What does a homemade cockroach look like? Photos of various types of domestic cockroaches. How They Reproduce

Cockroaches Prusaks captured and occupied Russia in 1812. The fact that today no house is free from these impudent invaders is due to Napoleon's army. The self-confident emperor, who was trying to enslave Russia, apparently did not even suspect what kind of "biological weapons" his army was equipped with. The soldiers managed to drive out and destroy, but the red-headed cockroaches-Prussians terrorize the entire population of the country to this day.

An article on what a cockroach looks like is divided into sections:

These annoying tenants everywhere lead and feel at home, for which they are called home cockroaches. They easily and quickly master new territories and settle even in the most fashionable houses - after all, there is a kitchen in any place where people live, which means that there is always something for a cockroach to profit from.

External data

What does a cockroach look like in general outline, everyone knows. However, this nimble insect, brown with a red tint, does not strive for a close acquaintance with a person and avoids his close attention. So many details of his appearance are hidden from a casual glance. Meanwhile, it is these details that determine the behavior of the cockroach and its lifestyle.

It is easy to distinguish a rapidly running insect by the features of its appearance:

elongated (10 - 16 mm) oval body from light to dark brown;
three pairs of limbs covered with small spines;
mustache longer than the body.

The structure of the mouth apparatus, like most insects, belongs to the gnawing type with powerful mandibles or mandibles (upper main jaws). The same typical structure and two lower jaws- maxill. They tear and grind a wide variety of food with them.

One of characteristic features Prusaka is his very long mustache. This is a very important organ that plays a huge role in the life of a cockroach. They are for him and a compass, and a means of communication and antennas through which the cockroach receives information about the world around him. The shape of the whiskers is defined as bristle-shaped and they are attached in depressions in the front of the head. In most, they are much longer than the body, both in females and males. Damage or loss of whiskers is an irreparable loss for this insect. With such an injury, he becomes a cripple for life, one might say, a disabled person!

The second significant feature of the cockroach's appearance is the suckers on the tips of its five-segmented legs. It is they who enable the cockroach to walk "upside down", easily move along the vertical walls and ceiling. Also, the legs have sharp spikes on inner surface thighs, on the knees - a thorn that stands out significantly from others large size... There is no such spike on the forelimbs.

And if he, suddenly, happens to fall, then he does not fall to the floor, but smoothly soars in the air and lands softly thanks to his wings. This is the third essential detail of a cockroach's appearance. Its wings are not so strong and developed to fly, but they perfectly play the role of a parachute. The appearance of females and males is not very different, but an attentive observer will notice that the body of males is long and narrow, and the constitution of females does not differ in such gracefulness - they are larger and wider. And this is due to the need to carry a clutch with eggs everywhere. Cockroaches are known to be caring parents.

How cockroaches breed

Cockroaches, like many living creatures, are characterized by mating games. The female ready for mating gives unambiguous signs to the opposite sex. Her flirtatious appeal is expressed in the flapping of her wings. "Inspired" by this news, males arrange whole knightly tournaments and fight with each other for the love and favor of a beautiful lady. Sometimes the courtship process is delayed. The prize, as always, goes to the strongest. Fertilization is carried out using the male genital plate. It is located between the segmented processes (cerci) in the posterior segment of the abdomen. to the strongest.

Reproduction stages

The whole life of cockroaches is subject to the basic instinct - procreation, in which they are very successful. The breeding method is typical for this type of insect and consists of the main stages:

