Whenever a spill occurs, keep things in order (reminder for children) and store food in sealed containers.

As with all pest control, be sure to take out the garbage regularly and if you have compost containers, be aware of any unwanted visitors who come to enjoy the feast. For those with pets, cleaning your friend’s food container every night will help prevent them from sharing their dinner with crawling bugs, and be aware of what they play with on the kitchen floor. The best remedy for a problem is always to go to the source, in this case, the cockroach nest. So put on your detective hat and follow the trail of any cockroach you find. They tend to congregate in cracks in walls, skirting boards or inside pantries, as well as under mobile appliances. Cardboard boxes are also responsible for bringing cockroaches into the house without us realizing it, especially if they have been stored in garages or sheds. It is advisable to place some bait as soon as possible in case you cannot transfer all the contents to plastic boxes.

The first step in insect control is to know what type of pest you are dealing with. Each species of domestic cockroach prefers a different area in a residence, so identifying the type of cockroach is important for better control. A cockroach infestation has individuals of different sizes, including adult cockroaches with wings (usually) that reproduce and immature cockroaches without wings. Immature and adult cockroaches, unlike other insects, such as butterflies, live in the same habitat and eat the same foods.

Immature cockroaches, known as nymphs, are smaller than adults, and the young emerge from capsules deposited by the adult female. As the nymph grows, it sheds its “skin” or exoskeleton so it can grow larger. Each nymphal stage is larger than the previous one, and an adult emerges after the last nymphal stage. Life cycle (egg, nymph, and adult) of the German cockroach. The German cockroach has at least six. Each species of cockroach has a unique number of immature stages.

All stages can be identified, but the characteristics of the adults are larger and more distinct, so let’s focus on identifying the adults.

Head: In the head, cockroaches have mouthparts that are used for chewing or scraping food that is too large for the cockroach to swallow whole. Cockroaches have a pair of compound eyes, but have poor vision except that they can easily distinguish between light and dark. You have probably noticed that these pests are nocturnal (active at night and hidden during the day) because they are repelled by light. The other structure in the head is a pair of long, well-developed antennae, their sensory organs that they use to detect odors and vibrations in the air. Inside the head, they have a small brain that coordinates the varied functions of the body.

Thorax: In the thorax, all cockroaches have three pairs of legs. Adults in most domestic species have two pairs of wings, although one species, the oriental cockroach, has poorly developed wings in both sexes. Even winged species are bad at flying, but have excellent running skills. Many species of cockroaches can defy the law of gravity and cross walls or ceilings.

They have a large structure on the thorax in the shape of a plate, just behind the head. This structure, the pronotum, has color patterns that distinguish some species of cockroaches, so it is an anatomical feature.Abdomen. The cockroach’s abdomen houses the reproductive system. The eggs are enclosed in a hard capsule that protects them from drying out. The female of one species, the German cockroach, carries the capsule with her until the eggs are almost ready to hatch. See Table 1 to find out where the eggs of each species can commonly be found. Cockroaches do not exhibit paternal care and can be cannibalistic, as they eat their offspring if there is no food available. They also eat injured and dead cockroaches.

Abdomen: At the end of the abdomen, there is a pair of cerci, which are projections that serve as sensory organs. The cerci function similarly to antennae, detecting vibrations through the air or ground. The cerci are directly connected to the cockroach’s legs by ganglia in the abdominal nerves (like a second brain), which is an important adaptation for survival. When the cockroach “feels” a presence with its cerci, its legs start running even before the brain receives a signal. Once a cockroach starts running, you have to be pretty quick to catch it.