It is unlikely that in our country you can find a person who would never meet a red cockroach. Not necessarily at home, but in schools, shops, canteens, and even just on the street, you can stumble upon a slender mustachioed insect, quite nimble and always trying to hide in a secluded place.
But even despite such frequent meetings, the majority of the population knows amazingly little about the Prussians themselves. And the red cockroach, meanwhile, is a very, very interesting neighbor ...
Description of the Prussians and the structure of their body
Red cockroaches are typical representatives of a large suborder of cockroaches. Their appearance, behavior and biology are in many ways similar to those of most of their relatives, and even those that other enthusiasts proudly and enthusiastically keep at home and carefully court.
Due to its wide distribution, this insect has a lot of different names. Even if you do not remember all the popular nicknames, there are more than 20 common names in different countries.
Bearing the name Prussian in Russia, the red cockroach immediately makes it clear that it is somehow associated with Germany.So it is - the main invasion of cockroaches in Russia coincided with the Napoleonic Wars, and it was believed that it was from Prussia that these insects entered Russia.
In the same place, in Germany, cockroaches are called Russian, suggesting the opposite direction of invasion.
The structure of the red cockroach as a whole is typical for the entire suborder of cockroaches. The photo shows the main parts of the insect's body - the cephalothorax, abdomen, head, of which only the head remains open when viewed from above - everything else is completely covered by wings:
It is interesting
Red cockroaches do not know how to fly, but falling from a height, they actively flap their wings, reducing the speed of the fall and ensuring a normal landing for themselves. And red cockroaches are very resistant to radiation, being the main candidates for survival on the planet in the event of a nuclear war.
A very important organ of a cockroach is the antennae, which are sensitive to odors and allow the insect to communicate with other individuals. The red and mustachioed cockroach constantly cleans this wealth, and with injury and the loss of one antennae, it loses part of the information about the world around it.
Female cockroaches differ from males in a slightly denser physique and short abdomen. In general, they seem somewhat larger and more massive:
It is interesting
The closest relatives of cockroaches, praying mantises and termites, have a lot in common in body structure with ordinary kitchen guests. At the same time, when meeting, the praying mantis will not miss the opportunity to feast on his neighbor on the systematic ladder.
The size of the red cockroach is small - only 1-1.5 cm reaches the body length of an adult insect. Compared to most of its relatives, the red cockroach is considered a small species.
A characteristic feature of the body structure of the Prussians are cerci - small tail-like outgrowths at the end of the body. This is a sign of relative primitiveness, since cerci are found mainly in very ancient insects.
On a note
Prussians should not be confused with American cockroach larvae. Large red cockroaches, occasionally brought to our ports with bananas from tropical countries, in some places in the southern cities even managed to multiply and form stable populations, but at the same time they belong to a completely different species. At the same time, red and long cockroaches need approximately the same conditions and therefore are often found together. In general, brown is the most common color in the entire cockroach suborder, and a red-colored cockroach can belong to almost any species.
The lifestyle of red pests
The Prussians as a whole are quite defenseless against enemies.They can escape from predators only thanks to a fast run, which determines their way of life: during daylight hours, insects hide in various shelters, and actively feed under the cover of night.
In nature, red cockroaches are found in the Middle East and South Asia, although their domestic populations significantly outnumber natural ones. Due to the wide distribution in cities and human dwellings, the red cockroach has become a real cosmopolitan sinanthrope, confidently capturing more and more new territories. In the conditions of cities, towns and villages, he feels even better than in the wild.
For a normal existence and reproduction, the Prussians do not need so much: moderate air temperature (optimally - 20-25 ° C), access to water and food. Red domestic cockroaches die when the temperature drops below -5 ° C, on which the method of getting rid of them by freezing is based.
In general, in the conditions of our country, these insects can only live in rooms heated all year round. Red cockroaches in the apartment settle mainly in kitchens and closets, where they have access to food supplies, food left on the tables and water in the sink.
With a lack of normal food, they are quite capable of eating what is absolutely unsuitable for humans to eat. Glue on a postage stamp is enough for a cockroach for several days, a rotting leaf on a house plant for a week, and flour or sugar accidentally spilled behind a tile is generally a delicacy and a kind of food warehouse for it.
