365 Urban Species. #255: American Cockroach

[urbpan]

I found this roach upside-down in a business in Austin. I picked it up (to photograph it in a more discrete location) when it squirmed and wriggled--crippled by poison but still alive. Regaining my composure, I brought it out into the harsh Texas sun and took this picture.

Urban species #255: American cockroach Periplaneta americana

The cockroach is evolution's way of saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Little changed in 300 million years, this insect has watched the continents drift apart, the dinosaurs come and go, and, many people suspect, will watch indifferently as humans disappear. They are successful in pristine tropical rainforests as well as in the densest and most polluted cities on earth. Despised by most people, killed on sight, and dwelling in buildings that are repeatedly bombed with insecticide, they continue to thrive. There are non-urban roaches, by the way, and they make up the vast majority: of more than 3000 species of roaches, only a handful (about 1-2% of total species) inhabit the worlds' cities.

The so-called American cockroach, like most other urban cockroaches, is thought to have originally come from Africa. When trade between that continent and North America was at its most notorious--when humans were a product to buy and sell--cockroaches stowed away in ships. These insects feed on nearly any organic matter, but can even survive without any food whatsoever for over a month. They can survive in tight gaps, in fact they actively seek them out, finding comfort in pressure above and below their bodies, packing together in great numbers. They hide from light, an attribute memorable to anyone who has flipped on the switch in a roach-infested kitchen. In their native environment of the moist forest, cockroaches are valuable detritivores, feeding on decaying vegetation and helping turn waste into fertilizer. They have no qualms about eating animal based food either, eating the shed skins (exuviae) and carcasses of insects. In a home or business they are less valuable, known to track filth into food, and leaving a disagreeable odor where they congregate. They are well-known symbols of filthiness--living emblems of the worst aspects of urban living. They have even been implicated in a rise in the rate of asthma in inner city children, who may be affected by allergies to roaches or their droppings.

At up to two inches long or more, American cockroaches are the largest of the roaches commonly found in North America. Landlords euphemistically refer to them as "water bugs" due to their attraction to the heat and moisture of plumbing, or as "palmetto bugs" (presumably because in southern states they are associated with palmetto plants). In northern states they are confined to the warmest and most humid parts of buildings--Boston's sewers, subways and extensive connected basements host untold millions of American cockroaches. In the south they are more free animals, coming in to homes and businesses to feed, but also roaming the outdoors. In the north, cockroaches are swift runners, and that is all, but in the south the heat grants them the power of flight. I finally witnessed this firsthand this past week in Austin, when one flew into the open patio of a bar at night, and landed on the bare shoulder of a patron. She squealed and flailed, and the insect flew one circle around a light before it landed on a wall, scuttling up and disappearing in a fraction of a second. It was only then that I realized what it was. Another new urban nature experience to enrich my life!


This American cockroach was running down an alley behind a 6th street bar in Austin. Unfortunately my photography when on long-distance field assignments (some call them vacations) is in need of improvement. Readers are encouraged to submit their own cockroach pictures in the comments section.







Location: Washington Street concourse, Boston subway system.

Comments

[candent.livejournal.com]

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Awesome! A gravid female, no less.

[agelena.livejournal.com]

My husband is from Chicago, where they don't fly. He tells the story of attending a seminar in Houston and idly watching a big one crawl over a chair several feet away. Idly, that is, until it FLEW!

[wirrrn.livejournal.com]

Hey,

We have American Cockroaches here Down Under too- I always catch and release them if I see one in the house. You gotta have respect for Nature's Ultimate Lifeform *g*

btw- We also have Giant Burrowing Roaches in Queensland- the size and wight of a mouse, they burrow into rainforest floors and eat rotting leaf matter. I used to keep some as pets...

[iheartoothecae.livejournal.com]

Wow, what a cool photo!

[aphephobia.livejournal.com]

That's an incredible photo: how the hell did you get it?

[spocks-girl.livejournal.com]

I used to live in NYC, so I've met many a cockroach. No pics, however; we were too busy eradicating them with boric acid and diatomaceous earth.

Your icon creeps me out--although house centipedes are great little predators, they scare the crap out of me.

