How do these insects live? They are quite mobile creatures, they love warmth and moisture, are nocturnal (during the day they hide in a darkened place, and at night they crawl out in search of food). The winged ones can fly into the light at night. They feed on plant and animal debris. And, of course, they multiply quickly.

These are the most hardy insects: certain subspecies and individuals can go without food for a very long time! The body of the insect is oval and flat. The length of an adult cockroach ranges from 1.7-2 cm to 9.5 cm and more. The structure of the body allows him to hide in any gap.

Life time

How many years do these insects live? The lifespan of cockroaches depends on external conditions. If there is enough moisture, food and heat, then an adult red-headed Prusak can survive for 1 year. The life span of the black one is 2 years (the development of this species is slower), and the Madagascar (in the conditions of the terrarium) can live from 3 to 5 years, depending on the care.

The life cycle of a cockroach can be divided into 3 stages of development: an egg, a larva, an adult insect. The most important thing for this beetle is to breed and reproduce, giving birth to new cockroaches. The female attracts the male with odorous substances secreted by special glands. Some individuals take care of females for a certain time, but the result is the same - fertilization.

Reproduction

It is important and interesting that female representatives mate with a male once in a lifetime. In the future, the eggs are fertilized with sperm, stored in a special section of her body. After a while, the female cockroach lays eggs in a dense bag of foamed protein substance formed for this (the protein freezes, turning into reliable protection for future babies: such a capsule does not allow water and poisonous substances to pass through, it is difficult to crush it). For some time - a day or several weeks (depending on the type of individual) - the female carries this capsule in herself, dragging behind her that part of it that protrudes beyond the edges of the abdomen. This happens while the clutch is growing. She then dumps the container in a secluded place where there is enough moisture and heat.

The development of larvae takes a short period - only a few weeks. As a result of this process, absolutely healthy individuals are born, adapted to life in the surrounding world. Insects are very fertile - one clutch can contain up to fifty larvae. Small insects of a whitish color and about 3 mm long scatter quickly in search of food and in order to grow (a growing organism requires strength and energy). After a while, their skin hardens, turning into chitin. Before full maturation, several molts will take place, and the cockroaches will acquire the color inherent in their species.

The development process is directly related to the ambient temperature. If it fluctuates within 30 ° C, then all molts take place in 2 months, and if it is about 20 ° C, in six months.

Cockroaches are not viviparous insects, although this impression may be formed about some of them. They don't have to give birth. There are species in which eggs develop inside the female's body. An example of this is the Madagascar cockroach. The capsule with eggs throughout its development is inside the insect, and only a few times a day a pregnant cockroach exposes them outside for airing.
The larvae have to be born from the egg also inside the mother's body and quickly leave the brood chamber. An outside observer has the impression that the cockroach is giving birth. As a rule, the process of birth of cockroaches lasts from several minutes to several hours.

Cockroach life

These insects are cold-blooded, in view of this, they do not need to spend energy to maintain body temperature, and their metabolism is slow. Therefore, cockroaches live without food for a rather long period of time - up to two and a half months. It is not so easy to starve them to death: they hide and wait for the moment when the opportunity to eat well presents itself. But water for a cockroach is vital. The increased humidity helps them avoid overheating. A cockroach is unlikely to live more than a week without water. The liquid evaporates from the surface of the insect's shell, and it threatens to dry out and die if there is a lack of moisture.

Interesting fact

Another feature of these amazing insects is that they can live without a head for a certain time! Scientists conducted experiments and found out how long a cockroach lives without a head.

Black and red individuals can exist without it for up to 9 days. This is due to the fact that they do not have a closed circulatory system, they cannot die from blood loss. In this case, the separated head tries to feed, and the body lives in an autonomous mode until it dies from mold or attacking microorganisms.

Interesting facts from the life of cockroaches

Most cockroaches do not care about children in any way. But there are exceptions: some species of insects that live in conditions of high humidity and temperature, for example, in the tropics, monitor their newborn cockroaches and take care of them. The female of the Madagascar cockroach in the first day does not let go of her offspring. The kids cuddle up to their mother, hide under her, and she protects them from enemies, hissing menacingly and making frightening gestures. But by the end of the first day, the cockroaches are crawling, and this is where the maternal care for them ends. Only relic cockroaches pay special attention to babies.
They live in small colonies and are very caring for their offspring.

