Cockroaches live in groups, which makes home and office infestations difficult to eliminate. While you may have heard some interesting things about cockroaches (like they can survive a nuclear explosion), our pest control experts are here to share 10 things you probably didn’t know about them:
1. Cockroaches spend 75% of their time resting and can withstand temperatures as cold as 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. A cockroach can live for a week without its head. It doesn’t need it to breathe because it can breathe through little holes in each of its body segments. The only reason it will die is because without a mouth, it can’t eat or drink.
3. At just one day old, a baby cockroach is about the size of a speck of dust.
4. There are more than 4,000 species of cockroaches worldwide. The most common species is the German cockroach.
5. Cockroaches can travel up to three miles in an hour.
6. Cockroaches will eat just about anything, from dead insects to soap to cloth to glue and more. They can also survive several weeks without food, but will die in a week without water.
7. Studies show that cockroaches were around as early as 359 million years ago, which is longer than dinosaurs.
8. Cockroaches are attracted to the sugars and hops in beer.
9. Because they take in air through their bodies, cockroaches can shut down their air intake and hold their breath for up to 40 minutes underwater.
10. Cockroaches can squeeze through a gap as small as a quarter of their body height by flattening their bodies and turning their legs to the side.
If you do have a roach infestation, don’t wait until it gets worse. Call our pest control experts today.