Most people know how gross Cockroaches are – they look weird, smell funky, and pop out at the worst times. However, cockroaches also pose serious threats to your well being. Let’s go over how to identify these pests and the havoc they can cause in your Wilmington home.

How to Identify Cockroaches

There are several different cockroach species that live in the Wilmington area. While each has slightly different features, they all share the same basic characteristics. Each cockroach has six legs, body-length antennae, and flat, oval-shaped bodies. Some cockroaches have wings, though most do not fly; rather, cockroaches mostly scuttle from place to place. These nocturnal pests scurry from place to place at night, which is why you often don’t see them until dusk or dawn.

Different species of cockroaches vary in size and color. American Cockroaches, the largest of any U.S. species, grow between 1-3 inches in length and have dark reddish-brown bodies. German Cockroaches, the most common roaches, only grow to around half an inch long and have tan-to-brown bodies. Additionally, these roaches have two black stripes on their heads.

Less common but still prominent, Brown-Banded Cockroaches measure around a half an inch long. They have a light-to-medium brown color and distinctive bands running across their wings. Finally, Oriental Cockroaches (also known as water bugs) have black, shiny bodies and grow to between ¾ and 1¼ inches in length.

While other cockroaches exist in North Carolina, these species are most commonly found in homes. No matter the type, cockroaches can wreak havoc on your health. Let’s explain why.

Cockroach Diseases

Cockroaches vector a variety of serious pathogens. This is in part because cockroaches hang out in dirty places. Dumpsters, sewers, and alleyways are all common spaces for roaches because, although these insects exist naturally in the wild, they congregate anywhere that they can consume organic matter –especially if it’s rotting waste.

Roaches can pick up diseases in the process of living in dirty environments. If a roach enters your house, it probably didn’t come from a soap factory, it came from a disease-ridden environment. Common diseases that roaches carry include: salmonella, cholera, dysentery, listeria, giardia, typhoid, and the plague. Name an infectious bacteria, and a roach somewhere probably has it.

Additionally, roaches can make your allergies worse or even give you asthma. Roaches release proteins that some people are sensitive to, especially people with asthma. Long-term exposure to these proteins can result in serious respiratory problems, and these problems persist long after the infestation is over.

Cockroach Prevention Tips

These facts aren’t meant to terrify you, though you should be worried about the presence of cockroaches. The best thing you can do is ward off an infestation before it occurs. Consider the following as part of your cockroach prevention plan:

• Make your house less attractive to roaches. These pests often come into homes because there’s enough trash, compost, or food for them to feast on outside the home. These foragers then move inside when they find your outer walls. So clean up your yard of any organic matter that roaches can gorge themselves on. 

• Check all bags and packages you receive. Some cockroaches like to hitchhike, meaning you can pick one up in your bag, or some stray roaches can scuttle around a package and get in your house. 

• Reduce the humidity. Cockroaches prefer warm, damp spaces that they can hide out in during the day. This includes crawl spaces, basements, bathrooms, and kitchens. Check the humidity in these spaces and use fans and/or dehumidifiers to dry things out. 

• Seal any cracks in your windows, door frames, or home exterior.

Having trouble with cockroaches in your Wilmington home? Don’t waste another second trying to get rid of them on your own – call the experts today at Bug-N-A-Rug Exterminators.