Where do cockroaches usually hide in an apartment and can they crawl out of the sewer?

Next you will learn:

1. Where cockroaches usually hide in an apartment and what you need to know about their "nests";
2. Are there so-called sewer cockroaches and what to do if they suddenly appeared in the entrance of the house;
3. Where cockroaches can live in the kitchen and how to remove these insects from microwaves and other household appliances;
4. What to do if cockroaches climb from neighbors;
5. Are there mutant cockroaches in the home?

…and other interesting points.

Imagine a typical situation: you are sure that your apartment is in full order, cleanliness and comfort are maintained. And do not even imagine that cockroaches are already hiding somewhere in this very cleanliness - the fiends of garbage and unsanitary conditions.

But then one night you find such a pest on the kitchen table, in a bathtub cleaned to a shine, or just on the floor in the hallway. Usually, at the same time, residents are puzzled by the question: how is it, where did the cockroaches suddenly come from, because the apartment is almost perfectly clean! And if this runaway cockroach is not the only one, then where are the rest hiding? ..

Let us immediately reassure you: this situation is quite typical, and thousands of people in various parts of our country are puzzled by similar questions. For some of them, the apartment does not at all resemble the standard of cleanliness, while for someone it is quite suitable for a photo shoot in a fashion magazine, however, cockroaches appear here and there, scare the owners with themselves and, most importantly, worsen the general sanitary situation in the house (because they are potential carriers of pathogens).

The less often the apartment is cleaned and the more food waste accumulates in it, the easier it is for cockroaches to survive. However, these insects are also able to populate well-cleaned premises: the main thing here is that they maintain the conditions necessary for cockroaches to live. And given that there are not many such conditions, almost everyone can expect to meet pests in their home.

All cockroaches need is:

• water - in the sink, toilet, bathtub, glass on the table or even its remains in a flower pot. Having access to water sources is the main condition for the survival of cockroaches in an apartment. (and this is often used in practice to get rid of pests);
• any foodstuffs within easy reach, such as breadcrumbs, fruits and vegetables, groceries, burnt-on pieces of food on the stove or in the microwave. Cockroaches will not disdain wallpaper glue, splashes of oil behind the stove and even soap;
• the temperature in the apartment is above 15 ° C all year round - cockroaches do not live in colder rooms;
• the presence of secluded places where you can hide and wait out the daylight hours - for example, these can be spaces under cabinets, bedside tables and other furniture, closets with randomly piled things, the back of the stove and refrigerator. Cockroaches also like to hide in various household appliances (we will talk about this in more detail below).

In practice, the situation is often as follows: cockroaches can find food and shelter almost anywhere, and the availability of accessible sources of water becomes a critical factor in their survival.

It is interesting

Experiments show that the glue on a postage stamp is enough for a cockroach to eat for about one month. Be sure: in your house, such a mustachioed neighbor will find something to profit from.

At the same time, with an acute shortage of water, cockroaches can make up for its lack with the help of a person - there are cases when these insects gnawed the wet epithelium from the lips of sleeping people. Young children are especially vulnerable in this respect.

Another risk factor for the sudden appearance of pests in an apartment is the ability of cockroaches to easily enter the premises, for example, from neighbors. From places where they breed in large numbers, some individuals sooner or later "resettle" due to the growing overpopulation in the population.

Where cockroach scouts find suitable conditions, insects "take root" and actively multiply, colonizing a room that was previously uninhabited by them. Especially known for this are the so-called sewer cockroaches, which in the warm season crawl out of the sewers not only in apartments and houses, but sometimes even just along the streets of cities.

If there is such a nursery near an apartment or house where cockroaches hide in abundance, then getting rid of them in a single room can be very problematic: here you need to either securely isolate the room (which is usually not possible in practice), or fully armed to meet scouts, fighting them on your own, or contact the appropriate authorities and complain about the insect breeding center near you.

Remember: cockroaches in the entrance are the main candidates for the speedy settlement of your apartment. If you simply take their presence on the stairwell or near the garbage chute as a matter of course, do not go anywhere and do not fight on your own, then with a high probability you can expect that most apartments in a multi-storey building will soon be infected and will simply become breeding grounds for new hordes of cockroaches.