At ambient temperatures below zero, cockroaches die: at -5 ° C - within half an hour, and at -7 ° C - in a minute. The larva can slow down its development even in the egg if the air temperature is below 15 ° C. This feature helps the young to survive a difficult period under the protection of a dense capsule. An adult dies at rather low or very high temperatures. Indicators -3 ... + 42 ° С are destructive for them. But a capsule with larvae can survive relatively comfortably even a short 10-degree frost and high temperatures.

If the mother dies during the disinfection of housing by people, then the eggs in the capsule continue to develop, and later healthy young growth will still hatch from them.
If there is little moisture, cockroaches are able not to breathe for up to 40 minutes, so as not to evaporate the water available in the body. These insects are not afraid of the radiation dose, which is fatal for humans. Lack of food and moisture will shorten the life of the cockroach.

The life of a cockroach is remarkable in that every day it very quickly runs away from enemies, prowls in search of water and food. At the same time, insects reproduce very quickly, bringing numerous offspring. Its vitality is amazing.

There are real legends about the incredible endurance of cockroaches: they live for years, and they are not afraid of radiation, and they do not need food and water, and even without a head, cockroaches can exist as if they did not need it at all.

Life stages of a cockroach

All cockroaches have an incomplete development cycle, i.e. without the stage of transformation of the larva into a pupa.

It turns out that from the moment the nymph hatches, the Prusak theoretically lives for about 9-12 months, if nothing prevents him.

These insects can actually go without food for quite some time. Red cockroaches live without food for up to 40 days, and black cockroaches up to 70 days. This is due to the fact that they are cold-blooded creatures (poikilothermic), which means that they do not need to expend energy to maintain a certain body temperature.

The metabolism of such organisms is 20 times slower than that of warm-blooded animals, and it is enough for a cockroach to eat once in order to live after that for a long time (even several weeks) without experiencing hunger.

On the other hand, the main way of energy supply for poikilothermic organisms is external sources, therefore cockroaches live only in heated dwellings, and at subzero temperatures their number decreases sharply (this can be used to fight cockroaches by freezing the room).

The need for cockroaches in water

Despite the fact that cockroaches live without food for several weeks, without water they die within a week, and sometimes even earlier. This is due to the fact that water plays an exceptional role in the life of any organism, since it is a structural component of a cell, and almost all metabolic processes, consisting of a chain of chemical reactions, take place with the participation of water.

Cockroaches do not live long without water and prefer to eat moist food (waste), because water is necessary for the digestion process itself, for the salivary glands and the circulatory system to work.

On a note

The effect of the use of many insecticidal agents is significantly reduced if cockroaches have access to water - insects simply drink and remove substances harmful to them (for example, boric acid) with waste products.

The remarkable thermal conductivity properties of water also determine its important role as a thermoregulator in living things. So, the release of excess fluid through the Malpighian vessels on the body saves from overheating cockroaches, and the nocturnal lifestyle and waterproof chitinous integuments, on the contrary, help save water in case of low humidity and too high a temperature.

Do cockroaches live without a head?

No matter how strange this question may sound, the answer “yes, a cockroach lives without a head” sounds even more strange.

See also our experiments on cockroaches:

We catch cockroaches and test different agents on them - see the results ...

American scientists, in order to study the ability of these insects to reproduce, conducted a series of experiments on their decapitation. After that, the researchers concluded that not only the body of the cockroach lives without a head, but its head (placed in a cool place and fed with a special solution) may well exist without a body. In turn, the bodies of cockroaches, devoid of heads and sealed with a special wax in the neck area, live in a flask for several more weeks, according to entomologist K. Tipping.

In order to understand why this is possible, one must understand that all insect life support systems (nervous, circulatory, digestive) are not arranged at all the same as in humans. So, the loss of a head in a person is fraught with the deprivation of a critical amount of blood, a drop in blood pressure and a disruption in the supply of oxygen, and with it, important nutrients to the internal organs.

