Which cockroach species is haunting your home?

Are you ever wondering about where cockroaches live or hiding spots? Cockroach are nocturnal pest, thus they live and hide out in a dark and moist areas with plenty of hiding spots during the day and silently comes out to feed at night.

Cockroach infestation is known to be associated with pest of poor hygiene and may be challenging to eliminate once there is an infestation found in homes, offices or workplaces. Moreover, cockroach is omnivore pest that will feed on any organic material and decaying material in order to survive. Even more surprisingly, cockroach is still able to live without consuming any food for weeks!

Among many cockroach species, there are 2 most common species of cockroaches found in most homes and environment in Indonesia, namely American cockroach and German cockroach. What is the difference? How do I know if my home is infested by American or German cockroach?

American Cockroach

• Appearance: Adult American cockroach is a shiny cockroach with reddish-brown color, with a yellow outline color behind their head. Length size is approximately 35 – 40 mm
• Reproduction: On average, female American cockroach are able to produces 10 – 90 oothecae and each oothecae contain 14 up to 28 eggs
• Hiding spots: This type of cockroach species is mostly found in the home and prefer to hide in the warm and humid areas such as bathroom, drain and sewers

German Cockroach

• Appearance: German cockroach is the smallest species of cockroach that depicted with a wide and flat body, typically 10 to 15 mm long
• Reproduction: On average, female German cockroach usually produces 4 – 9 oothecae or cockroach egg case during her lifetime and each oothecae contain 37 to 44 eggs
• Hiding spots: This type of cockroach species mostly invades in food preparation environment. German cockroach commonly hides in cracks and crevices of moist and warm areas with narrow openings, such as refrigerators and stove, under the sinks and hinges of cabinets.

By noticing the specific cockroach biology and usual habit, you will be able to identify the different species of cockroach and their hiding spots. You can act quickly in preventing the spread of cockroach infestation by implementing a diligent housekeeping and establishing proper control in place.

Experienced professional pest control will not only assist you with providing responsive cockroach control measures for your home or business premises, but also to educate necessary checklist to help keep cockroach problem under control.

Contact Rentokil for integrated pest management solution at 150808 or send us an email to [email protected].