Cockroaches are a large order, uniting more than 4,600 species. Most insects are inhabitants of the forest floor. Under natural conditions, they feed on plant debris, animal feces and other available organic matter. Several species chose to live near humans. They find everything they need in their homes. What do cockroaches eat in human homes? Insects are omnivores; they feed on any crumbs and debris. If there is no alternative, they chew soap, hair, leather furniture, and cardboard.
The structure of the oral apparatus
Cockroaches have a gnawing type of mouthparts. It is designed for tearing and grinding hard food. With the help of tactile organs (upper lip and maxillae), the insect finds suitable food. To tear off pieces, the upper jaws (mandibles), consisting of chitinous plates with teeth, are used. It doesn’t matter what cockroaches eat, they grind any food with their jaws and moisten it with their salivary glands. Then the food is pushed down the throat. The digestion process is slow; cockroaches only need one meal per day.
Features of the appearance of larvae
While in the ooteca, the embryos develop and grow. At a certain point, the larva becomes cramped in the egg, it gnaws through the wall and crawls out. For the first few days, hatched cockroaches remain in place and feed on the remains of the ootheca (if there is no more attractive food nearby). At first the nymph has a soft shell, but over time the chitinous cover gains strength.
After the first molt, the nymphs become more active, begin to settle in, and look for food.
With each subsequent molt (most often there are 6 of them), the larvae grow and acquire the features of adult insects. They develop wings, and later reproductive organs. After about 4-5 molts, the larvae look like adult cockroaches.
Nutrition in natural conditions
The majority of insects in natural conditions eat leaf litter and rotten fruits that have fallen to the ground. The percentage of omnivorous cockroaches is smaller. Along with plant foods, they absorb dead animals and small insects. In the ecological system, arthropods play the role of scavengers. They utilize plant debris, carrion, and feces.
The second most common species is the black cockroach. The insects are large, males up to 26 mm, females up to 30 mm. Among adults, sexual dimorphism is pronounced. Males are elongated, brown or red-brown in color. Females are flatter, black and shiny. Their wings are reduced, representing a pair of short, leathery elytra.
Synanthropic species have foods in their diet that their wild relatives do not know about. Household insects are active at night; their favorite feeding places are garbage cans, a sink with dirty dishes, crumbs behind the stove and on the floor. In the entrances they gather near the garbage chute. What do cockroaches eat at home?
The list of products will be extensive:
- pasta;
- bread;
- vegetables and fruits;
- cereals and ready-made porridge;
- meat and sausages;
- leftovers of any dishes (soup, mashed potatoes, salad):
- flour and starch;
- spices.
Pests chew paper, often eat leather goods, and damage books. Creams, lotions, wallpaper and wood glue are suitable to satisfy hunger. Potted plants are under threat, because insects readily consume greens. Black cockroaches are prone to cannibalism. In difficult conditions, they attack larvae and eat discarded capsules with eggs.
Pets
When red or black cockroaches appear in an apartment, you can notice how dogs or cats begin to hunt for them. Most do it for fun, pleasure, and bring it to show the owner.
Who else is eating:
- If there is a lizard living at home, you can let it out for a walk; it also feeds on domestic cockroaches.
- Spiders that live in every house hunt for insects. They weave a web and wait for one of them to fall into the net. The spider releases its poison with acid inside the body, which paralyzes and digests the insides, which later becomes an excellent meal. A dried cockroach from the inside becomes a bait for its other relatives.
- The domestic hedgehog also feeds on small insects. He hunts for them in corners and catches colonies.
As you can see, the list of those who like to eat unpleasant insects is quite extensive. Therefore, at home you can successfully fight them; to do this, it is enough to have pets.
How much do cockroaches eat?
The result of scientists' observations of cockroaches was information about the amount of food they absorbed. The daily volume is 20-50 mg. Over the course of a year, the insect destroys 9.6 kg of dry food. It is typical that females eat 2 times more than males. The gluttony of females is associated with the function of procreation. Females lay eggs and bear oothecae.