In insects, the circulatory system is open, there are no thin capillaries, and pressure does not play a decisive role in it. According to physiologist and biochemist J. Kankel, if you tear off a cockroach's head, the cervical vessels will simply be sealed with coagulated blood, and the circulatory system will continue to work.

To carry out the normal breathing process, a person needs a head, since it contains the mouth and nose, through which, in fact, air flows, and the brain, which controls this process. In cockroaches, the respiratory process is carried out using special openings on the body, called "spiracles", and a network of small tubes - trachea. In this case, the brain does not take part in respiration, and after the elimination of the head, the body continues to be supplied with oxygen in the same mode.

Moreover, the brain as such is not particularly needed by cockroaches, since on each part of the body they have nerve nodes (ganglia) that are responsible for the main nerve functions at the level of reflexes.

Without a head, cockroaches move their paws, stand up and even move. True, as noted by Nick Strosfeld of the University of Arizona, the head of these insects receives a large amount of sensory information from the body, so their brain, devoid of a body, will not be able to function normally. Thus, the experiments carried out prove that cockroaches demonstrate memorization skills when learning, when the head and body are in an inseparable unity. When the head is severed, of course, these creatures lose their abilities.

So, cockroaches are really incredibly tenacious insects and are able to live without food, water and even without a head for a very long period. The chitinous cover is so strong that, even after slamming this insect with a slipper, one cannot be sure that after a while it will not move away after being hit and will not run away.

On the other hand, deprivation of water threatens them with imminent death, so those who wish not only to get rid of uninvited guests, but also to prevent their appearance in the future, should by all possible means avoid water leaks from taps, pipes and flower pots.

Traditional methods of fighting cockroaches

Where do cockroaches come from? This is a question that many housewives must have asked themselves. Previously, these insects were a real scourge of mankind, but a few years ago they almost disappeared without a trace, according to scientists, due to the radiation of telephones. However, cockroaches have recently re-activated, so you need to know how to avoid their appearance and how to deal with them.

Contrary to popular belief, cockroaches never start on their own, even if the house is a terrible mess. The cockroach must be brought into the house, and a very clean hostess can do it by accident. Another thing is that in an uncleaned house they take root much easier, since there they have something to profit from.

A cockroach can enter the house in the following ways:

• Crawl away from neighbors. Usually, this is how cockroaches appear in apartments of apartment buildings. They crawl through pipelines or ventilation ducts, or simply corny come through the doors from the entrance.
• Make your way along with your purchases. In some not too clean stores, cockroaches can sometimes be found, and they can easily get into the bag and so get into your house. Such a "surprise" can also be brought when buying something hand-held or on the market.
• Return with you from vacation or business trip in luggage along with souvenirs.
• Arrive in a parcel by mail or by courier from an online store.

By the way, it was the parcels that caused the spread of the American cockroach in our country, which earlier could only be found in the USA and Canada.

As you can see, a cockroach can easily get into any house, no matter if it is dirty or cleaned up. And insects breed very quickly, therefore, you need to get rid of them as urgently and decisively as possible.

Cockroaches, by the way, are of different types, and the methods of their removal and the reasons for their appearance depend on this.

Red cockroaches

Red, or brown cockroaches, are the most common species of these insects, which are also called Prusaks.

These cockroaches feed on leftover food and are generally not very dangerous, but very unpleasant and can spoil the remaining open food. By the way, it is very important for their life that water is freely available in the house - and this usually happens in case of problems with plumbing.

Black cockroaches

This is a rarer variety. They are found in private houses, as well as in high-rise buildings, but usually not higher than the fifth floor. Such cockroaches come, as a rule, from sewers and garbage cans.

Black cockroaches are very large, so the question of where the large cockroaches come from is usually addressed to them. Sometimes they reach three centimeters in length! Such cockroaches reproduce rather slowly, but they are much more dangerous than their red counterparts, since they smell unpleasant and carry various serious diseases:

• Diphtheria.
• Typhoid fever.
• Dysentery.
• Helminthiasis.

You can get infected with them if you eat the food on which they crawled. Therefore, the question of where black cockroaches come from is very relevant, because it is very important to prevent their appearance at home.

