Coackroach
Anchor
1-800-585-1580
Fax
732-602-2858
anchorpc@comcast.net
Cockroaches are classified as a Public Health pest and live alongside man in most areas of the world; preferring the warm, moist, food rich habitats we create in our houses, commercial premises and public buildings. Although 3,500 species of cockroach have so far been identified there are three main pest species: the American Cockroach (Periplaneta americana), the German Cockroach (Blattella germanica), and the Oriental Cockroach (Blatta orientalis). Cockroaches are highly adaptable and extremely mobile; moving into new buildings via sewer pipes, ducts etc. They feed on most forms of organic matter, but can survive for long periods without food or water.
Cockroaches come into contact with a whole range of micro-organisms with their tendency to inhabit toilets, sewers and drains; making them a serious health risk. Food preparation and storage areas can be contaminated by the cockroaches themselves or their
feces. They are potential carriers of Salmonella food poisoning, diarrhea and dysentery, typhoid, TB and polio. Cockroaches can also cause allergic reactions in susceptible individuals e.g., asthmatics, house dust mite allergen sufferers, and individuals exposed to infestations for long periods of time. In some instances the revulsion caused by cockroaches can lead to phobic
behavior and delusory cleptoparasitosis (the imagined infestation of a dwelling).
High hygiene standards alone cannot prevent a cockroach invasion or combat an existing infestation but is a necessary component of any control strategy. Since most buildings cannot be instantly cooled or heated to the temperatures required to kill cockroaches (7oC or 46oC), and vacuuming them up may not be a totally pleasurable experience, the use of
insecticide bait gels and fumigating sprays are at present the most common method employed to control cockroaches.
Increased public concerns regarding the safety of synthetic pesticides and their effect upon human health and the environment, together with the increasing problem of cockroach resistance, have resulted in a demand for environmentally friendly methods of control.
Cockroaches live alongside man in most areas of the world. Cockroaches come into contact with a whole range of micro-organisms with their tendency to inhabit toilets, sewers and drains; making them a serious health risk. Cockroaches can also cause allergic reactions in susceptible individuals.
The use of insecticide bait gels and fumigating sprays is at present the most common method employed to control cockroaches. Increased public concerns regarding the safety of synthetic pesticides and their effect upon human health and the environment, together with the increasing problem of cockroach resistance to insecticides, have resulted in a demand for effective, environmentally positive methods of control.
Contact Anchor Pest Control for your solution to cockroaches. Anchor Pest
Control’s environmentally positive products are designed to control populations of major insect pest species.
Some quick facts about Cockroaches:
1. Cockroaches are an ancient group of insects, known from fossil remains dating some 300 million years old. This is older
than even the very first dinosaurs. During this time, their body form has remained almost unchanged - because of this they are referred to as "Living Fossils".
2. Cockroaches are insects in the order: Dictyoptera. They are closely related to grasshoppers, crickets termites and mantids. There are more than 3500 different species of roach. The vast majority of these species are not considered pests at all, but live in the forests of the tropics and sub-tropics.
3. About 10 species of cockroach have adapted to human environments, and thus, become 'pest' species. The big 3 are the German cockroach, Blattella germanica, the American cockroach, Periplaneta americana and the oriental cockroach Blatta orientalis.
4. Their eggs are laid in a very tough protective membrane called an ootheca. This egg case is extremely durable, which is one of the reasons why cockroaches are difficult pests to deal with - you may kill the adults with insecticide, but what about the eggs? This is a common reason why cockroaches seemingly reappear as pests time and time again.
5. They are omnivores (i.e. they eat anything - and we mean everything, from meat to vegetable, from dung to other cockroaches).
6. It is thought that the majority of pest species originated from tropical and sub-tropical Africa. This is where they would have had first exposure to humans and their dwellings.
7. Cockroaches carry diseases. They are known to be capable of harboring a variety of pathogens including bugs that cause food poisoning (Salmonella and Escherichia), Leprosy, bubonic plague, typhoid and even parasitic worms (Helminths).
8. Perhaps the most important effect that cockroaches have on humans is allergies. Sensitive people commonly complain of asthma and skin complaints all brought about by the secretions made by cockroaches namely, frass and shed nymphal skins.
9. Cockroaches have played an important role in medicine. Pliny the Elder, a Greek Philosopher during the 1st Century, prescribed mixing the intestines of cockroaches with oil as a cure for earache! Cockroaches are still used today as constituents of some Southeast Asian medicines.
10. Cockroaches have some ruthless natural enemies. Some spiders are well adapted to feed almost exclusively on roaches, whilst some wasps actually parasitise cockroaches.