Eggs- after fertilization, the female lays them, carefully “packing” in her body in a dense protective chitinous capsule - ooteca. Each such clutch contains from 15 to 50 eggs. A caring female does not part with the clutch until the cubs are “born”. The “pregnancy” of a female in comfortable conditions lasts only 2 months.
With a lack of food, drink and unfavorable temperature conditions eggs ripen more slowly, and the female has to carry the clutch with her much longer, sometimes up to 6 months. It is noteworthy that her maternal instinct is so strong and developed that, even dying, she first of all rescues the offspring, catapulting the ootheca away from a dangerous place.
Larvae, - which experts call nymphs, hatch from eggs. They are quite independent and viable. Outwardly, the larvae are a copy of adults, only very small in size, about a millimeter, and do not have genitals. Having left the eggs, they immediately go in search of food. In the process of growing up, nymphs molt 5-6 times and after 3-4 months they turn into adult cockroaches, ready for mating and further reproduction. The fact that, after hesitating, and scattering in panic, catches the eye of the owners of the "besieged" housing, for the most part - larvae in different stages molting. As is typical of young animals, they are voracious and not so cautious. Often go out to feed when daylight... Adult and experienced females, about one and a half centimeters long, are more circumspect and secretive.
Mature individuals (imago)- live for about 30 weeks. During this period of time, the female is able to give birth to about 300 offspring without re-mating. These are averages that depend on the living conditions and nutrition of the cockroach. The more favorable the conditions, the more intense the reproduction. Males differ from females in a slightly smaller size, a narrower body and a wedge-shaped edge of the belly, not covered by wings.

To find a partner during mating, adults are equipped with special glands that produce substances that signal their readiness for fertilization. This smell is also intended to scare away enemies, which include humans. Prolonged stay in the same room with cockroaches can provoke allergies in people.

You can influence the reproduction process by creating unfavorable temperature conditions for this. Long-term, for several hours, cooling the room with a temperature below 0 degrees, will even help to completely get rid of a breeding colony. However, more efficient and quick way than the challenge of specialists does not exist.

Cockroach eggs

After mating, which occurs in domestic cockroaches regardless of the seasons, the female lays eggs. This process can be repeated several times, and only in favorable conditions- at the discretion of the female. In her genital chamber, the eggs are covered with a sticky mass, which then forms a reliable egg cocoon.

Structure and development

Not only the female protects the eggs, it seems that nature itself has taken them under its protection. Several reliable shells shelter cockroach eggs from all adversity, and ensure the survival of the offspring. Under the chitinous cover of the protective capsule, the ooteca, in which the eggs ripen, there is also an integumentary membrane. Thanks to this "packaging" poisons do not act on eggs, chemicals, viruses, water. Meanwhile, the air necessary for their development quietly penetrates to the embryos of eggs through the perforation correctly created by nature.

Ooteca, or a cocoon for eggs, looks like an elongated pouch with “cut off” poles, up to 8 millimeters long and about 3 mm thick. The surface of the cocoon is embossed and colored in the same way as the female. Over time, closer to hatching, the walls of the ooteca dry out and become thinner, which makes it easier for the larvae to hatch.
The development of eggs in a cocoon lasts several weeks, depending on the temperature of the room, the amount of food and water available to the female. The eggs themselves are oval or oblong, white in color and arranged in rows in the egg cocoon.

Places for masonry are chosen very carefully and preference is given to:

back walls of furniture;
cracks behind the skirting board;
in the exfoliated places under the wallpaper;
in book bindings;
under the bathtub, washbasin and sink.

In these secluded, warm places, the female leaves an ootheca, where already quite viable nymphs will hatch from her. Some species, for example - black cockroaches, take care of their young after hatching from a cocoon.

Alternatively, after fast-acting sprays or aerosols, immediately apply microencapsulated sustained-release agents. They retain their effectiveness for several weeks, and are able to infect hatched, already defenseless larvae long after treatment.

There are also one-stage means of exterminating cockroaches. Eggs are reliably protected from many adverse conditions, but not all. They cannot survive severe and prolonged frost and physical impact hot steam. The modern equipment of professional exterminators allows you to simulate these factors that are destructive for cockroach eggs, and increases the chances of success!

Cockroaches are a numerous insect suborder numbering several thousand. But the most famous representatives were those that are often found in apartments and houses of a person. In Russia, domestic cockroaches are represented by three types: red, black and furniture. It is they who bring discomfort to people.

Varieties of pests

apartment cockroaches;
other.