Black cockroaches need to be more feared, although they are usually fewer in number than red ones.

White cockroaches

It is not a separate species. The fact is that for some time after molting, the skin of the Prusak becomes very thin and white. We rarely see such cockroaches, since they usually try to sit in shelters after molting.

There is another answer to the question of where white cockroaches come from. Occasionally they turn white due to the fact that people poison them - caustic chemicals can deprive the shell of its brown color. The cockroach itself can survive.

Where do cockroaches come from in their homes?

The question of where cockroaches come from in a private house is easy to answer. They enter private houses in the same way as into apartments - from the street from neighbors or with purchases from the store. By the way, since cockroaches cannot stand the cold, then in winter they will definitely not be able to come to you from their neighbors. In the warm season, black individuals sometimes crawl into houses located next to garbage dumps.

Why do cockroaches move to other places

Most often, insects still come to us from our neighbors. However, many people wonder where cockroaches come from if they used to live with neighbors and feel good there. This question is not very difficult - cockroaches migrate to new habitats. And they do it for the following reasons:

• Due to too rapid reproduction, the number of cockroaches increases constantly. Over time, they simply cease to have enough food and space for the entire population, and insects spread to other rooms.
• Changing living conditions. If your neighbors suddenly start poisoning cockroaches, or if they go on a long business trip and leave them without food and water, then insects will become very uncomfortable to live there. As a result, they will leave en masse, and it is possible that they will go to your apartment.

What cockroaches need to live

Cockroaches are unpretentious creatures. They are resistant to many poisons and can live for several days without a head, but they still need some conditions for their existence:

• Positive temperature. Cockroaches are actually exotic insects that came to us from the tropics, so freezing temperatures instantly kill them. That is why they live indoors and not on the streets. By the way, they used to fight cockroaches like that - they just left the house for a couple of days without heating. But now this is difficult to implement - even with the heating valves closed, the house will still be too warm.
• Water. Cockroaches cannot live without water categorically - like people, they need it even more food. Therefore, if you can't get rid of cockroaches, then you might think: do you have an open source of water in your house? A dripping tap, condensation on the stove, even a couple of drops on the kitchen sink - this is enough for insects to quench their thirst. So if you are removing cockroaches, then be sure to eliminate all leaking pipes and constantly wipe the surfaces dry.
• Food. Of course, cockroaches also need food. They all eat, both fresh and spoiled. If there is no other food, they may eat leather or paper for a while. Therefore, when breeding cockroaches, it is very important to hide all food, thoroughly shake off crumbs and wipe countertops and stoves, and also take out garbage at night. In general, remove food from free access.

Is it hard to fight

Fighting cockroaches is difficult enough. These creatures are distinguished by a very high vitality, so it will not be easy to expel them from your apartment - it will take a lot of effort and time. True, in terms of finance, this is not particularly costly, since all funds from cockroaches are usually inexpensive. Unless replacing plumbing fixtures to block access to water can be expensive.

Here are some facts about cockroaches that show their vitality:

• A cockroach without a head can live for at least ten days. It is also capable of multiplying during this period.
• Cockroaches live even in conditions of very strong radiation and feel comfortable at the same time.
• For forty days, they can live without food. Moreover, a hunger strike does not weaken them, but makes them aggressive - cockroaches can even start biting, and it is very painful!
• Many cockroach poisons also do not take. And they quickly get used to poisoning agents, so the poison should be used only with a proven one, and periodically changed to another.

Cockroaches: where they come from and how to get rid of

The fight against these insects, as we said above, because of their vitality will be a long and painstaking business.

Where do cockroaches come from, we found out, it remains to understand how to survive them from home. Usually it is carried out in several stages:

1. Clean the entire apartment thoroughly and pay special attention to the kitchen. Wash the floor everywhere, wipe the surfaces from grease and dirt. Clean up regularly all the time you take out the cockroaches.
2. Buy special insecticides from the store. They are gel and aerosol, and you can use them together - first treat everything with a spray, and then lubricate the place where cockroaches often appear with gel.
3. Repeat the treatment regularly to kill young cockroaches that have just hatched from their eggs.
4. If the number of cockroaches continues to increase, change the insecticide.
5. If you are sure that cockroaches are crawling towards you from your neighbors, then take a number of measures. Cover as much as possible all openings through which cockroaches can get to you, for example, pipe risers. Cover the ventilation openings with grilles, the mesh cells of which will be of the minimum size. Also, treat any potential passages with gel or chalk.

