How cockroaches breed in an apartment: sex differences of cockroaches and their development

Good day! Getting cockroaches out of the apartment is not very easy, including because they reproduce very quickly, and often the new generation is immune to the means used to poison the previous one. In this regard, it is worthwhile to understand the question of how cockroaches breed in an apartment.

In addition to jokes, if you understand the approximate frequency of reproduction and favorite places for laying eggs, then you can separately deal with adult individuals, and separately - with the offspring that have not yet appeared. All useful information below!

How cockroaches breed in an apartment

Having settled in the apartment, cockroaches breed at a record speed, many are aware of this, but only specialists know how this happens.

You ask, why does an ordinary person need such knowledge? The fact is that if you get rid of cockroaches on your own, this will help to cope with the problem faster and understand how to act in a particular situation.

Cockroaches have been living on our planet since time immemorial; this is one of the most ancient creatures that can be found at present.

One of the reasons for this “vitality” is reproductive ability, not even high, but highest. Our eternal companions are a red and black cockroach, and all because our home for them is the most favorable environment for life - heat, water and plenty of food.

Sex differences of cockroaches

Let's first look at the differences between females and males of cockroaches. There are only three differences between insects. Males have a more modest body size, they have developed wings and there is a genital plate called stylus.

Females have wings, albeit not developed, but they wave them invitingly, inviting the male to mate. In response, like real men, males make sounds (some types of cockroaches are even menacing), take off and even fight for the right to possess a beautiful lady.

How cockroaches breed

The process of fertilization in cockroaches occurs very quickly, since they live in colonies. They breed all year round if there is heat, water, food and darkness.

Eggs are stored in edema, a special capsule. Cockroaches are caring mothers and carry eggs on themselves, until the larvae are completely ready for birth. The ooteca is visible to the naked eye under the abdomen of the insect.

It is impossible to predict how many eggs are in the capsule, the Prussians may have 22-50, and their black counterparts 12-18. The female red cockroach in her life makes from 12 clutches, and black only 22.

Females can walk “pregnant” from two months to six months, it all depends on the conditions. In the presence of adverse factors, the gestation process is delayed and may be 2-4 years.

Cockroach development

A cockroach goes through three stages of development. The female carries eggs from which larvae then appear, and only they grow into an adult - an adult. How long the transformation will last, also depends on external environmental factors.

By the way, in the apartment most of the number of all cockroaches are larvae. If all is well, after three months the cockroach is ready to reproduce offspring.

We will answer the question of how quickly cockroaches breed. Cockroaches are sexually mature for 210 days, during this period they acquire hundreds of offspring and more. So their number is able to grow exponentially.

Restriction of cockroach breeding

How to make cockroaches multiply and breed less? Create adverse conditions. If they lack water and food, the females will wear edema for years, and then you look and go in search of a better life.

But you won’t pass them all along, anyway, from time to time you will notice abandoned, already unnecessary capsule shells. They throw them in a conspicuous place.

Since cockroach babies eat the same things as adults, you can fight them in the same usual ways - poisoned baits, gels, powders. They will not stop breeding from this, but at least a significant part of the colony will die.

How cockroaches breed and helpful tips on preventing fast breeding

Nobody loves cockroaches, does not want to share their food, housing with them. It poisons them, it stinks, but they do not care! If there is water, a warm, secluded place, he will find what to eat and begin to breed.

Let us dwell on this process in more detail, namely, we learn how domestic cockroaches breed, how many cockroaches hatch from one egg, what does a pregnant cockroach look like?

How cockroaches breed

They are arranged by wise nature in such a way that, taking little, they give a lot. Therefore, it is indestructible. You can only reduce its population. The population is incredibly generous. Judge for yourself.

So you know how many cockroaches are born from one egg? 15-50 individuals hatch from one clutch at a time. A female is capable of making 10 clutches and more during her life cycle.

It turns out that one individual is capable of producing at least one hundred pieces of offspring. And they, too, will not sit still - they will continue to breed cockroaches. How to win? Maybe selectively destroy females?

