How do red cockroaches reproduce in an apartment, how to get rid of them at home?

In this article we will talk about where these insects most often live, how red cockroaches reproduce in an apartment, what they eat, and what methods exist to combat them.

Cockroaches are unpleasant, annoying and extremely tenacious insects that most often coexist with people in their living space. You can often find cockroaches in catering establishments, shops, and various warehouses. In general, wherever they have something to eat and where to hide from the watchful eye of a person who is definitely not at all happy about such a neighborhood.

Why are these insects so unpleasant to humans, since cockroaches don’t even bite, like bedbugs or fleas, for example? They spoil renovations with their waste products, spoil cereals and other food supplies by eating and living in them, multiply quickly and literally fill the apartment. In addition, do not forget that on their six legs, cockroaches are capable of carrying various viruses, microbes and diseases, for example: salmonellosis, diphtheria, leprosy, tuberculosis, tetanus, trachoma, meningitis. Do not forget that the presence of cockroaches in your home or work place is a real hell for allergy sufferers, because the chitinous coverings of the insect can cause allergy attacks.

Science knows more than 4,000 species of cockroaches, but in everyday life humanity most often encounters the Prussian cockroach or, in other words, the red cockroach.

What does a red cockroach look like? Detailed description.

Red cockroaches are the most common.
If you have ever encountered these insects, then most likely it was with this species. The color of the red cockroach has a brownish-yellowish tint, with two parallel stripes on the back. By these stripes you can determine that this is exactly the type of cockroach in front of you.

Red cockroaches living in an apartment can reach up to one and a half centimeters in length, have 6 legs and quite long (relative to the body) mustaches. The red cockroach also has wings, but rarely uses them. You've probably never seen a cockroach flying around your house. The wings are translucent, located under thick wing covers and are not always visible to the naked eye.

On each of the six paws of the Prussian there are special suction cups, inherited by the insect from nature (in other words, special chitinous spines). With their help, a cockroach can move on surfaces made of various materials and in different planes (horizontal and vertical). This insect can even crawl on the ceiling! Also, the legs of the red cockroach are ideal for quickly moving through space by running.

Appearance Features

Common red cockroaches are similar in structure to other species of their large family. The body has a head, chest, and abdomen. The size of cockroaches is not impressive. An adult reaches only 1.5 cm. Males are even smaller. For comparison, their close relatives black cockroaches grow up to 5 cm. A cockroach weighs several grams.

Prussians

The structure of the red cockroach is somewhat different between males and females. The male has an elongated narrow belly, while the female has a more massive and wide belly. The ends of the last two segments are dark in color. Pregnant females also have a special ootheca where the eggs are located.

There are wings on the back, but red cockroaches rarely use them and cannot fly. They can glide from a height in case of danger or rise a short distance during the mating season. But the red cockroach runs extremely fast. Moves freely on a horizontal surface with its head down. All this thanks to the suction cups on the tips of the paws.

Interesting!
The mouthparts are gnawing with many hard chitinous processes. The domestic cockroach is capable of chewing any hard products - soap, leather bindings, wood, cardboard.

There are long mustaches on the head. They serve as a kind of antenna that allows insects to navigate in space, find food, communicate with relatives, and find a mate for fertilization. The sense of smell plays an important role in the life of red cockroaches. Having lost its antennae, the insect dies from helplessness.

Lifestyle of a red cockroach. What does he eat?

The red cockroach is characterized by a predominantly nocturnal lifestyle, since it does not like daylight and the danger posed by humans. At the beginning of the article, we indicated that a dark corner for life, hidden from human eyes and daylight or artificial light, is important for cockroaches. Therefore, if you suspect that there are cockroaches in the apartment, first of all check the cabinets in the kitchen, the place under the bathroom and next to the sinks (the presence of water in the habitat is also important for cockroaches) and the furniture inside. If you notice at least one cockroach, we recommend that you immediately start fighting the insect, because it is unlikely that there is really only one (the rest may be at an early stage of development and hide well).

What does a Prussian eat?

We can say that the red cockroach eats absolutely everything! Of course, if there is an abundance, he will choose something sweet, starchy and carbohydrate, i.e. will begin to eat the remains of human food and supplies. But in times of hunger, cockroaches can eat glue, hair, rotting wood, soap, paper, and leather goods found in the apartment.

Control measures

Protecting premises from cockroaches is a matter of paramount importance. People try every possible means. During the years of this war, the Prussians acquired good immunity to classical insecticides and many pesticides.

Hydroprene and methoprene are more effective drugs. They delay development and molting.