The photo below shows cockroaches on the wall in the entrance of a multi-storey building:

On a note

Each district of large cities of our country has its own district SES.If cockroaches climb from neighbors or from the entrance, then first of all you need to call the SES. And they will already tell you what to do next: wait for the inspector, call private services, or get rid of it on your own.

Keep in mind that the Sanitary and Epidemiological Station is a state structure, and while its partly bureaucratic mechanism is cranked out, it is easier to call a private pest control service, or still agree with your neighbors and poison the cockroaches on your own.

 

Optimal hiding places for cockroaches in an apartment

If you are serious about getting cockroaches out of your home, it is very helpful to have an idea of ​​where these insects usually hide.

So, where do cockroaches most often hide in an apartment? As a rule, these are secluded places located near a source of water and food, for example:

1. cabinet under the sink;
2. section of pipe from the top drain hole in the sink to the siphon;
3. secluded places next to the trash can;
4. gaps behind kitchen furniture;
5. space under the bathroom;
6. cupboards in the closet;
7. refrigerator heat exchanger (usually located at the back and at the top of the case);
8. back side of the stove;
9. household appliances (microwave, TV in the kitchen, computer, etc.).

And further: Good old Karbofos poisons cockroaches with a bang - watch our video ...

Insects usually breed in the largest numbers behind kitchen furniture and large household appliances (refrigerator, dishwasher, stove), since no one bothers them here, and it’s “just a stone’s throw” before the sink with water and the bin with food.The abundance of food, access to water, and the heat generated by technology form an ideal habitat for cockroaches in such places.

For example, sometimes residents are horrified when, during pest control work (or just during repairs), furniture is moved and literally hundreds of fattened cockroaches and their larvae are found just behind the furniture. In some apartments, insects, for example, behind the refrigerator, are able to form an almost continuous swarming "carpet". Here, on the floor, there are an abundance of chitinous covers of cockroaches remaining after molting, dry shells of cockroach eggs (ootek) and black dots of excrement.

Examples of such shelters are shown in the photographs below:

Meanwhile, when planning to remove cockroaches, you need to remember that they only come to the watering place in those places where there is water available to them - in sinks and bathtubs. This means that it is better to place traps and poisons here, and not just somewhere near the refrigerator or stove.

On a note

Actually, cockroaches do not have a nest - they simply gather in the most secluded places, sometimes forming significant clusters. Therefore, sometimes it may seem that such a cluster of them, which usually looks like a rather dirty and very unsightly place, is a real nest. However, strictly speaking, this is not a nest, since cockroaches have no organization.

However, this does not mean that it is not worth looking for a “cockroach nest”: if you find the main places of accumulation of these pests, then it can be much easier to deal with them.

The photo shows what a large cluster of cockroaches looks like in an apartment:

In some cases, the apartment of less prosperous neighbors can become the main source of cockroach infestation in your clean and well-kept home. Usually, it is the houses of alcoholics that have not been cleaned for years or, no matter how bitter it is to realize, the apartments of lonely and infirm elderly people who are no longer able to maintain cleanliness and order, are real farms for growing these insects.

It is from here, from the neighbors, that cockroaches sometimes climb in whole hordes into the nearest apartments, eventually settling on all floors. Therefore, if you do not want to meet insects in your room, then conduct explanatory conversations and educational work with your neighbors, and if necessary, involve SES. Remember: if you don’t complain anywhere and don’t take action, then you will be provided with cockroaches for many years to come.

It is interesting

The main habitat of cockroaches in nature is leaf litter in tropical rainforests. Here, insects swarm sometimes in huge numbers in close proximity to the main source of food - rotting vegetation and falling fruits.

In higher latitudes, cockroaches also live in forests, but here their habitat is replaced by meadows and ruins of stones, and in South Africa - mountain slopes. In any case, cockroaches come from places with an abundance of vegetation and frequent rainfall, which is why they are so dependent on water.