How to determine the sex of a cockroach

• The size. Boys, they are smaller.
• Wings. In males they are more developed. The male can even take off if he needs to get to the desired object.
• Strokes. Males have a genital plate - an outgrowth on the last segment of the trunk.

This is what household representatives do - redheads (Prussians) and black ones (such as crickets). But those that live in nature - Madagascar, for example - their males can hiss and wrestle their horns in order to get a female. In girls, wings are just for entourage - they can wave them a little, showing their willingness to mate.

Metamorphoses

The type of development of cockroaches is an incomplete transformation cycle, that is, it skips the pupal stage.

1. Egg.120 days (4 months) is necessary for the egg to turn into a mature individual.
2. The nymph is the larva of a cockroach. 30 weeks imago lives and breeds.
3. The adult is an adult. 300 children can give one female per life cycle.

These indicators can be higher - it all depends on the living conditions. The fuller, warmer and wetter, the more intensive the reproduction of domestic cockroaches.

Swelling like a mortgage

Here they waved their wings, mated. Then the fun begins. The female lays eggs. She does not lay these eggs anywhere, but swelling in a special capsule. This is such a leathery bag that protects the eggs quite reliably from damage and vicissitudes of the environment.

The female will keep this bag to herself - behind the body. This edema looks like a tail, and the people nicknamed it “the tail”. A female carries edema everywhere with herself, wherever she gives up.

And it is released from it only when the larvae are ready to go outside. If you see such a "tailed", then you know, it is the most dangerous for your home.

Because, dying, the female manages to drop the “tail” - she directly shoots him, catapults. And she herself, perhaps, will perish, but the “tail” is not.

How cockroaches give birth

The time of childbirth will come, and 30 small cockroaches-children, completely independent and viable, will crawl out of it somewhere under the baseboard. And you lost that little fight again.

Not Nymph Myths

It is not difficult to distinguish a nymph from an adult. The nymph larva is smaller in size, it has not yet developed wings, and it is darker in color. The larva molts 5-6 times during growth - it discards the old carapace.

The closer the nymph is to the sexually mature individual in age, the lighter it becomes, turning from almost black to red. Nymphs live in colonies with adults, eat the same food. They behave in the same way, just do not mate.

10 interesting features that make them incredibly tenacious:

• After mating, the gametes of the male are stored for a long time in the body of the female, and repeated laying can occur without the preliminary participation of the male. That is, it is enough for the female to “chat” with the male once in her life, in order to then leave the offspring calmly and repeatedly.
• Can live without a head. All its organs continue to work. But without a head, the body will not last more than a week for the reason that it will not be able to drink and die ... from thirst.
• May hold your breath for 40 minutes. Scientists believe that this feature was useful to him millions of years ago, when things were not going smoothly with the earth's atmosphere.
• Barbel is very lazy. They spend three quarters of their lives at rest.
• He runs very fast. If he runs, then very quickly - 4.8 km per hour. This is a lot, given the size of his legs.
• Maybe eat once a month. And at the same time, can eat everything. To do this, he has powerful jaws.
• Impossible to catch. He will feel you with all the hairs on his paws. And when he rushes to run, he will change direction 25 times per second. You are doomed to failure.
• They will withstand the atomic explosion and survive. They have a particularly slow cell division cycle and they are not afraid of radiation.
• They have two pairs of wings. Upper - dense and leathery elytra of the protection of the body - we see them. And the lower ones - more subtle - are hidden under the elytra. With the help of them he flies.
• The largest cockroach - 9 cm in length - does not live in our homes. He prefers rainforests.

How to stop breeding

In order to prevent cockroaches from multiplying, it is necessary to deprive them of the main thing that they love:

1. Heat. Build a home for a while. In the old days, they did just that - they cooled the hut, the insects died, unable to endure human insidiousness. Such were the folk methods.
2. Water. They can not drink. Therefore, in apartments they cling to the water supply, kitchen, sinks.
3. Food. Raise cleanliness in a cult. No crumbs, scraps, crowded bins. Although in this case, the cockroach will go on paper. He is almost omnivorous.