This species is not in danger of extinction, despite the active fight against it. Moreover, in a certain region at one time you may not find any individuals at all, or vice versa, there are so many of them that they will wander around during the day due to lack of food.

Ideal conditions for the life of a cockroach.

So, in what conditions does the red cockroach live most comfortably?

If you rarely empty your trash can and it doesn't have a sealed lid, you're giving cockroaches unlimited access to food. We advise you to either take out the trash as often as possible, or buy a sealed bucket that makes it difficult for insects to get to the waste.
Wash dishes and wipe up crumbs from the table immediately after eating. This way you can also reduce the amount of food available to the cockroach.
Clean with a vacuum cleaner as often as possible. This way you can remove all possible sources of food from the floor.
If you have a pet and its food dishes are always full, then this may also attract the Prussian.
Cockroaches need water. The source of water may be, for example, from leaking pipes. If you cannot cope with cockroaches at home for a long time, then you should pay attention to this aspect.

In general, the ideal conditions for a red cockroach to live in an apartment are quite simple: the presence of secluded corners where offspring can be raised without fear, access to food and water, and a minimum amount of light.

Cockroaches are very tenacious and quickly adapt to almost any conditions, and can also develop immunity to the means that people use to poison insects. All these factors together can delay pest control for many months.

Prusak, let us remind you, is incredibly common. Why? Because, among other things, it also reproduces extremely quickly. Further in this article we will talk about how long the redhead lives and how this insect reproduces.

How long does a red cockroach live and how does it reproduce?

We all know the Prussian, and even if we haven’t seen it in person, we definitely saw the red cockroach in the photo.

But do most people know how long this harmful insect lives and how it reproduces?

On average, the life cycle of a red cockroach is from 9 to 17 months; most often, the cause of death of a cockroach is their deliberate extermination by people or insufficient nutrition. An adult cockroach can live without food for up to three weeks, and without water for about a week and a half. If, after this period, food has not been found, the individual dies. It is noteworthy that the larvae (also called nymphs) of cockroaches can live without water and food somewhat longer than an adult Prussian.

Now let's talk about how red cockroaches reproduce.

A special oval-flat egg in which the larvae develop is called an ooteca in cockroaches. From one such ootheca can produce from 20 to 60 larvae, many of which will later turn into adult cockroaches that are capable of giving birth to new individuals. During her short life, under good external conditions, an adult female cockroach lays from 3 to 6 oothecae. Cockroaches really multiply at an incredible rate!

The ootheca is carried by the female cockroach and is located in the back of her body. At some point, the female “sheds” the ootheca (the female carries the ootheca on herself for about 40 days). Within a couple of days, larvae hatch from it, similar in appearance to adult Prussians reduced in size several times. The female leaves the ooteca in moist, warm, secluded places in the apartment to ensure safe maturation for future offspring. For some time after leaving the ootheca, the larvae of cockroaches remain in the place where the ootheca was, as if getting accustomed to the world. By the way, at first they feed on the ootheca, or rather on what is left of it.

The development of a red cockroach from an egg that the female carries on her body to an adult takes about 130 days.

Next, let's talk about where cockroaches can come into your apartment.

Insect feeding

Omnivorous cockroaches
Cockroaches are very voracious insects and have a variety of food preferences . They eat black bread, boiled potatoes, carrots, sugar beets, syrups, flour products, grains, leather, leather bindings, cotton wool, silk, wool, paper, glue, carcasses of animals and insects, feces, oil and other fats.

They chew solid food with powerful mouthparts and dissolve it with saliva. Cockroaches are not sensitive to the lack of food; adults can fast for 30-40 days , larvae for 9-22 days. But they are highly dependent on liquids and cannot live for long without drinking . This is important to consider when organizing pest control activities. Otherwise, the success of processing may be reduced to zero. You can read about other reasons for the reappearance of pests in the article “Why do they appear again after baiting cockroaches and bedbugs?”

How can cockroaches get into your apartment?

Cockroaches migrate from place to place in different ways, below is a list of the most common ways a cockroach can get into your home:

Along with a suitcase or bag from a trip. Cockroaches are often permanent residents of hotels and residential buildings for tourists, so there is always a risk of bringing the Prussians with you along with good memories of your vacation. We recommend that you carefully check your luggage after travel and wash items from it at high temperatures.
If there are already cockroaches in your house, then rest assured: very soon they will crawl to you. It's just a matter of time. Cockroaches crawl through vents, down drains, through cracks in walls, and through garbage disposals. If cockroaches live with your neighbors, you should talk to them and agree to fight pests together, otherwise red cockroaches will simply migrate from apartment to apartment, but will not completely disappear from the lives of the residents of the house. As we have already said, cockroaches are scary not only for their unpleasant appearance and destruction of food supplies, but also for the diseases they spread.
Cockroaches can be found in a variety of stores: from grocery stores to furniture and clothing stores. It is possible that cockroaches may enter your apartment along with new items or food products.
If you buy any items secondhand, then there is also a high risk of buying this item with a “surprise” inside. We recommend treating purchased items for pests immediately after purchase.
From the guests. You could go on a visit and bring a cockroach on your clothes or in your bag. Children often bring insects with them from kindergartens and schools.