All of them belong to Sinanthropus - creatures that fully or partially depend on man and live in close proximity to him. In each country, the types of domestic cockroaches are different. In Asia, it is the Asian representative of cockroaches, in the USA and Europe -. Household cockroaches living in apartments and houses in Russia are also found in the CIS and neighboring countries.

Red cockroach

The most popular representatives of this species of insects live in apartments, private houses, basements. Another name "Prusak" was given to him due to assumptions that Prussia was his homeland. And in European countries it is called the Russian cockroach. The simplest nickname for a red barbel is.

Description of appearance

A photo of a domestic cockroach clearly shows what physiological characteristics it has:

an elongated oval body of a red hue, 15 to 20 mm long;
a small head with a large, long mustache located on it, a powerful jaw;
3 pairs of fast;
a pair of transparent wings, covered with brown rigid elytra.

indoor flowers;
wallpaper, paper;
rubber;
organic waste.

The presence of a constant source of moisture is a prerequisite for a comfortable stay of baleen insects.

Furniture cockroach

The lesser-known brown-striped inhabitant of Russian cities looks the same as the red-headed cousin, which is why there is confusion between them. Widespread in large cities the insect got after the 50s of the last century. The furniture cockroach gets its name from the staple diet of paper and glued coatings in cabinets.

External differences and the habitat of the furniture pest

In morphology, this species of cockroaches is very close to its ginger relative. He has the same proportions and body dimensions. The color of the elytra is lighter brown or reddish, without blotches and spots. The wings themselves are transparent with brown transverse stripes.

Females are colored brighter reddish and have an oval body shape. In males, the body is more elongated. The limbs of both sexes have a light shade.

Cockroaches move briskly, maneuvering between furniture partitions and bookshelves... Their main habitats are:

offices and workplaces;
libraries;
paper archives;
industrial premises;
bookshelves and desks in residential apartments.

Reproduction and nutrition of a brown-striped cockroach

Insects reproduce quickly and can produce large offspring in their lifetime. One female lays up to 18 ootheca in her life, in each of which 10 - 15 eggs are formed. Translucent nymphs without wings are born from the capsule. After several molts, they become full-fledged individuals.

The furniture pest chooses everything that contains paper and starch as food. It can be wallpaper glue, covers of old books, cardboard, dust wooden floors. A prerequisite habitation of brown-striped barbel is the presence of water. They cannot live without it for a long time.

Harm from domestic cockroaches

Cockroaches are different types but they all appear on their body and limbs. Crawling on different surfaces of a residential or office space, they leave behind particles of bacteria that can get into a person's food and cause poisoning.

For many people, the presence of cockroach nests in the room causes a strong allergic reaction. These insects produce a kind of extract that allergy sufferers are sensitive to.

To prevent possible problems with health, you need to fight all household pests available ways: use it yourself or contact sanitary service for .

There are more than 4 thousand species of cockroaches, but only a few of them have adapted to life at home and moved to inhabited dwellings. The most common types of domestic cockroaches are red and black.

What are domestic cockroaches and what do they look like?

Prusak
The most common type of cockroach, in everyday life they are called red cockroaches. It looks like a typical insect 10-15 mm long with developed wings that are larger than the body of the animal. Color - brown-red, with small dark stripes on the body. A feature of the Prusak is a long mustache, with the help of which they orient themselves in space and communicate with other individuals. The red cockroaches are very well developed. oral apparatus and legs that make it possible to move quickly. It is quite difficult to deal with representatives of this species. They live in warm conditions.

Black beetle
They reach from 2 to 5 centimeters in length, have a black or dark gray color with a slight metallic sheen. The wings are larger in males, and in length coincide with the size of the abdomen; in females, they are twice as short. Also, females are much larger in size: they reach 5 cm, while males are 2–3 cm. They live at moderate temperatures and humid conditions.

American cockroach
Outwardly they resemble Prusaks, since they have a similar color: red, brown, reddish-orange. A fairly large insect that reaches 5 cm in length. Females are slightly larger than males. The main distinguishing feature of this species is the pattern on the back: clear horizontal lines of dark brown color.