In addition, measures should be taken to expel uninvited guests from home. There are many different tools, ranging from crayons such as Mashenka, FAS dusts, Clean House to the traps of Combat, Forsyth and aerosols Raid, Raptor, Get, Hangman.

And in general, in the old days it was believed that cockroaches are a sign of prosperity. If there is nothing for people in the house, then there is no place for baleen there. So, we should not be too harsh towards such a talisman of our welfare.

How cockroaches breed

Many people are interested in 3 questions at once: how cockroaches breed, why cockroaches appear in an apartment and how to cope with them.

Cockroach life in nature

Cockroaches live only where it is warm all the time and there is no winter. Their main food is detritus, that is, organic matter that has begun to decompose. Under natural conditions, these insects live mainly among fallen leaves on the surface of the soil. There are caves in the world whose inner surface is dotted with cockroaches.

This is due to the fact that under the arches of such caves a huge number of bats hang. Feces come down from these bats, which are the food of huge non-flying cockroaches. At the same time, the bodies of their dead relatives go for food.

Under normal conditions, including in human dwellings, these insects are necessarily divided into strata, each of which captures a certain space, protecting it from the penetration of other representatives of its species. Like all well-organized animals, cockroaches engage in fights with their own kind over territory and females.

In the tropical zone, where these insects are especially numerous, our Prussians and black cockroaches are not so competitive.

Their advantage is that they are very mobile, run well, and the Prussians also fly. Large non-flying cockroaches like Madagascar giants, reaching a length of up to 10 cm, fill their dense mass with all the habitable space, preventing any small thing from reaching the food base.

The high level of mobility and complex behavior helped domestic cockroaches to seize the vacant niche, which had not yet been mastered by any of the brothers, the human home.

Perhaps there are no large wingless giants among domestic cockroaches, because to live freely next to a person is a great art.

But their small and nimble red relatives live well not only in the best place at home - in the kitchen, but for some reason they love to relax in electronic technology, basking in the rays of ionizing radiation.

How cockroaches penetrate homes

Most of these insects arrived in Europe and North Asia from Central America as illegal immigrants.

An active trade in fruits and vegetables, which was conducted between the countries of the Old World and the new overseas colonies, helped the cockroaches to appear in new regions.

Despite the apparent frailty and insecurity, the cockroaches not only successfully survived long trips, but also managed to actively breed and settle further upon arrival.

Now that the definition of "home" has been firmly stuck to some species, their migration from continent to continent has ceased to interest people. It is much more important to answer the question of where the cockroaches come from in those dwellings where until now they were not.

The reasons for the appearance of cockroaches in the apartment are always the same. It:

• resettlement of young individuals, which in the same house with their parents can no longer get along;
• excessive breeding of cockroaches in the apartment due to unsanitary conditions;
• cockroach extermination actions.

In other words, cockroaches appear in the apartment, because somewhere near these insects there are too many, and they need to develop new territories.

So the answer to the question of where the cockroaches come from can consist of two parts: firstly, they are actively spread, and secondly, they reproduce no less actively.

Reproduction as a basis for survivability

Cockroaches breed at high speed, and this is the basis of their survivability in such extreme conditions as human dwellings, where people wage a constant battle with them. The ability to multiply rapidly is based on a whole complex of adaptive reactions of these insects.

A female cockroach, once fertilized, then no longer needs the services of a male. Throughout her life, she constantly lays eggs.

When cockroaches settle, reproduction for them plays a major role in consolidation in the new territory. The fact is that one pregnant cockroach, who came to the apartment, can become the founder of a whole population of these insects.

These seemingly primitive insects have a pronounced sexual selection. Cockroaches not only engage in fights because of the females, but also look after them beautifully.

For example, large and winged Mexican cockroaches do not fly, but dance, using wings just like a peacock's tail. The Prussians are not so lyrical, but sexual selection is also characteristic of them.

These little creatures have a concern for offspring. This does not mean that little cockroaches all their childhood are under the vigilant supervision of dads and mothers. Care begins with packing the eggs and where they are placed.

Have you ever paid attention to how cockroach eggs look? They are tightly, in several rows, packed in a special chitin case called ooteka.

