be almost white.

Black cockroaches are more rare inhabitants of human habitation. They are much larger than red, the body up to 3 cm long is covered with a strong chitinous shell of dark brown or black color. Newly hatched cockroaches are lighter in color and look very similar to red ones. You can recognize them by their rounder body.

American cockroaches differ in their size, they are the largest living in Russia, females reach 5 cm.In the early 90s, an invasion of cockroaches from North America was noted in metropolitan cities, now they are much less common than the first two species.

Conditions required for cockroaches

To successfully reproduce and increase the population of these insects, a source of water and food, warmth and a place for shelter are needed. They start, stay for a long time and create entire colonies in premises that meet the following requirements:

High air temperature. Already at 20 ° C, Prussians reproduce successfully, the temperature higher for their population is generally ideal: the development time of each individual is significantly reduced, and the females lay eggs more often and in greater numbers.
The presence of secluded spots where cockroaches hide. They prefer to live in narrow cracks, behind cabinets and radiators. An apartment with peeling wallpaper, torn off baseboards, old twisted furniture is a paradise for these insects.
Permanent access to water. You need to drink a cockroach at least once a week. The source of water can be faulty taps, leaking pipes, puddles on the table and in indoor flowers, condensation on windows and in the bathroom.
Food readily available. Food and dirty dishes left overnight on the table, crumbs on the floor, an open trash can - anything can serve as food. The Prussians prefer to eat high-calorie foods: sweets, flour products, cereals, and do not avoid protein foods. The black cockroach can eat vegetables and fruits. Favorite delicacy for all kinds - foods that have begun to deteriorate. This is just a short list of what cockroaches eat in conditions that are comfortable for them. With overcrowding and lack of food, soap, paper and cardboard, leather goods, fabric, shoe cream are used.

Sex differences

To distinguish a male from a female, it is necessary to pay attention to their characteristics. Insects are usually divided according to several criteria:

By the size of the body. As a rule, males are much smaller than females.
By the size of the wings. In males, they are larger and more developed. Also, males can fly, but females cannot.
The male has a genital plate located at the end of his body. In the female, it is completely absent.

Parasites mainly live in the kitchen, so it is necessary to look behind the refrigerator, gas stove, dishwasher as often as possible, that is, behind all the furniture and household appliances located near the wall. In these places, cockroaches breed and lay their eggs.

Before starting the persecution of parasites, it is necessary to move the furniture away from the walls, clean out all the capsules with embryos from there. This is the only way to prevent the development of eggs. Otherwise, the population will begin to actively spread around the house.

How long domestic cockroaches live: without food and water

Are cockroaches in the house? Hardly anyone will like this neighborhood. Most people are looking for ways to kill them, some prefer to wait until the insects die on their own. Having learned how long cockroaches live without food, water in the apartment, the decision will have to be changed.

How many domestic cockroaches live

It turns out that insects are so tenacious that it is difficult to imagine. More often, red cockroaches (Prusaks) appear in a person's housing - insects with a body from light brown to dark brown. Less common black cockroaches, as a rule, settle only in houses and apartments with high humidity (old houses, with leaking water supply, damp basement).

Vitality, endurance of any kind of domestic cockroaches is about the same, and it is just right to make legends about it.

The life cycle of a pest is different from that of many insects. They do not have a pupal stage, so the cycle is considered incomplete. Looks like that:

Fertilization of a female by a male.

Oviposition in a hard capsule, or edema.

Carrying a capsule with eggs on the stomach, later - storage in a secluded place.

The exit of nymphs up to 3 mm in size, transparent-whitish in appearance, resembling a small cockroach.

Molting of nymphs (6-10), upon completion of which the insects acquire a dark color, the hardness of the chitinous cover.

The emergence of an adult - an adult insect.

In the form of larvae, pests exist for about 60 days if the room is very warm.When the temperature is lowered to 22-23 degrees or less, molting occurs more slowly (up to 6 months).

Usually the life span of red cockroaches is limited to a year, but black insects can live up to 2 years.

The warmer it is in the room, the longer the life of the insects (of course, up to reasonable limits). Males usually die faster than females. In houses and apartments where the temperature is constant, and ventilation is rare, pests will multiply quickly - behind batteries, cabinets, wallpaper.

Insect life in extreme conditions

Difficult periods can occur for everyone, including the domestic Prusaks. Life expectancy becomes an order of magnitude shorter. In extreme conditions, they survive, but only up to a certain period. The tropical climate or life in southern latitudes allows insects not to be afraid of temperature extremes.

In the middle lane, they often have to endure inconveniences, for example, when the heating is turned off. If the temperature is lowered to -5, insects die, however, for this you will have to risk the heating system.

It is known not to kill pests by radiation. The dose of radiation that the insect can withstand is 15 times more than human, and yet it is not infinite. If the insect is irradiated for a long time or strongly, it will die.

Pest survival - no food or drink

Cold-blooded insects do not expend energy on regulating body temperature, and their metabolism is ten times slower than that of humans. Therefore, they can go into a kind of hibernation and starve for a long time. For example, the Prussians live freely for up to 1.5 months, and black insects without food for up to 2.5 months.

The cockroach is especially good at supporting life if, before the forced hunger strike, it ate tightly. A hungry insect hides in a secret place and sits until it smells of food again in a person's dwelling. With severe hunger, he may well eat what is unsuitable for food:

Hair.
Paper.
Pieces of leather.

It happens that from hunger, pests eat their antennae, paws, or attack their relatives. It cannot exist for a long time without water. Any process in the body is associated with water - they even eat moist food, or immediately run in search of moisture.

Sometimes, in case of poisoning, sufficient water consumption saves the pest.