Madagascar cockroach
These cockroaches differ from their fellows in many ways: they have a large body (up to 9 cm), a large shield on their back and the ability to hiss loudly. Distributed in the forests of the Amazon, they live in the bark of trees. Despite the frightening appearance, they are harmless to humans and rather shy. The Madagascar cockroach enters our latitudes along with exports and parcels from exotic countries. Since the climate does not allow for outdoor living, they live in residential buildings... Destruction is easier due to its size: the Madagascar cockroach is not able to penetrate into thin crevices.

How long do cockroaches live and how do cockroaches breed?

Like most insects, cockroaches reproduce sexually. A fertilized female lays larvae 4 to 6 times during the entire cycle of her existence. Cockroaches breed in any conditions all year round, and their life expectancy: from 3 months to several years.

A cockroach-friendly environment is warm, dark rooms where food and garbage are stored. Most of all, cockroaches love foods rich in carbohydrates:

Sugar and sweets;
Beer;
Bread crumbs, flour products and dry preparations;

Napkins and toilet paper;
Meat;
Glue and wallpaper;
Spoiled and decaying food;
Garments: stockings, socks and underwear;
Books, newspapers and magazines;
Soap.

Insects are omnivorous, and can survive for a long time without food, sometimes they can even reach cannibalism or eat out their comrades, but they are unable to live without water for a long time, therefore, the blocked access to liquid can bring these animals out.

Most often, cockroaches can be found in such places:

Warehouses;
Pantries;
Kitchen and catering;
Grocery stores;
Hospitals.

Cockroaches live and breed in a warm and protected from people and light place, in order to remove them, light the room:

Behind the skirting boards;
Under the refrigerator;
In cupboards in the kitchen;
On the shelves next to the bread bin and cereals;
Under the wallpaper;
In the parquet;
In the closet and under the furniture;
Near the trash;
Under carpets and linoleum.

Advice!If you live in apartment building, put a thin mesh on the ventilation so that cockroaches do not return from neighbors, so you can get them out faster.

Why are domestic cockroaches dangerous?

Regardless of the variety, cockroaches carry such a danger to those who live in an apartment:

They carry dangerous bacteria;
They create unsanitary conditions in the apartment and contaminate food;
Spoil things and food;
I cause allergies;
Have an unaesthetic appearance;
I cause allergies;
Penetrate into close proximity to people.

Destruction of cockroaches at home: how and how much to poison them

The issue of removing unexpected insects should be approached with the utmost seriousness and action should be taken immediately. To deduce them, you need to make their existence as inconvenient as possible:

Ventilate the premises;
Clean up and take out the trash regularly;

Fill up all the small cracks and holes in the apartment;
Treat rooms with ultraviolet light;
Hide food in protected containers;
Always close pots and food bags;
Get geraniums in your apartment - its smell scares away insects;
Fix taps and plumbing;
Close the air vents in the apartment carefully and treat them with boric acid.

At the next stage, you can resort to the conclusion and fight against the appearance of new individuals, as well as begin the destruction of insects.

Dilute the water with a small amount of ammonia and wipe the floor in the apartment and the habitat of the animals.

Cockroaches die at temperatures below +5, so they can be frozen: leave the house for several days in severe frost, without heating it. At low temperatures the death of a cockroach comes instantly.

When physically killing cockroaches, dispose of them immediately as they are extremely resistant to injury.

Place small cardboard houses with a sticky coating, inside which put bait: sweet food or beer.

Set up cockroach traps available at home stores.

Sprinkle water sources for cockroaches with boric acid. Scatter bay leaves and cucumber peels everywhere, this will help to remove pests faster. Make a trap: set in different places in the apartment there are small bottles of beer, and grease the edges of the neck. After a while, the bottle will fill with cockroaches.

Advice! Always wipe the sink dry after use: even a small drop is enough to support the cockroaches and prevent them from getting out.