These are not all ways, but the most common. As we can see, it is very easy to get cockroaches; you don’t have to live in unsanitary conditions or forget to remove food from the table. This is why cockroaches are so common in completely different places. These insects quickly adapt to absolutely any living conditions, and the resistance of red cockroaches to poisons is legendary!

Where do the Prussians live?

Likewise, the question is twofold - where do they live in the world in general, and in what places should you look for them in an apartment or in a large house.

In the wild, they live throughout almost the entire tropical and subtropical zone of the world, but in most tropical countries they are replaced by local, indigenous species and do not become the dominant species and do not affect ecosystems. Actually, this is why they are considered to be natives of South Asia - there are most of them in the wild here, and the climate here is most suitable for them.

It is believed that their optimal habitat in the wild is tropical and mountain forests. But in fact, today the best place for them to live is the kitchen in a residential apartment. There are many more locusts in kitchens around the world than in the leaf litter of tropical forests. That is, red cockroaches are truly domestic insects, no matter how much people would like them to be.

Geographically, red cockroaches are distributed almost throughout the world. They are not found only in Antarctica. They were found in residential buildings and businesses even in Alert - this is the northernmost populated area in the world in the north of Canada, in Nunavut, there are only military personnel and scientists permanently there, who take turns and there is no permanent population living there. In addition to cockroaches, they live there at the military and meteorological stations. From there, by the way, it is 837 km to the North Pole; there is no summer there and 10 months of the year there is winter.

Likewise, red cockroaches are found in the southernmost villages of Patagonia, from where further south is only Antarctica. That is, in fact, they are cosmopolitan and live all over the world.

What is incomplete metamorphosis of an insect?

Metamorphosis or partial metamorphosis of an insect is a biological process and type of development of baby insects.

Red cockroaches are insects of incomplete metamorphosis. After the larva of this insect emerges from the ooteca, it looks like a smaller adult. In addition to its size, the larva differs from an adult cockroach in that it does not yet have wings. The larvae develop and grow, molt, and after a certain number of molts they begin to develop wings.

Such development, when an insect does not go through the various stages of development of the baby, is called incomplete metamorphosis of insects. From its very birth, an insect of incomplete transformation is mobile, active and leads a full life. This makes cockroach larvae less vulnerable and promotes their rapid reproduction.

For what reasons do they appear?

The Prussian cockroach chooses human housing for habitat and population growth, since this insect cannot exist under conditions where the temperature is less than five and more than twenty-five degrees.

The main reasons for the rapid spread of parasites in an apartment are: the presence of a large amount of food debris and moisture. Accordingly, in order to somewhat reduce the growth of the colony, it is necessary to maintain the cleanliness of the home.

How to effectively get rid of cockroaches in an apartment?

The question of how to get rid of cockroaches in an apartment is asked by many who have encountered the problem of this insect appearing in their living space.

In this article we will talk about various methods of dealing with red cockroaches. Let's start with preventive measures that can help prevent the appearance and spread of cockroaches.

Preventive measures to combat such unpleasant insects as cockroaches include the following measures:

The first step is to fix all leaks and problems with pipes and sinks. This will cut off the cockroaches’ access to water, which will make their life much more difficult.
Wipe down areas where moisture may accumulate at night. These places include sinks, bathroom floors, and the floor near doors (in winter).
Water indoor plants only in the morning or during the day so that the maximum moisture is absorbed before dark (after all, cockroaches are active at night and are afraid of daylight).
Carefully inspect all purchases and check suitcases after travel.
Do not leave food out in the open at night.

By observing these precautions, you can not only prevent the appearance of cockroaches in your apartment, but also prevent comfortable conditions for the existence and reproduction of adult individuals with wings that have already settled.

Harm caused

Food spoilage is not so bad compared to other possible problems. Cockroaches are one of the ways to spread diseases. Mostly common diseases belong to the group of gastrointestinal infections:

dysentery;
gastroenteritis;
infectious diarrhea;
salmonellosis.

Diseases
and other similar infections. Insects spread them mechanically.

Prussians come into contact with waste in trash cans, sewer pipes and dirt accumulated in cracks. After this, the insects go off to feed on fresh food, leaving bacteria on the surface of human food.