If you do everything correctly and are patient, then soon you can forget about cockroaches. However, remember that if they continue to live with their neighbors, then if you give up slack, so cockroaches will crawl to you. Perhaps a conversation with heart-to-heart neighbors and an offer to help remove insects from them will help to get out of this situation.

Many are familiar with cockroaches firsthand. These insects can be seen both in a country house and in a city apartment. How long do domestic cockroaches live? They are able to live without food and water for a long time. Even radiation exposure, which is fatal to humans, is harmless to cockroaches. They freely tolerate a dose of radiation 15 times higher than the lethal dose for humans.

There are more than 4 thousand species of cockroaches in the world. Some of them live next to a person. The most common ones are black and red. Redheads are also called Prusaks. These insects are 10-15 mm long. They have large wings and long whiskers that help them navigate in space and communicate with other insects. The insect has developed legs, on which it moves very quickly. It lives in warm conditions, most often in human dwellings.

The black species can be up to 5 cm long. The wings of the females are short, and that of the males are long. There are females 5 cm in length, while males are much smaller - only 2-3 cm. They live in a warm place, often next to a person. American cockroaches are similar to Prusaks in color. These insects are up to 5 cm long. Females are larger than males.

It has a size of up to 9 cm. It can hiss quite loudly. Lives in the bark of some trees in the Amazon. It is completely harmless to humans, a rather shy insect. It comes to our country with parcels. These insects live in houses and apartments. Its large size does not give it the opportunity to hide in crevices, so the fight against it presents no difficulties.

Habitats and habits

This question is interesting to many. The owners of the apartments and houses in which these guests live are especially interested in him. These insects are extremely tenacious creatures. They go without food for 40 days. And absolutely everything serves as food for them, even concrete and brick. The main condition for their life is the availability of water. Therefore, they settle closer to its sources.

In an apartment, such a place is the bathroom and the kitchen. When water is found, insects start looking for food. Their digestive system is designed in such a way that it digests a variety of organic foods.

After about 2-4 weeks, the females throw off the offspring, hiding it in an inaccessible place

A common property of representatives of this family is an incomplete cycle of their biological development. They lack the stage of transformation of larvae into pupae. Females carry fertilized eggs on their belly in a special container called an ooteca. The eggs grow over time, the ootheca also swells and grows heavier.

After 2, maximum after 4 weeks, the offspring are thrown off in a warm place with sufficient humidity. Nymphs hatch from the ootheca. These are small (up to 2-3 mm) white cockroaches. Nymphs gradually turn black, their shell hardens. Before the nymph turns into an adult cockroach, several molts pass.

The lifespan of an adult is 20-30 weeks.

For their habitat, insects usually prefer secluded corners in hard-to-reach places. They can be found behind the refrigerator or under it, under the sink, baseboard, in various crevices. They live in rather large groups in their corners. During the day they try not to crawl out of their burrows, as their mode of life is night. At night and early in the morning, when everyone in the house is asleep, they manage to eat crumbs and small pieces of food that they find on the floor or on the kitchen table. In daylight, they appear only in those cases when their holes do not contain all individuals. Their appearance during the day is a signal to take measures to destroy insects.

For a more fruitful fight against cockroaches, you need to know the places of their settlement. You need to look for insects:

1. Under the fridge
2. Behind the fridge
3. Under the sink
4. Under the bathroom
5. Behind heating devices and pipes
6. Under the skirting boards
7. Behind the kitchen cabinets
8. In mechanisms for hanging cabinet doors
9. In the trash cans.

These are the most favorite places of their settlement.

Whether a cockroach lives in a particular place, it is easy to determine by the smell and by the black dots of feces remaining in the places of active life of insects.

They live without food for several weeks, without water for no more than a week.