Homemade cockroach bait recipes

Boil an egg and select the yolk from it. Add to it boric acid and mix thoroughly. Roll balls from the resulting mass and scatter them over all places where cockroaches are. Even if the insect does not eat, but only touches the balls with its antennae, it will die.

Mix flour with brown, sugar and starch. Spread the powder over the surfaces.

Mix the flour with the alabaster and sprinkle over the areas where cockroaches are most likely to appear. After eating the bait, the cockroach will harden from the inside and die.

Take kerosene or turpentine and brush on the foci of the appearance of cockroaches with a brush. Insects cannot stand this smell, so they leave the house without delay.

You can also pickle with mashed potatoes: boil the potatoes and cook the mass by adding a spoonful of borax. This remedy is not only effective, but also safe for the residents of the house.

Grind chamomile flowers into a tablespoon of powder and knead the dough with flour and yolk. Chamomile acts as an immobilizing agent on the cockroach, so you can even pickle with pure powder, or boil a decoction.

The cockroach is an insect. Refers to the superorder of cockroaches. Heat-loving, moisture-loving, very mobile creatures with long whiskers. They are predominantly nocturnal. Various types of cockroaches are found all over the world. In total, more than 7570 varieties are read. On the territory of Russia, they live in human houses, basements, cellars, entrances. Dangerous. Decorative cockroaches are kept as a pet.

General characteristics of the detachment

Cockroaches in lat. Blattoptcra, or Blattodea. They belong to the order of cockroach, cockroach, insect family. Genus - Polyphaga. Species differ in body size, appearance, behavior, but all are the same. What a cockroach looks like:

The body is elongated, oval, flat. Length from 1.7 cm to 10 cm.
The head is cordate or triangular.
gnawing. The jaws are well developed.
Large black.
The anterior dorsum is powerful, large, with transparent wings.
The elytra are hard and dense. In some species, they are shortened or absent altogether.
running, thighs with thorns.
The abdomen is flat, elongated. At the end are the genitals. Have modern species hidden ovipositor. A pregnant female can be recognized by the presence of ooteca - capsules at the end of the body.

Biology

Representatives of cockroaches are thermophilic, moisture-loving creatures. They run fast, intensify their activity with the onset of dusk. During the day they hide under snags, stones, in rodent holes, in the bark of stumps, in an apartment - in cracks, under the floor, furniture. Omnivores feed on animals, plant debris. Some species have developed cannibalism. At home, in the absence of food debris, they can gnaw toilet paper, glue, books, leather bindings.

Interesting!
Hardy insects adapt very well to environmental conditions. Heat-loving species in Russia have learned to live in apartments, people's houses. about a month, without water for 9 days. A week, even continues to bear offspring. The lethal dose of radiation for cockroaches exceeds the human dose by 15 times.

Reproduce different breeds sexual, parthenogenetic way. To begin with, mating is required, the ingress of seminal fluid into the body of the female. After that, she can reproduce offspring all her life without the participation of a male. Embryos develop in an ooteca, which the female of many species sheds before giving birth. Some species of cockroaches are viviparous. One clutch contains from 15 to 60 eggs. During her life, the female bears up to 300 individuals. outwardly similar to adults, but the cover is darker and smaller sizes... The maximum life span of insects is 6 years in artificial conditions, 4 years in the natural environment.

Exotic cockroaches live in the tropics. In our area, red, black cockroaches have spread. Are synanthropic, in wildlife do not live. There are 55 species in the territory of the former Soviet Union.

Exotic cockroaches

The brightest representatives live in the tropics. In our area, they are bred as pets.

Madagascar cockroach

The largest species. The size of the body reaches 10 cm. The creature is non-aggressive, not dangerous. Lives well in artificial conditions. The color is dark brown. The body is divided into segments. Madagascarians are mistakenly called Moroccan cockroaches.

Females are always larger. These are viviparous individuals. The larvae jump out of the mother's body, then she discards the oedema. For some time, a caring mother protects them, feeds them. The Madagascarians do not have such a phenomenon as cannibalism. They live amicably with the whole family. They feed on protein foods, fruits, vegetables, cookies. A close-up photo is presented below.

