4 Amazing Things You Didn't Know About Cockroaches

Cockroaches are unique creatures. Despite their small size they can cause quite a bit of structural damage to a building structure. It’s an issue that schools, food facilities and hotels constantly have to deal with as part of their facility management program, to not only prevent the bugs from scaring visitors, but from potential building damage. For a food facility it’s an even more serious issue. Cockroaches are reportedly the top pest that results in fines and downgrades from the health department.

Did You Know? 

1. Cockroaches can sense you coming before you see them. A ventral nerve cord transmits signals to nerves controlling leg muscles when a roach senses tiny changes in air currents. Because the roach brain is not needed to make the legs move, this reflex helps roaches evade capture by scurrying away without even thinking about it.
2. That cockroach you spy crawling up the wall looks just like the roaches dinosaurs stepped on eons ago. In fact, cockroaches have survived for over 300 million years, unchanged and hardier than ever.
3. Cockroaches can live without their heads because they breathe through spiracles (little holes) located on their body segments. They can also live up to six weeks without eating due to their cold-blooded physiology. Unless infected by pathogens or mold, a famished roach will sit around and wait for its manna from heaven–which can be anything from the glue on the back of masking tape to organic debris from the bottom of someone’s shoe
4. Within 24 hours of birth, a baby cockroach (about the size of a pinhead) scampers as fast as its parents–nearly three miles an hour! They show speed, stamina and agility.

Commercial building owners can enlist the expert assistance of a professional pest control company like Assured Environments to prevent or eliminate cockroach infestations in their building. Contact us here.