They feed mainly on foods with a high organic content:

1. Sweets and sugar
2. Beer
3. x Cheese crumbs and flour products
4. toilet paper and napkins
5. Meat
6. Wallpaper and glue
7. Spoiled and rotting food
8. Stockings, socks and underwear
9. Books, magazines, newspapers

Life period and vitality

A red cockroach from a nymph turns into an adult in summer at a temperature of about 30 ° C after 2 months. If the temperature is 20 ° C, this transformation takes up to 6 months.

The red cockroach lives in a house or apartment for 9-10 months. Of these, adults live for 20-30 weeks, the rest of the time the larvae develop. lives less than a redhead for a couple of months. Without food and drink, the lifespan of cockroaches is reduced. Without food, a red cockroach lives for about 50 days. The life of a black cockroach without food can be 70 days. This is due to the fact that domestic cockroaches are cold-blooded creatures. They don't waste energy keeping their body temperature constant. In the absence of food, they can simply hide and wait for the moment food appears.

Red-haired representatives turn from nymphs into adults in 2 months in summer and in 6 months in winter

The survivability of cockroaches drops sharply along with a decrease in ambient temperature. Prusaks begin to die already at a temperature of -1 ° C. Therefore, cold is a good method of dealing with these creatures. How many years do insects of this species live without water? Water is the main thing in the life of cockroaches. Without non-viability, it lasts up to 7 days. Moisture evaporates intensively from the surface of the shell, and insects dry out and die. That is why the Prussians are more willing to eat moist food or its waste. It is easier to digest in the body and contains enough moisture.

Can an insect live without a head?

Yes, the headless cockroach lives

Weird question. But American scientists, after conducting a series of experiments, were able to prove that the headless cockroach also continues to live (up to 9 days). The thing is that their circulatory system is not closed. They do not lose blood and therefore continue to live. But in this case, they cannot get food and water.

The respiratory process does not occur with the help of the head, but with the help of holes, spiracles on the body and small trachea.

The brain does not take part in breathing. It is not particularly needed for life, since there are ganglia - nerve nodules in all parts of the body. They are completely responsible for all reflexes. The insect can wiggle its legs, stand up and move.

Influence of temperature on insects

The activity of cold-blooded insects depends on the temperature. Cockroaches love warmth. The optimum temperature for them is from +2 to + 28 ° С. It is at this level that it is always maintained in residential premises. Therefore, cockroaches often become our neighbors.

At what temperature does death occur? At 0 ° C, insects slow down all vital functions, including reproduction processes. At temperatures from -5 to -10 ° C, insects die in 30-40 minutes. With a subsequent decrease in air temperature, cockroaches die even faster.

High ambient temperature is also harmful for them. When the temperature is over 28 ° C, cockroaches lose a lot of moisture, which they really need. Upon reaching 50 ° C, death occurs in a few hours. This can be easily used in the fight against hated kitchen neighbors. It is worth remembering that cockroaches are afraid of boiling water. It can also be used to control insects. Boiling water is simply poured a little into the cracks where pests nest.

Popular Pest Control Products

You can fight these red and black pests with cold, heat and many other means:

1. Boric acid
2. Disinfectants
3. Using folk methods.

Boric acid has long been used as a cockroach control agent. It shows very good results in practice. Boric acid powder is used to make insect baits. Pests die after testing the composition and infect their fellows. For people living indoors, boric acid is absolutely safe.

Disinfectants include preparations in the form of gels, pencils and aerosols. When used correctly, they can destroy entire colonies of pests. Their disadvantage is that they are harmful to human health. Therefore, before using these products, you must hide all food and dishes.

Cockroaches are among the most unpleasant insects, but information about them is of interest. The details of the existence of arthropods are so amazing that they become the basis for various myths. More often than others, the question is asked: how long do cockroaches live without food and water. Incredibly hardy representatives of the fauna are able to do without even a head.

How long do domestic cockroaches live?

Representatives of the squad of cockroaches are extremely hardy. They populated all continents except Antarctica. Freezing temperatures are the limiting factor for insects. In its development, the cockroach goes through 3 phases: egg, larva, imago. This is an incomplete transformation (no chrysalis stage). Reproduction takes place with characteristic features. The fertilized female lays eggs in a special chitinous capsule - ootheca. In a cocoon, they are protected from temperature changes, mechanical stress, insecticides.