[candent.livejournal.com]

I thought diatomaceous earth was banned?

[privacycat.livejournal.com]

Oh god, I did *not* need that close-up. I never see these little guys alive. I find them on my floor, after the cats make short work of them.

[nysidra.livejournal.com]

The last thing I think about when seeing one of those is getting my camera.

Yes indeed, do those buggers ever fly in the South.

Fly and fly fast.

*shudders*

[shellynoir.livejournal.com]

As an architecture history lover I want to hear more about Boston's extensive connected basements. I can wait until next year, though....
There are 5" cochroaches in Costa Rica that look like they're made of smoked glass....gorgeous.

[nevers.livejournal.com]

how is it that heat grants them the power of flight? this mystifies me.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Their wing muscles must be a certain temperature for them to fly. Also, the temperature that the cockroach experiences during embryonic development affects their ability to fly when they are adults. Cockroaches raised in higher temperature lab conditions were able to fly better.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=3694190&dopt=Abstract

http://www.roberth.u-net.com/cockroach.htm

[stephanietberry.livejournal.com]

The flying roaches. Oh yeah, I remember that from my Mississippi childhood. How could I forget? So glad you finally got to experience that thrill! Although your specimems seem a little small. Perhaps the dryer climate of Austin (vs. the humid oppression of Mississippi) keeps them from achieving their most magnificent size of three inches long. I can remember a particular crack in my bathroom where one particularly large cockroach liked to dwell. It would UNFURL its lovely antennae out of that crack and sweep the wall with curiosity. It made bathing an especially thrilling adventure. Such character, those old Southern homes have.

[egretplume.livejournal.com]

I hate when they're tall enough to cast a shadow. Or heavy enough to make footstep noises. Ewwwwww.

::shudder::

[by-steph.livejournal.com]

How many cockroaches does it take to screw in a light bulb? Nobody knows; they all scatter when the light turns on.

In my freshman biology lab, it was mentioned that in American cockroaches the females have fewer mitochondria (thus less ATP) in their flight muscles so either they can't fly or are much weaker than males. But let your entomologists comment on that; that was some time ago. I mean, in 4th grade I was taught that deoxygenated blood is blue.

My husband's old apartment in Galveston had an enormous roach that lived in one of the cabinets. We had thoughts about removing it, but decided just to scare it so it would hide again. I blew on it and instead of fleeing, it lunged at me. We never opened that cabinet again.

Also, in Houston we had a sliding glass door in our bedroom that opened to our little yard. When we let the dog out, various bugs would find their way in the open door. I was in bed one night when THE SOUND of something flying in the room woke me up. What caused me to leap screeching from the bed was that the flying object landed in my hair and I knew it was a cockroach. I flipped on the light and it scurried under our blankets. So, in the middle of the night, we tore our bedding off and even removed the mattresses in search of that bug.

[butsu.livejournal.com]

looks tasty

[iheartoothecae.livejournal.com]

Squee! I love roaches so much. They aren't as plentiful in the Dallas area as they were in Baton Rouge. I haven't seen any of my favorite, the very pretty (and small) Brown-banded.

[aphephobia.livejournal.com]

D00d: icon!love!

Also... wow. Someone else who likes cockroaches. :) Yay! :) I've seen the long, ovallish-shaped one in your picture over here- not in my own house, but in a few other areas. (Shops, a holiday house, that sorta thing.) They're really tiny compared to the native (I think they're native) ones we have.

[aphephobia.livejournal.com]

We've got them in Australia: the Aussie version and I think the German version. (Both are slightly different to the American ones you've photographed.)

Every so often, we get the odd one inside: they really don't freak me out that much. (Unless they're flying: that does freak my out- I'm terrified of wasps, and anything that's biggish and flies makes me instantly duck.) More often, I'll see them outside near decaying wood or whatever, or around the back steps/the back door frame. My pet chickens will go seriously hyperactive if they think there's a cockroach around: they love them! (My partner found some under a log in the back yard- and the chooks went nuts.)