If there are a large number of pests in the room, their decaying chitinous shells can cause allergies.

What other ways to get rid of cockroaches are there?

In this article we will look at many types of cockroach control:

Fighting cockroaches using folk remedies;
Fighting cockroaches using chemicals (on your own);
Fight against insects using ultrasonic repellers.
Destruction of cockroaches using SES.

Biological progress has allowed cockroaches to adapt to poisons and become resistant to many of them. This fact makes it much more difficult to get rid of the annoying insect.

In addition, cockroaches do not have many natural enemies (animals that eat them). So, cats and rats can feast on the Prussian, but without much enthusiasm. While for a spider they are very tasty prey.

So where to start?

We recommend starting preparatory operations for the fight against cockroaches in your home with a complete thorough spring cleaning. This way you will not only cut off an easy path for cockroaches to food sources, but you will also be able to determine the places where they are most concentrated.

Finding out exactly where insects live in the apartment is very useful: this way you will

know where to place cockroach traps or leave poison in the future.

I also recommend taking out the trash as often as possible and purchasing a trash can with a tight-fitting lid. This will greatly limit the insect's access to food and make the apartment less attractive to live in.

It is important to do wet cleaning as often as possible and, if possible, wash dishes immediately after eating.

Cockroaches often crawl out of neighboring apartments using ventilation. We recommend placing as fine a mesh as possible on the ventilation openings in order to limit the entry of insects into the apartment in this way as much as possible.

Folk remedies in the fight against cockroaches.

There are a lot of folk remedies against red cockroaches; in this article we will talk about the most popular and effective ones.

Homemade anti-cockroach remedies:

Boric acid bait: mix mashed potatoes, egg yolk and boric acid in a ratio of 1/1. Roll the resulting mixture into balls and place them in areas where cockroaches gather. Killing cockroaches using this method can take a long time, and the bait must be renewed periodically.
Mix water with 9% vinegar and wipe the mixture on surfaces where cockroaches might crawl. Vinegar repels insects.
You can also try repelling cockroaches using essential oils. Thus, cockroaches do not like the smells of citrus fruits, pine, spruce, and tea tree. This method can only repel insects, but does not destroy them.

Folk remedies most often only repel cockroaches, but do not physically destroy them (for example, essential oils and vinegar solution). Boric acid poison bait physically destroys cockroaches, but there is no guarantee that the majority of the individuals living in your apartment will taste this deadly treat. If at least a few cockroaches remain alive, then after a short period of time the cockroaches will multiply and again fill the apartment.

In our opinion, folk methods are excellent as auxiliary measures to eliminate Prussians, but they are weak as a main force. You can read more about folk remedies against cockroaches here.

Why are cockroaches called Prussians?

Prusak is
a very common name for the red cockroach in Russia; we often used it throughout the article and are sure that you have also heard it more than once. But why are they called that? Let's try to figure it out.

Red cockroaches are so common that you might think that they have always lived in Russia, but this is not so. And it is precisely in the fact that this insect has not always lived in our country that the meaning of the name “Prussian” lies. The Prusak appeared in Russia in the 18th century, after the wars with Frederick. It was believed that along with the victory, the soldiers also brought home “trophy gifts.” As we remember, cockroaches can be “brought” in folds of clothing, bags, and luggage.

It is unclear to what extent the appearance of cockroaches in Russia is really connected with that war, but the nickname “Prusak” has firmly stuck with them and is used to this day. Here's a little historical background.

As we said at the very beginning of the article, there is a wide variety of different types of cockroaches, but the red ones are most often found in human homes. In second place in terms of distribution are black cockroaches.

More information about the black cockroach can be found here.

origin of name

The homeland of the Prussians is the warm countries of Central Asia. There they live freely on the street and do not particularly need human housing. Cockroach in Latin Blatta means arthropod insect. There is no exact data on where the Russian name came from. Experts noticed a similarity with the Chuvash word tar-aqan, which means “running away.”

During the existence of cockroaches in our country, many nicknames were invented, not the most pleasant ones - Prusak, Felix, Stasik, Tanchik, Tram, Red, Barbel.

What is the relationship between black and red cockroaches?

Black and red cockroaches

- these are competitors who do not get along with each other. For some time (quite a short time) they can coexist in the same living space, but soon one species begins to dominate the other. Usually the red cockroach wins. Why is this happening?