How long red cockroaches live depends to a large extent on the air temperature in their habitats. At a temperature of about 20 ° C, cockroaches live for about a year, taking into account the larval stage, at higher temperatures - a little less.And during this time they manage to leave quite numerous offspring ...
reproduction
Red cockroaches breed quickly, faster than black ones, and even more so - decorative Madagascar ones. They belong to insects with incomplete metamorphosis, and from the eggs of the Prussians come out miniature copies of adults, differing only in the absence of wings. This stage is called the nymph and corresponds to the larval stage of beetles and butterflies.
Nymphs molt six times in two months of development, growing with each molt, and finally turn into a winged adult insect.
Prussian eggs develop in a kind of packaging - ootheca, which the female wears at the end of the abdomen until the very moment the larvae hatch, about 2-4 weeks.
At the onset of hour X, the female lays ootheca, and 20-25 transparent white larvae emerge from it.
After a few hours, they darken, and on the back of each head two red spots appear - a distinctive feature of the Prussians.
The larvae feed on the same food as adult cockroaches.
And further: Cockroaches do not die from aerosols and gels? Perhaps it is worth adopting lethal powders ...
Each female in her 10-month life manages to endure from four to ten ootheca and, thus, gives life to up to 250 new Prussians. Considering that after two months each nymph also becomes an adult and can begin to breed, by the end of her life, each female can acquire many thousands of offspring.
History of world conquest
The victorious march of red cockroaches around the planet is very interesting.Due to their small size, rapid reproduction, ability to live at moderate temperatures and unpretentiousness in the choice of food, they managed to spread throughout the world in just a few centuries.
The main distributor of cockroaches was and remains a man. It is believed that initially the crusaders or even before them - the Macedonians - brought the Prussians in their bags and carts to European cities. And here, in conditions of terrible unsanitary conditions, cockroaches felt even better than in the wild.
The Prussians ousted their competitors - black cockroaches - quite quickly. Not only do the black comrades do not multiply so quickly, losing ground in the struggle for new places of settlement, but the Prussians themselves are happy to eat ootheca of black cockroaches, which develop unattended for several weeks. As a result, today black cockroaches are found mainly in villages and on agricultural lands.
Not surprisingly, today the Prussians have spread throughout the Americas, Africa, Europe, Australia and Oceania. They manage to live even where other living beings can live only temporarily - on oil platforms, in underground storages and warehouses. But best of all they feel it in the dwelling of a person.
Red cockroaches in the house: habitats and harm to humans
Any place in the apartment, dark enough, warm and calm, can be a hiding place for the Prussians. Ideally, cockroaches find narrow gaps in which they can touch the floor and ceiling with their abdomen and back at the same time.
In this case, the insect will feel completely safe, and a person is unlikely to be able to get it.If a watering hole or food source is “within a stone’s throw”, then such a place can be called a real cockroach paradise.
On a note
The main thing that a cockroach needs in a house is water and a normal temperature. And already they will find food for themselves in any case.
Red cockroaches do not bite: their jaws, in principle, are not capable of biting through human skin (but sometimes they gnaw dead skin particles from sleeping people, especially children). The only trouble that red cockroaches can cause is the spread of bacteria and molds that move on their paws from garbage chutes straight to the dining table.
Prussians can be carriers of diseases such as dysentery, gastroenteritis, tuberculosis and meningitis, and therefore if they were seen indoors, it is better to refrain from eating in it.
But red cockroaches can be useful. A huge number of scientific studies around the world are carried out precisely on the Prussians, as on accessible and fairly versatile insects. Therefore, human civilization partly owes its scientific and technological progress to them, red cockroaches.
An interesting video about cockroaches and methods of self-control with them
An overview of the most effective methods for dealing with cockroaches in an apartment
Thank you.
How scary, my box is all covered with some kind of cockroaches, very small, with wings, brown ...
I no longer know what to do with them and how to deal with them. I don't have the nest, and we can't figure out where it is! 2 times already poisoned, they all crawl out. There is only one option left - move out!
Yes, these bastards lured! Cunning, nimble and very arrogant ...
Buy Dohlox. This is a gel and traps, cockroaches will infect each other.
This is complete horror. Today, there was some small open bag (egg) in the sink, and a bunch of small cockroaches scattered everywhere ...
Damn, I wanted to know how to breed them, where it’s better to keep them so that they don’t run away than to feed them ... I wanted to feed them to my red-eared turtles.