Housewives try to protect food and prepared dishes from spoilage. Using plastic bags to store them does not stop pests. Strong jaws quickly chew through plastic. You can safely hide food in durable plastic containers with a lid. Bags with vegetable trimmings and other waste are a real bait for pests. Soggy leftovers are their favorite food. The garbage should be taken out in the evening, before the parasites go out to hunt at night.
Information. Insects are extremely hardy; they can survive without food for 20 to 60 days. Larvae are able to starve longer than adults. Insects have a slow metabolism and do not need to waste energy on maintaining a stable body temperature.
If pests experience a food shortage for a long time, then without water they will not last longer than 5-10 days, depending on the temperature and humidity. Fluid in the body is necessary for heat exchange. Regular evaporation of moisture causes the body to dry out. Closing leaks, wiping sinks dry, and cutting off access to moisture will help reduce the colony population.
Information. In conditions of shortage of food resources, insects resort to desperate measures. They attack people. Cases of gnawing on the epidermis in the area of lips, nails, elbows, eyelids, and neck have been recorded. Pests are attracted to the smell of human waste – sweat, saliva. Cockroaches are provoked to bite by leftover food on the face or hands.
Food preferences
One of the methods of pest control is the production of poisoned baits. To increase the effectiveness of the method, you need to know what kind of food cockroaches like. They have a real sweet tooth, they never miss baking, jam, or honey. One of the pests' passions is beer. The malt drink is often used in homemade traps made from plastic bottles or cans. Bait is poured into the bottom of the container, and the walls on the inside are lubricated with Vaseline. Insects, once in a jar, cannot get out.
A piece of cookie will be an excellent bait for a glue trap. To make it you will need a strong base, double-sided tape or special glue. Insects attracted by the smell stick and remain trapped. The pest loves boiled eggs. This product became the basis of a popular poison bait. The yolk is mixed with boric acid and placed in places where insects move. When an antiseptic enters the body, it corrodes internal organs.
Food nearby
How long can a cockroach survive without food? Left without water, black kitchen cockroaches can live for a week to a week. When cockroaches have water but are deprived of food, they can survive for months. However, they will die faster if you give them dry food but no water.
We use food for cockroaches against them
Forms of release of poisoned baits.
Since cockroach poison is available in various forms, useful tips for using them vary:
In specialized stores, you most often find various ready-made baits placed in special boxes. These are commonly called insecticide traps. Various gels and pastes against cockroaches are widely used: they contain liquefied edible substrates saturated with poisons. Concentrates are sold in plastic bottles of various sizes, their price is quite high. They are more difficult to find freely available than granules or tablets, since they can only be handled by professional pest control stations who know the precautions and know how to prepare poison from highly concentrated poisons. Completely ready-to-use baits are produced in the form of granules and tablets, which need to be placed only in the corners.
Cockroaches have adapted and learned to avoid sweetened poison. For decades, people have been getting rid of cockroaches by putting out bait mixed with poison. But then the killer product stopped working. Cockroach populations continued to increase. Many of the cockroaches have stopped eating sweets, abandoning the corn syrup that was designed to attract them. For many years now, the sign of sugar withdrawal has become so common that the bait has become useless.
A genetic mutation gave some cockroaches a competitive advantage that allowed them to survive and reproduce. The key is certain neurons that signal the brain to eat. In normal cockroaches, glucose excites neurons that tell the brain “Sweet!” In mutant insects, glucose activates neurons that say “Sweet!” and those who say “Ugh!”, “Ugh!” the neurons attenuate the signal from others, so the brain gets the message that the taste is terrible. This unusual neural activity was observed in glucose-hating cockroaches.