Few people know what a home cockroach looks like. Each person met them several times in his life, and probably had time to admire their tropical relatives at various exhibitions or in terrariums.

Nevertheless, even famous and popular Prussians should be examined in detail in the photographs, so as not to inadvertently confuse the first conquerors of the apartment with random guests from the street. In addition, it is in the photo that you can see in detail the difference between the types of cockroaches and the stages of their development.

Photo of domestic cockroaches: all types and stages of development

The most common in human housing are three types of cockroaches: red, aka Prusak, black and American. In the tropics, more exotic human friends crawl into houses, but it is difficult to call them synanthropic species.

A synanthropic species of an animal or plant is a species that feels better in a city, village or human habitation than in the wild. Sometimes such species do not occur in nature at all. Examples are house sparrows, rats, bed bugs, pharaoh ants. Do not confuse synanthropic species with species tamed by humans - dogs, cats or pigeons.

It is the cerci that is the most reliable way to distinguish a cockroach from a bug. In the photo of a cockroach during macro photography, the end of its abdomen is visible, and in the photo below, the end of the abdomen of a bed bug:

Black cockroaches differ from red cockroaches in color and size. The Prussians are really small next to the adult black brethren, barely reaching half the length of their body. In the photo, you can estimate the size of the imago of this species:

As you can see from the photo, only the charcoal color is present in the coloration of the black cockroach. The nymphs of this species have brown transverse stripes that outline the abdominal segments. The photo clearly shows the difference in the color of the imago and the larva:

The female black cockroach has very short wings and a wide abdomen. In males, the wings almost cover the entire abdomen. However, they cannot fly, only males are able to jump far and increase the length of the jump by flapping their wings. In the photo on the left is a male, on the right is a female:

On a note

Prusak also does not know how to fly, but if it falls from the ceiling or from a great height, it can flap its wings and control the fall to a certain extent. Among tropical species of cockroaches, there are those that fly very well and can fly at night to the light of lamps.

The American cockroach is less domesticated than the black and red cockroaches. It can live in forests and fields, but getting into the conditions of the city, it easily switches to feeding on human food and actively reproduces.

It was with man and his loads that this species spread throughout the world and is considered today a cosmopolitan. The photo shows the "American" imago, in which the female is only slightly denser than the male:

... and here - nymphs of different ages:

Cockroaches do not have nests, but they prefer to gather in groups in the most comfortable places. Having found such a refuge, a person may mistake it for a cockroach nest or a colony of cockroaches, and even think that in such a colony there is a queen like a bee. This is not so: there is no organization in this settlement.

Video footage with various cockroaches

The photo shows the edema of a black cockroach:

In many tropical species of cockroaches, females not only wear the ooteca until the end of such a peculiar pregnancy, but also protect and care for the nymphs for several days. Their ootheca is usually very soft, white and long.

For example, the photo shows an ooteca:

Unusual cockroaches found in apartments

Of the unusual cockroaches, the attention of a person in the apartment is primarily attracted by white cockroaches. These are not albinos, but simply nymphs who have just become adults.

In the first hours after the shedding of the chitinous cover, they have a soft white body, which gradually hardens and acquires the color characteristic of an adult. During this period, the insect tries to stay in a secluded place, but sometimes it still catches the eye.

Every cockroach is white once in a lifetime. The photo below shows a white Prusak:

In the south of Kazakhstan, in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, a brown and slightly larger Turkmen cockroach can be found in human housing. Terrariumists love him very much because he cannot crawl on glass. In the photo there is a small group of insects:

And the following photo shows ash cockroaches, also called Egyptian:

They are interesting in that they are able, like termites, to feed on wood and paper. They live in the Middle East, North Africa and the Mediterranean.

And of course, one cannot but admire individual tropical cockroaches - the famous Madagascar ones:

... banana, the very ones that fly well:

... and gigantic:

… To make sure that even such seemingly unpleasant neighbors on the planet can be extremely beautiful and interesting.