In all honesty, I think they're kind of nifty: they're survivors, and like rats, and pigeons, and other resented life forms, no matter what we've done to the environment, they've adapted, probably better than we have.

This one was found climbing the wall in my bedroom quite randomly maybe three years ago. It was the first one I'd ever seen (hence the edit and posting to LiveJournal- I can't find the original picture) and while it's a crap picture, you can see the difference in body shape between the Australian and the US cockroaches. I read somewhere ours are native (though we do have introduced ones, too.)

Anyway, enough rambling on them from me. :)

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

That looks like what we call (in these here parts) an oriental cockroach: http://entoplp.okstate.edu/ddd/insects/orientalroach.htm

(and apparently, the females are wingless)

[wirrrn.livejournal.com]

Ia, Insectivores,

This still counts as a cockroach picture, technically *g*. It's early storyboard art of the human-sized, human-cryptic, human-*eating* killer Judas Cockroaches from Guillermo Del Toro's entomologically ridiculous but still greatly entertaining MIMIC:

[(Anonymous)]

this is the roach that usually finds it's way into my house. The blood sucking, glock carrying, killer roach!

[sentimentation.livejournal.com]

Not a cockroach comment, but a comment on this post's icon. Is that my good old friend, Scutigera coleoptrata?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

You bet! One of my favorites.

[urb-banal.livejournal.com]

"Joe's Apartment" a movie I adore, has dancing and singing cockroaches, the best evah musical! to be true!!

Cronenburg (sp?) 's film "Exterminator" (?) has some wicked cockroach too!

I shared an apartment in the east end with bunch of cockroaches. when i complained to the landlady she told me "they've been her longer than humans, they'll be here long after we're gone, best thing to keep them out of your cupboards is to feed em." she had saucers full of sugar all around her apt.

ick ooh, yuk, ick

oh well...wtf

[mysticchyna.livejournal.com]

i can't help but get the heebie geebies from this. roaches, ick.

[ndozo.livejournal.com]

http://www.sixflags.com/parks/overtexas/index.asp


"During the first weekend of its annual Halloween festival, Six Flags Over Texas will let guests skip to the front of the Titan roller coaster line if they eat a live cockroach.

A live, wingless, 3-inch long Madagascar hissing cockroach that can run at 3 mph.

Chew and swallow one of these crunchy, wiggling critters and Six Flags will also give you a Flash Pass for the evening that will let you bypass the line on many thrill rides.

Six Flags spokeswoman Sandra Daniels said the edible insects will be available for one hour at the Titan each night of Fright Fest's opening weekend, Sept. 29 through Oct. 1...."

[elainetyger.livejournal.com]

I inspect food stores in Brooklyn. Store owners get really pissed off when I fail them for having American roaches in their basements (they are usually near the drains/sump pumps) because "they're only waterbugs" not "real" roaches like the Germans. They're still not allowed where food is stored.

We've had a few in our house recently, with flooring work going on in the basement. We will be putting in a screen over the sump pump pit. Our tomcat loves to play with them and kill them, but he doesn't eat them, so we have to deal with the carcasses.

One store I inspected had rats in the basement eating the American roaches -- there were piles of rat doody next to various pieces of roach.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Two years after the fact I have a reply! Now that I've had lots of hours working with exterminators... One of the recurring themes is "pick up the roach carcasses so they don't provide an additional food source for the mice." I have found cobwebby corners packed with old roach wings.

..

[(Anonymous)]

a roach can live for 2 months without its head then dies of starvation.the egg sack that is carried around is called an ootheca...DONT Stand on them it would only spread te eggs around

Re: ..

[(Anonymous)]

i thought roaches could only go for two weeks without their head!lol!

Cockroaches

[tony king (from livejournal.com)]

I live in the UK and run my own pest control (http://www.pest3.com.com) company. I have been working in the business now for over twenty years and only twice came up against American cockroaches. I am not sure if the climate in London is not suitable for them but we tend to get the German cockroaches and the Oriental cockoraches which are more common here.

Just wanted to ask are you involved in pest control or is this a hobby.

Re: Cockroaches

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

The blog is a hobby, and when I wrote this post I wasn't in the industry, but now I am!