How to cook
If you cannot buy fried cockroaches on the streets of Thailand, you can prepare them yourself by purchasing them at a pet store. Before cooking, it is advisable to throw them in the freezer for a couple of hours. They will not die, but they will go into suspended animation, which will make it possible to tear off their legs, antennae, hard chitin and head. By the way, a cockroach lives without a head for almost a week thanks to nerve ganglia distributed throughout its body, and dies because it simply cannot eat.
The second recipe is cockroaches in butter. First, place cockroaches in a heated frying pan, and then a couple of tablespoons of oil. Squeeze a couple of cloves of garlic on top and season with a mixture of peppers.
Ready insects are salted and served as a snack. The peculiarity of eating them is that they must be chewed very carefully: the chitinous shell is not digested by our stomach. Those who have tried ready-made dishes have different opinions: some say it tastes like chicken, others say it tastes like beef. But they still look like cockroaches, and nothing can be done about it.
Digestive system and respiratory organs
The digestive system of the black cockroach consists of several sections:
- oral opening and oral cavity;
- pharynx, esophagus, goiter, chewing stomach;
- midgut;
- hindgut and anus.
Absorption and digestion of food occurs with the help of special blind outgrowths. They are located between the stomach and midgut. Since cockroaches are omnivorous insects, they eat a variety of foods and even their fellow insects. They have a well-developed powerful mouthparts. Leftovers and waste products are used as food, as well as indoor plants, book bindings, and leather items. The respiratory system looks like thin tubes called tracheae. They originate on the sides of the abdomen in the form of small holes. Small tracheas branch throughout the body of the cockroach and deliver oxygen to all internal organs and tissues of the insect. Carbon dioxide is removed outward through the trachea. To ventilate them, cockroaches periodically contract their abdomens.
Feeding cockroaches in a terrarium
Exotic lovers keep tropical cockroaches as pets. Insects are kept in plastic or glass terrariums. In captivity, they try to bring the diet of arthropods closer to the natural diet. They are fed fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Juicy foods (oranges, apples, pumpkin, pears) partially satisfy the need for water. There is always bran or oatmeal in the feeder. Once a week, insects receive protein food: boiled eggs, meat, cottage cheese, dry daphnia, food for cats and dogs.
Cockroaches have a high protein content, so the voracious insects themselves become food items. They are grown for reptiles, spiders, birds, and hedgehogs. It is not necessary to buy large insects. They use ordinary Prussians and American cockroaches, which are synanthropes. Residents of Asian countries consider insect dishes tasty and healthy.
Appearance
Red cockroaches are typical representatives of their order. The general external similarity, as well as behavioral characteristics, are usually similar between all representatives of this type of insect, including the Madagascar and American pests, which some exotic connoisseurs like to breed as pets.
Cockroaches are found all over the world, but they have different names everywhere. In Russia, the common people call the red barbel a Prusak. There is a version that the pest received this name because of its connection with Germany and the war with Napoleon. It was then that these insects were brought to Russia through the territory of Prussia. In addition to apartments, insects can be found in fields. This species is called the Bernstein cockroach. The structure of the red cockroach also has similar features to other representatives of the cockroach suborder:
- They all have a cephalothorax, abdomen and head.
- The entire body, except the head, is hidden under the wings. The most interesting thing is that these pests cannot fly, but actively use their wings, for example, when falling from a height.
- In addition, insects are very tenacious - even radiation does not kill them.
- The antennae are a very important organ of the cockroach body. With their help, insects recognize the location of food supplies, and the antennae are also a means of communication between individuals. If at least one antennae is lost or injured for any reason, the barbel is deprived of the ability to navigate the surrounding world.
- As for size, the body of females is somewhat larger than that of males, but at the same time they have a shorter abdomen. Perhaps this is due to the fact that it is more convenient for females to bear offspring. An adult red barbel can reach a length of one to one and a half centimeters. Compared to other species, the red pest is a rather small species.
- Since ancient times, the so-called cerci, which are two tail-like processes, have been preserved on the body of red long-horned beetles. The color of all representatives of cockroaches is almost the same, with some exceptions. As a rule, the body has a brownish-red color.