The space between the eggs is filled with a frozen foamy protein material. Thanks to this packaging, each cub is reliably protected from drying out, low temperatures and even from the effects of pesticides.

The care for the offspring is also manifested in how long the females carry the odeka. In some species, the ootek is located at the end of the abdomen until the very moment when small cockroaches hatch.

This strategy is possessed by the Prussians. Other species dump the ooteca long before the time comes for new offspring to be born. This is usually done by black cockroaches.

Care for the offspring is also evident in where the cockroaches lay their eggs. Each newly hatched cockroach should be where it is warm and humid enough.

Moreover, cockroach larvae should immediately have access to food and water. This means that caring mothers give birth, that is, lay their ooteks, especially in the kitchen.

So, no matter how many cockroaches originally came to you, they will soon start in the kitchen, in the bathroom, under the baseboards and - get ready for this - in the computer, scanner, etc.

Breeding rate

So, it’s clear that cockroaches breed quickly. The breeding rate depends on how much time will pass from conception to the first egg, how quickly the larva becomes sexually mature, how many swollen females can set aside for their life.

This means that from the moment cockroaches appeared in your apartment, about a month passes until the mass addition of their families. This is the case if you have grown larvae. If sexually mature individuals with pregnant females have been granted, you have to live no more than 2 weeks before their outbreaks.

In a sexually mature state, the cockroach lives about six months, so hundreds of individuals can appear from one egg of this insect under favorable conditions.

Thus, the owners of an apartment burdened with cockroaches are always worried about 2 questions: why cockroaches appear and where in the apartment are there so many of them?

Knowledge of the life characteristics of cockroaches allows you to determine a strategy to combat them. If they are simply actively treated with poisons, then the opposite effect can be achieved - after the death of adult individuals from larvae, larvae will appear that, under conditions of reduced density, will begin to multiply with a doubled energy.

But if you act on the reproductive functions, then sooner or later the moment will come when the cockroaches will disappear from the apartment completely and for a long time.

How is the reproduction of cockroaches

Knowing how cockroaches breed, you can achieve their complete disappearance from your home in a short time. Most often in a city apartment you can meet the Prussians, or red cockroaches.

Sometimes their black relatives are also adjacent to a person. In any case, these unpleasant insects appear suddenly and in large numbers. Why is this happening?

What is ooteka

Literally translated, this word means "egg storage." This is true: a small capsule of chitin reaches a value of only 10-12 mm (in domestic red cockroaches), but inside it may contain 30-40 cockroach eggs, filled with protein substance. This mass reliably protects future insects from adverse external influences.

They can retain their contents even when insects are frozen: the dense shell and the mass filling them can provide a temperature acceptable for the life of eggs for a long time.

After the owners have finished processing the apartment and are quietly enjoying the absence of harmful neighbors, a new colony of cockroaches is preparing to be born somewhere in a secluded place.

Egg maturation lasts for 14-30 days from the moment they are laid in the capsule. But the female cockroach wears it for some time, leaving it only in an ideal place for this. Therefore, it is impossible to predict for sure when the birth of cockroaches will occur.

The growth and development of cockroaches

Larvae (nymphs) are born very small. Their size to the 1st molt is only 1-2 mm, and they are not very similar to their restless parents. The main difference is the lack of wings. Larvae will acquire them only at the stage of transformation into an adult.

Nymphs practically do not leave the place where they hatched, eating the rest of the contents of the capsule and possible crumbs of other food that fall into the nest.

Having molted once, they become larger and more mobile, begin to develop the territory of the kitchen and actively seek food. At this time, they can be noticed only by a very attentive hostess, but it is still difficult to identify cheeky domestic cockroaches in small brown bugs.

And only 1-1.5 months after birth in harmless-looking bugs, it will be possible to guess the features that domestic red cockroaches possess. And after 1-2 weeks, the larvae molt for the last time, and the owners of the apartment will only have to contemplate in surprise the newly appeared disgusting neighbors.

Intimate life of parasites

Sometimes you can meet the assertion that the cockroach is a hermaphrodite. This is not so: like all insects, the red-haired human neighbors are dioecious. Both males and females are necessary for breeding. But the secret of how cockroaches breed in an apartment, getting there in a single copy, is especially females.