Through the vessels in the body, moisture evaporates regularly, so the insect "dries up" and dies in about a week. A dense shell will not be able to retain water in the body. Therefore, in the question of how to get rid of cockroaches, it is necessary to take into account such a feature and completely block access to water.

Does a cockroach live without a head

The question of how many days a cockroach can live without a head will seem strange to a layman. Of course, not everyone will think of catching a domestic cockroach, ripping off its head and letting it go. But similar experiments were carried out by scientists.

It turns out that the insect exists without a head for 7-9 days. This feature is due to the openness of the circulatory system, the central nervous system, and the digestive tract of the insect. If the head is removed, the blood on the neck will bake, the vessels and other organs and systems will continue to function.

The insect will continue to breathe, it has small respiratory organs throughout its body.

There are also parts of the nervous system on the body, the nervous regulation of the main processes will take place in full. A cockroach will die of thirst, but it will live longer than with its head, because the area of moisture evaporation will decrease. A cockroach head can also live on its own if you drip nutrient solutions onto it.

The survivability of cockroaches is high, and it is not worth hoping that they will die without food in a couple of weeks. The only thing that can be done is to completely deprive them of water, and then they will definitely stop harming a person.

How to find a clutch of cockroaches. House within a house. Where are cockroach nests located?

Contrary to popular belief, cockroaches do not run around the apartment day and night, poisoning the life of its warm-blooded inhabitants.

It is because of this that some housewives make a serious mistake, treating all open surfaces in the house with insecticides, forgetting that they simply do not appear in such areas. Where are cockroach nests located, how to find and destroy them?

Where do cockroaches live?

To answer this question, you need to remember the lifestyle of these harmful insects. If a cockroach can easily live a month without food, then the lack of water will become fatal for it already for 2-3 days. Therefore, the nests of the Prussians should be looked for as close as possible to the water sources:

kitchen sink;
Dishwasher.

Insects are rare in the bathroom, since the availability of water, although important, is not a fundamental factor in choosing a place of residence.

In addition to life-giving moisture, insects need food and reliable shelter. If the parasite can find food anywhere, then you need to look for a secluded corner. And cockroaches find it in the form:

spaces under skirting boards and door frames;
gaps between the wall and wallpaper;
cracks in walls and floors;
back surfaces of furniture.

It's a paradox, but sometimes Prussians can even be found in the refrigerator, and this despite the fact that the low temperature is deadly for them! It goes without saying that they hide as close as possible to the heat distribution unit, it is sometimes hot there, but in the freezer and food compartments, if cockroaches turn out to be only by accident.

Cockroach nests: photos

How to find a cockroach nest in an apartment

Let's make a reservation right away that the signs of the presence of a cockroach nest, indicated below, can be found throughout the house, even in places uncharacteristic for Prusaks. Nevertheless, their accumulation at a specific point directly indicates that the Prusaks have a rookery here:

many empty ootheques (egg capsules);
chitinous covers that insects leave after molting;
empty shells of eggs (they are very small, so it is difficult to find them);
discharge that looks like particles of ground black pepper.

The more such signs you find, the closer you are to the nest. By the way, a visual inspection of the "terrain" also does not need to be discounted - if you move the furniture aside and tear off the jambs with baseboards, you can see the cockroach house with your own eyes. The sight is not very pleasant, so be prepared.

How to destroy the nest?

The decision to transfer some of the insects with slippers will not be a mistake, although in any case you cannot do without insecticides from cockroaches. Such a step will make it easier for the chemicals to work, since the population is small, but it will decline. If you are lucky, the larvae (nymphs), which are potentially the main successors of the cockroach genus, will be crushed.

After the initial intervention in the quiet life of the Prussians, you need to use one of the drugs:

Spray can . Acts weakly in the fight against large colonies of cockroaches, but ideal for the destruction of single insects. Reid has proven himself quite well.

Gel. It is believed to be the most effective insecticide option. Not only does such a paste kill the entire Prusak colony, it also has a very long-lasting preventive effect. Users speak well of the Clean House gel.
Traps. They are intended more for the prevention of infection, but they are also good for the destruction of small populations. Many ordinary people prefer the Raptor, try it yourself.
Chalk. The number of cockroach colonies is reduced, prevention is provided, and they are cheap. What else is needed? By the way, we recommend trying Mashenka, known since Soviet times.

Please note that some of these insecticides can be hazardous to humans and pets. Compliance with basic safety rules when working with them is necessary. If everything is done correctly, then there will be no trace of cockroaches, and comfort will come to your house again, and will bring cleanliness with it!

What affects the rate of reproduction

Undoubtedly, information about how quickly domestic cockroaches reproduce is significant for people who are faced with a similar problem.

The breeding rate of domestic cockroaches is influenced by their species. Ginger insects spread faster.

External factors influence the rate at which a domestic cockroach reproduces. The embryo development process stops if the room temperature drops. Their development resumes as soon as heat begins to flow to the ooteca.

Therefore, freezing is considered a popular way to get rid of breeding insects. In order to implement it, it is necessary to open all windows for a while. But this method is available only to the owners of country houses and people who can temporarily move to another room.

Chemicals affect the rate at which the mustachioed pest multiplies. The larvae are located in a leathery pouch that protects them from toxic fumes and harmful components. But ooteca withstands 1-2 attacks. If the procedure is repeated 2-3 times within a month, then the development will stop completely.

Some chemicals contain special regulating components. The cockroach breeding regulator works very simply. It affects the ability of insects to reproduce later.

The rate of reproduction is also influenced by sanitary and hygienic standards. If the insects do not find food or water, they will leave the residential building.