 

Unusual hiding places

Do not forget that in addition to the "standard" shelters, cockroaches can sometimes also hide in the most unexpected places:

1. Microwave. Cockroaches here are mainly in search of food that has fallen or splashed from dishes and subsequently burnt.Insects usually get here through the unit with the electronics of the device.
2. Fridge. As a rule, cockroaches accumulate in the warmest place of the refrigerator - at the back (its heat exchanger is heated to high temperatures due to the heat taken from the internal chambers). Insects usually get into the refrigerated chambers by accident along with food - salads, vegetables, bananas.
3. Dishwasher. Cockroaches are looking for water here, but they can no longer get out on their own. Sometimes they get here with the dishes on which they fed on the remnants of food.
4. System blocks of computers and laptops. The transfer of such a device from one apartment to another often causes cockroaches to infect a new room.
5. Toilet bowls - cockroaches inhabit them mainly because of their proximity to water.
6. At the entrance, cockroaches are most numerous in the garbage chute, but sometimes they are also found in elevator shafts and electrical panels.

What to do if cockroaches have chosen one of these (or some even more unusual) places in your apartment? Of course, it is necessary to remove insects from these shelters, but sometimes this also has to be done in different ways.

For example, you can get cockroaches out of the microwave by turning off the device from the network and plugging one of its technological holes at the back with cotton wool moistened with ammonia (a 10% pharmacy solution will do). If some cockroaches hide in the block with electronics, then they will leave the microwave rather quickly from the smell of ammonia. However, you should be prepared that after weathering the ammonia, pests can again climb inside in search of food and shelter.

Do not try to drive cockroaches out of the microwave with the help of powerful insecticides - in this case, it will not take long to poison yourself.

It is interesting

Cockroaches love the smell of wood and stay near wooden objects whenever possible. Therefore, people often report to the SES that they have found a cockroach nest at home in a cage with sawdust where a hamster lives, or in an old plywood mailbox.

Finally, in the southern regions of our country, as well as in Central Asia and Ukraine, cockroaches can live normally in the summer on the streets of cities and even in the fields around villages. Black cockroaches in exceptional cases can even hibernate in nature.

 

Sewer cockroaches: do they exist?

In almost any city, cockroaches inhabit sewer systems. And the reasons for this are quite obvious: there is enough food (do not ask what kind) and water, high humidity and a more or less comfortable temperature for them.

It is not surprising that insects often climb into houses through the sewer system and crawl out through sinks and bathtubs into apartments. And such people from the sewerage clearly do not improve the sanitary situation in the room ...

Sewer cockroaches are no different from "ordinary" apartment cockroaches. In our country, these are ordinary Prussians and black cockroaches; in Europe, American cockroaches are also added to these species.

In an apartment or house, they cannot be distinguished from insects that constantly live behind the nightstand or under the sink. One can only assume that the cockroaches found in the bathroom or toilet could have come from neighbors, or could have recently crawled out of the sewer.

On a note

In many newspaper news from around the world, there are regular reports of invasions of sewer cockroaches in large and seemingly prosperous cities.Naples, Paris, Istanbul, San Francisco, Moscow are faced with such a cockroach epidemic with enviable regularity. There is nothing surprising in this: in some years, the number of cockroaches in the sewers is growing at a particularly rapid pace. In the summer, they crawl out to the surface and look for suitable places to settle. And the townspeople, accustomed to cleanliness, begin to panic and cut off the phones of the Sanitary and Epidemiological Stations.

You can get rid of sewer cockroaches in the same ways that are used to combat any other cockroaches: treating the room with insecticidal preparations, setting traps and poisoned baits, and preventing insects from entering the room. All these actions can be performed either by the apartment owners themselves, or these tasks can be entrusted to professional exterminators.

And further: Cockroaches do not die from aerosols and gels? Perhaps it is worth adopting lethal powders ...

 

Sewer mutant cockroaches - fact or fiction?

But mutant cockroaches, which are fashionable today to talk about on forums or make journal notes, are nothing more than fiction. All currently known reports about mutant cockroaches are easily refuted not even by a specialist biologist, but by a simple enthusiastic young naturalist.

So, for example, reports of the appearance of cockroaches with gills in the basements of houses, which have adapted to the aquatic environment in the sewers, appeared after the discovery of ordinary aquatic swimming beetles in bathrooms by several residents of Ukrainian cities. As they say, fear has big eyes, and people want to become victims of "mutants" without fail.