Reaching puberty at the age of 4 months, red cockroaches (domestic, or Prussians) are able to breed exponentially in a short time.

Therefore, even clean apartments in new buildings are populated by these tenants very quickly. After that, it is almost impossible to destroy them completely, since they can breed in garbage chutes or garbage bins in the warmer months and go into warmer cellars and apartments in winter.

Interesting facts about the breeding of cockroaches

Reproduction of cockroaches is regulated by the external environment. If the apartment is too cold or too hot, there is little available food or there are other reasons for dissatisfaction with life, insects can lay eggs much less often than usual.

A female can also carry a capsule for a long time if there is no suitable place for breeding cubs. How many days a nymph grows depends on the availability of food, water and heat. And to deal with insects would be much easier if they did not consider ideal the same conditions that a person provides for himself.

In the average kitchen, cockroaches find an abundance of food (crumbs, garbage, food in accessible places, soap, leather products or paper), and an ideal temperature of about + 25 ° C, and access to water sources, and the absence of natural enemies.

After all, after each female individual grows to an adult state, she also finds these conditions suitable for laying eggs, and the process repeats.

The red Prussians, in addition to the difference in growth rate, also do not disdain to eat cubs with relatives. Thanks to this, the population of black cockroaches in Russia is gradually declining.

Domestic cockroaches have absolutely no seasonality in breeding offspring. Insects can breed almost all year round, because the conditions for each small larva to grow rapidly are preserved in the apartment both in winter and in summer. Both black and red neighbors of a person behave this way.

How to cope with the invasion of the Prussians and prevent their appearance in large numbers? Given that the breeding cycle of cockroaches does not differ in regularity, and the capsule with eggs remains unharmed during disinfestation, we have to rely only on the destruction of already hatched nymphs and adult individuals.

But in order to prevent insects from growing quietly between treatments, it is very convenient to use traps and gels. These funds are inconspicuous, harmless to humans and animals, do not smell, but contain either strong poisons or bacteria and fungi that can kill a cockroach in 1-2 days.

Even the growing larvae, which begin an active search for food, can be affected by deadly diseases, not having time to grow and give new offspring.

Reproduction of cockroaches in the apartment

If people could reproduce like cockroaches, natural population growth would long ago become the main problem of our planet. High fertility due to multiple pregnancy of the female.

For the offspring, the pest brings about 30 larvae. Meetings with the Prusak in the kitchen are the impetus for an unequal battle, where the insect emerges victorious.

You should know how quickly cockroaches breed and whether they can live without food and drink, so as not to feel upset when bullying does not give the expected results.

What insects are called domestic

What does a barbel look like, often settling in an apartment? Domestic cockroaches are recognized by their special color. The apartment is home to red and black individuals.

Black ones are exclusively kitchen pests; they differ from red brethren in size. The length of the body reaches 3 cm. The large size does not allow you to get into the narrow genital gaps, but gluttonous insects live perfectly:

1. In the kitchen cupboards;
2. Near the bin;
3. Sink drain hole.

It is rare to find an even Prusak in the bedroom or living room, of course, if the relaxation room is not the place to eat. Black Prusak lives in places with an abundance of food and water. When etching pests, special attention is paid to:

• Cabinets for food storage;
• Garbage buckets;
• Kitchen stove. Oven;
• Plumbing.

What is bad for a man, good for a Prusak! Moisture, dirt and debris are favorable habitats and breeding grounds. They live in the bathroom, behind the refrigerator, under the departed wallpaper and baseboard. Nimble and cunning insects easily overcome obstacles.

Moisture, heat lovingness and abundance of food waste - a favorable environment that affects the rate of reproduction and the period of reaching the sexually mature slider.

The difference between a male and a female

It is possible to distinguish a female from a male by characteristic habits and external signs.

1. The male is inferior in size to the female insect.
2. There is a stylus on the body of the insect - the genital plate.
3. Convex growths are present on the body of a male sexually mature individual; they are absent in the female.
4. You can distinguish a female from a male by wings.