- The insect weighs two tenths of a gram. Another relative of the red cockroach that feels great in the apartment is the black cockroach. Externally, they differ only in color. You can compare the red and black cockroaches from the photo.
Habitats
The sea cockroach has many habitats. It can be found near the coastline or near the seabed. These crustaceans prefer:
- Pacific or Arctic Ocean.
- White, Black or Baltic Sea.
Experts note that some species are also found in the lakes of our state. Some scientists suggest that they have existed in this area for quite a long time. That is why they have adapted to existence in salted and fresh water.
Under natural conditions, shrimp and sea cockroaches, lobsters and krill coexist normally. After all, they have similar traits and methods of reproduction.
In search of food, crustaceans move along coastlines. They feed:
- Small fish.
- Carrion.
- Algae.
- Remains of crustaceans.
Since these living organisms are unpretentious, they quickly adapt to almost any conditions.
Human
Another part of the food chain who eats cockroaches is humans. People eat insects as a separate dish, with a side dish or sauce.
Grown in specialized insectariums and properly fed, they are harmless and tasty for humans. Expensive restaurants may recommend such an exotic dish.
Dietary protein meat is very popular in Asian and African countries. Eating cockroaches is quite common in third world countries. To prepare it, it is simply fried in a pan, with the addition of sauce, or eaten alive.
It is recommended to eat only large species: Madagascar, American, marbled.
Few people eat red and black cockroaches. This is explained by the fact that domestic insects feed mostly on waste, carrion, and can carry infections and diseases. Special conditions are created for growing large species.
Pate “For Sandwiches”
Fry slightly chopped garlic and onion in olive oil. Place cockroaches (pre-frozen) and spices here. Cook for a few minutes. Wipe the fried insects along with the vegetables with a sieve.
Sandwich with cockroach pate
Place the resulting mixture on low heat and evaporate until all excess liquid is gone. The cockroach paste should have a thick consistency. You can spread it on croutons, pieces of white or black bread, and decorate with herbs.
Etymology
The origin of the word "cockroach" in the Russian and Ukrainian languages is not precisely established; According to Ryasyanen, this word comes from the Chuvash. tar-akan “runaway, fugitive”: Turkic. täz - “to run away.” G. Jacobson suggests that the word comes from the disparaging Turkic “tarkan” - “dignitary”.
The obsolete order name "Blattaria" comes from the Latin "blatta", meaning "light-avoiding insect". The English word "cockroach" is used around 1751 and comes from the Dutch "kakkerlak".
Other edible insects
Although scorpions and spiders are not insects, people usually do not separate them. Like insects, these arachnids are arthropods and are related to crustaceans such as crabs and shrimp. Spiders and scorpions are the terrestrial equivalent of seafood. Lice are also edible (though eating them in front of other people may seem a little weird).
Other arthropods that often become people's dinner include woodlice, water beetles (said to taste like fruit), bed bugs, June beetles and even dung beetles!
Lifestyle
Cockroaches run fast. They fly poorly and rarely, only for short distances. When jumping from a height, Prussians spread their wings to lengthen the jump and soften the impact of the fall.
Active in the dark. Like other cockroaches, they gravitate to damp and warm places. Over the past two hundred years, the Prussian has completely spread across all continents except Antarctica, and this is due to changes in human lifestyle. A favorable habitat for red cockroaches turned out to be multi-apartment heated buildings equipped with running water.
The Prussians adapted to the artificial urban environment, and it became the main one for them. Insects quickly colonize residential and industrial buildings, move along ventilation structures, garbage chutes, elevator shafts, and other channels connecting individual rooms. Prefer lower floors. During the daytime, cockroaches hide behind furniture, in equipment, cavities and corners. At night they come out to feed.
If cockroaches in an apartment have not had time to multiply en masse, and the owners have not yet seen them, their presence can be determined by traces of vital activity - small black balls and discarded cocoons in which eggs matured.