Despite the fact that black cockroaches are larger and stronger than Prussians, they show much less care for their offspring. The red cockroach lays its ootheca only in a well-protected, secluded place, giving the larvae a chance to grow up safely. Black cockroaches can leave the ootheca in a visible place, where it can be noticed not only by humans, but also by red cockroaches that eat the ootheca of their fellow cockroaches. It turns out that the red cockroach literally evicts the black one from its territory by reducing its population.

Now let’s return to the methods of eliminating cockroaches and talk about how to get rid of them yourself using chemicals.

Chemicals for self-control of cockroaches.

We learned about whether red cockroaches fly, what this insect looks like and the reasons for the appearance of a red cockroach in your apartment. Now we’ll tell you how to get rid of cockroaches yourself using chemicals. Such products are available for purchase at any hardware or country store.

Anti-cockroach products are sold in completely different forms:

Gels and paste-like products that are convenient to apply to baseboards. They are good because they do not have a strong unpleasant odor and a person can be in the room while it is in effect. The cockroach not only poisons itself with the active substance, but also carries it on its legs to the nest, thereby enhancing the effect of the product. In order not to spoil interior items with gels and pastes, it is recommended to apply them with dotted lines on pieces of paper and place them in places where cockroaches accumulate.
Aerosols and sprays that can penetrate between various crevices. they have one significant drawback: such products are unsafe for humans and animals, they require isolation of residents from the premises being treated, and after using aerosols and sprays, it is recommended to do a thorough cleaning. After treating premises with this type of product, long ventilation is required.
Traps containing poisoned bait. They are convenient because they have an adhesive base and are attached to various surfaces.
Crayons, which can also be used to cover any surface. They are ineffective and have a pronounced effect only if the population of cockroaches in your apartment is extremely small or if it is just a couple of “random” individuals that have not had time to reproduce. You must be sure when and where the insects were brought into the house and that there really are still very few of them.
Liquid anti-cockroach products. They are not always on sale in regular hardware stores, but they can easily be ordered online. These products are quite concentrated and close to professional preparations; they should be treated with caution and the instructions on the packaging should be followed very carefully.

Most often, different types of poisons are combined with each other, this helps to achieve the best results. But the knowledge of an ordinary person is not always enough to completely defeat cockroaches. If all the tried methods do not work, then you should contact professionals at the SES.

They use professional products that are not commercially available for self-use and accurately calculate the required dosage of the substance. In addition, in their work, sanitary services use special devices that facilitate the spraying of drugs.

Most often, professional treatment of a room from cockroaches is carried out using the cold fog method using a special device - a fog generator. The smallest droplets of the product sprayed by this method penetrate even the most inaccessible places!

Features of character and lifestyle

Photo: Red cockroach, aka Prusak

Prussians belong to the so-called “synanthropic organisms”, which in life are closely connected with human society and live almost exclusively in the anthropogenic environment, in human dwellings. Their resettlement to new territories also occurs with the help of humans - cockroaches travel with our things and food in the holds of ships, on trains, vehicles and airplanes.

Having settled in the house, the adults and their growing nymphs go out at night to plunder. Although in the dark they are attracted to light surfaces, turning on the light causes the Prussians to instantly flee. This species itself does not make sounds, but the characteristic rustling of wings and legs that a fleeing flock makes is familiar to anyone who has had the misfortune of living in the same apartment with them.

Cockroaches act very harmoniously, since certain relationships are established between members of the cockroach community that has occupied one room. They use odorous substances called pheromones to signal the presence of shelter, food or danger, to transmit sexual signals. These pheromones are released in feces, and running insects leave here and there information trails along which their fellows gather for food, water, or find a partner for mating.

Interesting fact: Scientists conducted an experiment to find out where the pheromones that bring cockroaches together are produced and contained. A group of Prussians were poisoned by intestinal microorganisms and it turned out that their droppings no longer attracted other individuals. After feeding bacteria isolated from the feces of untreated cockroaches, their excretions became attractive again. It turned out that these bacteria are responsible for the synthesis of 12 fatty acids, which, evaporating in the air, serve as a signal for general collection.

Ultrasonic repellers against cockroaches.

How to remove cockroaches using ultrasonic repellers? Ultrasound repels insects from the room, because living in this place becomes extremely uncomfortable for them.

Calculator

Chemicals

Among the popular remedies for red cockroaches are insecticidal compositions: gels, pastes, sprays and crayons. The components they contain affect the nervous and respiratory systems. Because of this, paralysis occurs and then death.

Many companies make such chemicals, so choosing a gel or aerosol is not difficult. But over time, resistance to pesticides develops. Therefore, the effectiveness is reduced.

The use of aerosols in apartments is unprofitable because it emits an unpleasant odor that takes a long time to dissipate. The treatment is carried out in protective clothing and a respirator, since the composition contains harmful components.