Males have developed wings, allowing for flight over small distances. In females, the wings are underdeveloped and smaller. Their only function is light swaying, indicating the male’s call for mating.

Features of the reproduction of insects

How do cockroaches breed, reproduce sexually or otherwise? They do not lay eggs, but carry with them. Having received only once the necessary fluid from the male, in the future, the female domestic prusak reproduces without his participation.

Imagine if a few dozen cockroaches appear in cockroaches from one egg, then in a couple of months the housing will turn into a hotbed of arthropods.

Before “planning” the offspring, insects practice “mating games”. Male sex gametes “enter” the female’s body with a reserve. Without a male, a female can be fertilized several times.

The number of cockroaches in one egg, in the Prussians of red color reaches 30 larvae, black - 20. Small embryos hatch after 15 - 20 days.The abundance of food and water contributes to an increase in the number of insects in 1.5 - 2 times.

For domestic insects, there is no seasonality of reproduction. In both winter and summer, the fertilization process does not differ in feature and in a decrease in the number of larvae.

External factors, such as food, heat and water, affect the life expectancy and the number of eggs laid. The lack of measures to destroy arthropods leads to fulminant reproduction of insects.

The period from the egg to the adult

During the life cycle, the female lays on average 5 capsules, from 20 to 40 larvae hatch from each. Until a certain time, an individual wears a shell with larvae inside the body, it grows and increases in size.

In the deferred sac, covered with a dense shell, embryos are located, after a few days the larvae are born. Cockroach eggs look like a small oilcloth package covered with a film that is difficult to break.

How many cockroaches hatch from one egg depends on the living conditions of the arthropod. From the moment of laying the eggs to the appearance of small sliders, 15 to 20 days will pass. The stage from the egg to the adult proceeds according to the scheme:

• A fertilized female carries embryos until larvae mature;
• After 2 to 3 weeks, larvae hatch from the egg (pouch with a dense membrane);
• The transition from a larva to an adult is accompanied by a molt (change in chitin cover);
• The molting individual is a cockroach nymph, vulnerable to insecticides, it is difficult to meet an insect in a given period of maturation;
• The transition from a nymph to an adult (a mature individual) is 45 days.

The incubation period lasts 4 weeks. All this time, the female carries eggs in the shell. After birth, molting begins, which can be repeated up to 7 times. The nymph will become an adult insect in one and a half to two months.

Full life cycle and developmental features

How quickly cockroaches breed and how the crawlers look, the residents of apartment buildings know. If you lose sight of the fertilized female, after a month your apartment is from one Prusak during the breeding season, replenished with an additional 30 new settlers. You can assess the extent of infection at night by turning on the lights in the kitchen when hungry individuals leave shelters in search of food.

Pests are safe, the temperature in the room is stable and comfortable to breed to an uncountable amount.

Their offspring reaches hundreds of larvae, and this is from one domestic Prusak. The embryos are securely packed in a film pouch that is resistant to damage and insecticides.

Adult barbel can live without a head. There are pores on the body of the pest, through which respiratory function is performed.

With insufficient nutrition and constant exposure to the female with insecticides, the gestational age increases, the growth and development of larvae slows down. Under favorable conditions, home-made red cockroaches breed faster.

The Prussians can survive without food. Particular survivability is distinguished by the kitchen inhabitants, black cockroaches. Without a source of food and drink, they live 2.5 months. Red brothers - 1 month.

With a threat to life and a hunger strike, the stasics open the hunt for humans and small insects. The pest attacks people at night, tasting the skin of the lips and nails.

Prusaks mutate, which is associated with resistance to insecticides. In a mass settlement, it is advisable to entrust the work to professional pest control services.

Not every insecticide can cope with larvae. The dense shell is resistant to chemicals. The wrong choice of drug leads to a meaningless fight.

A mass settlement of crawlers cannot be allowed. One cockroach breeds at lightning speed. With eggs and feces, parasites and pathogenic bacteria come out that lead to dangerous diseases.

After all, knowing the reproduction rate of arthropods, thanks to correctly selected insecticides, a person will be able to prevent and destroy entire colonies of pests.