Interesting fact. Real long-lived Australian burrowing cockroaches or rhinos. Large insects weighing 35 g reach the age of 10 years.

In most species, the female carries an oedema inside the abdomen almost until the very birth of the larvae. The offspring are safe, which increases the survival rate. The larvae are mobile, live and feed next to the imago. Due to their miniature size, they are able to penetrate any gap. There are about 30 species of synanthropic cockroaches in the world. In Russia, there are much less such species - 5. All of them were imported from other countries. They cannot survive in the street, the comfortable temperature is 25-30 °. Insects live in colonies, rapidly increasing their numbers.

The lifespan of a cockroach depends on the species:

Blattella germanica

A red cockroach or Prusak, originally from Central Asia, came to Russia from Germany, for which he received the nickname "Prusak". The adults are small (9-13 mm) reddish brown, winged. They have long bristle antennae, long suckers on the legs between the claws. The embryonic period takes 38-50 days, nymphs need 75 to 130 days to grow up. Adults live 9-16 months.

Information. Hardy insects are quickly killed by negative temperatures, they die at -5 ° and below. The heat lovingness of synanthropes also has a limit of 45 °.

Blatta orientalis

The black cockroach is a cosmopolitan that appeared in Europe 350 years ago. Adults are large, body length 18-30 mm. The color is black, shiny. The wings are poorly developed, because of the small suction cups they move poorly on smooth surfaces. The duration of the development of a nymph depends on the surrounding conditions. At a temperature of 27 °, they reach sexual maturity in 5 months, if unfavorable conditions are delayed for 5 years. The larvae pass 6 instars and molt 5 times. The adults reach the age of 1.5-2 years.

Information. Among the representatives of the species, cannibalism is observed, even with an abundance of food, they eat weak larvae and their own capsules with eggs.

Supella longipalpa

The furniture cockroach is similar in appearance and size to a Prusak. Females shed ootheca 36 hours after laying their eggs. The capsules are left in the sink, bed or furniture. Embryonic development at room temperature takes 3 months. The larvae develop in 4-5 months. The lifespan of adults is 3-4 months.

Information. Insects appeared in Russia in the 70s. 20th century. The spread began from large cities - Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Periplaneta americana

The American cockroach is a large species with a brownish or yellow-brown color. The sizes of adults are 27-44 mm. Insects are able to fly thanks to their developed wings. The egg cocoon contains 10-28 embryos. The larvae pass through 13 instars, reaching the state of imago in 1 year. The lifespan of males is 1.5 years, and that of females is 2 times longer.

How many cockroaches live without food and water

Pests do not voluntarily leave warm rooms. Even in conditions when they have to starve. According to scientists, insects are able to do without food for a long time:

The ability to fast for such a long time is due to a slow metabolism and the lack of the need to maintain body temperature. Arthropods decrease activity, cannibalism may begin. The need for the body of arthropods in moisture is much higher. Water is essential for the chemical processes that support life. Their digestion is impossible without moisture, they certainly moisten dry food. Without replenishment of liquid reserves, the insect dries up after 5-9 days. By completely blocking access to water for insects, you can get rid of pests.

A living cockroach without a head is not a myth

An amazing fact, but insects are able to live without a head. For humans and animals, this is impossible, their respiratory organs are located on the head. Arthropods have special stigma holes on the abdomen connected to the trachea. A system of tubes braids the internal organs and supplies them with oxygen. The circulatory system is designed in such a way that blood quickly clots in the vessels of the neck. They go without food for weeks.

The decapitated body retains reflex functions, it reacts to touch, and can move. The most detrimental factor for an insect will be the lack of the ability to drink. The body regularly loses fluid through the chitinous membrane. It will dry out without moisture.

As a result of the experiments, it was found that the cockroach lives without a head for 9 days.

The hardiness of domestic cockroaches is high, but not unlimited. Knowing the vulnerabilities of insects, you can successfully fight them. Pests are eliminated using insecticides, lowering temperatures, or setting traps.