Scientific name: Blatta orientalis
Size: Up to 1 1/2 inches
Range: Prefer warmer climates, worldwide.
Habitat: Oriental roaches are often found with American roaches. They prefer similar habit. In Arizona, Oriental roaches are found outdoors more often than indoors. These roaches typically love to live in the root balls of trees, under big boulders, in cracks and crevices in the soil, and under cement slabs. Oriental roaches will enter homes and business more often than American Roaches.
Life Span: Oriental roaches can live up to eighteen months
Interesting facts:
· Anatomy: Adult Oriental cockroaches are shiny, red or dark brown or black, about 1 to 1-1/4-inch long and have wings incapable of flight. Females are about 1-1/4-inch long, broad and have only little pads for wings. Males are about one inch long, more slender and have wings not reaching the tip of the abdomen. Immature roaches (nymphs) are darker in color than adults, similarly shaped and wingless. Egg cases are dark reddish-brown, one inch long (largest of the common roaches), and appear slightly inflated
· Feeding Behavior: These insects feed on garbage and decaying organic matter.
· Activity Period: Active at night or in dark spaces
· Reproduction: Oriental cockroach females carry the egg capsule 12 hours to 5 days and deposit them in a sheltered location near or within a food supply at a warm, sheltered spot. Females produce 1 to 18 capsules in their lifetime, each containing up to 16 eggs. Eggs hatch in about 60 days and nymphs develop in about one year.
·Control: There are many methods to control these roaches. Eliminating any habitat near the infested structure will often solve a roach problem. Correctly applied applications of pesticide will also control and prevent future infestations.