Here is a photo of a red cockroach:

And here is a photo of a swimming beetle:

On a note

There is nothing surprising in the fact that a cockroach climbs out of the toilet or from the pipe in the bathroom. These insects swim well, and when completely immersed in water, they can survive for a long time. In laboratory experiments, individual red cockroaches came to life after being underwater for an hour, so traveling through the sewers for such a Spartan will not be stressful at all. Therefore, by the way, it is worth remembering that if you flush a cockroach into the toilet, it will simply move down the sewer pipe and almost certainly will not die, but will only find a new habitat for itself with an abundance of food and water.

The situation is similar with white cockroaches, which people always meet in their homes, but which, at the suggestion of the media, began to talk in some places as mutated monsters. A white cockroach is not a mutant, but just a very recently molted individual that has shed its colored chitinous cover and has not yet had time to form a new one (see example in the photo).

In general, talking about mutant cockroaches is not entirely correct: it takes millions of years for the appearance of any serious functional mutation and its fixation in the insect population (especially when it comes to, for example, the development of the aforementioned gills) - this is much more than in this world There is sewerage and water supply. In this regard, it would be very naive to believe that the sewer system in your home is so unique that cockroaches in it are undergoing such major evolutionary changes in just a few years.

However, changes imperceptible to the human eye in the body of cockroaches still gradually occur - for example, under the influence of chemicals.It's no secret that for many years of stubborn struggle between man and this insect, the latter has adapted (some will say - mutated) to survive even when poisoned by some insecticidal agent: that is why the industry offers us more and more new, more advanced drugs.

On a note

By the way, the talk that cockroaches will be the only living creatures that will survive a nuclear war is also naive. This is another myth. Cockroaches are indeed more resistant to short-term exposure to radiation than humans, but prolonged fallout of radiation is just as detrimental to them as to all living things. Cockroaches are no different in their "anti-nuclear" properties from other insects, and in the event of a corresponding cataclysm they will die out at about the same rate as, for example, flies or ants.

 

Cockroaches are not in the apartment: where else can these insects meet in the city

It is logical to assume that if conditions suitable for the life of cockroaches are maintained in some place outside the immediate habitation of a person, then insects will be able to live there as well. Let us recall at least cockroaches in the entrance and in heating mains throughout the city.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, cockroaches in the city hide in a huge number of places.

1. Warehouses for food products and imported products. Here, by the way, among the bunches of bananas and boxes of oranges, you can even meet representatives of exotic species that came to us from across the ocean.
2. Supermarkets and their warehouses. Despite the certificates received from the SES, almost every such room gives shelter to a huge number of cockroaches.And in some places, insects even manage to seep into the trading floors and frighten buyers with their appearance.
3. Underground. Indeed, the climatic conditions here more or less meet the requirements of cockroaches, especially at the stations. In the subway, garbage accumulates in abundance, which can become a food source for picky insects. Not surprisingly, cockroaches in the subway are, in general, not uncommon.
4. Kitchens of restaurants and cafes. Yes, yes, absolute cleanliness in such establishments is observed only in the halls for guests. What happens in the kitchen and who hides there among the pots is hidden behind well-closed doors.
5. Greenhouses in which cockroaches simply bliss in warmth, high humidity and an abundance of normal natural food for them.

This list can be continued for a long time: attics and basements, markets, MAFs, greenhouses, food industry enterprises, canteens of schools and universities - wherever there is food and heat is maintained, sooner or later cockroaches can start. And talk about the fact that cockroaches have left cities lately seems to be as much a myth as the belief that these insects will survive a nuclear winter.

On a note

If you find yourself in Egypt, Jordan or Israel and want to experience the thrill - walk through the backyards in the tourist districts in the early morning, when the owners open cafes and sweep out cockroaches that have been poisoned at night. Here you can meet both marble cockroaches, and American ones, and even rarer ones, and in such quantities that it is just right to ask the question: who eats more in this cafe - tourists or insects ...

So do not be alarmed if you suddenly meet a red-haired mustachioed acquaintance in your favorite supermarket or in a cozy cafe.Even with a careful approach to maintaining order, the owners of the establishment are not always able to prevent insects from entering it.

Ordinary citizens should remember that cockroaches most often get into the house from neighbors or from the entrance, and hide here in the most unexpected places. And if meetings with these pests become too frequent, then you need to contact the pest control services, or start an independent fight.

 

Interesting video: another hot news about “mutant cockroaches”…

 

Sewer cockroaches occupy the first floors of a multi-storey building

 

Destruction of cockroaches with the help of special glue traps