Interesting Facts About Cockroach

Cockroach, the name itself instils repugnance. Yes, these creatures are creepy, probably creepiest of the creepy, but they too have a life, a really interesting one at that. These creatures are the dwellers of the dark, and they are out with a purpose, well, to eat, that is. No matter how ominous they appear on the outside for they too have a mushy (in)side, quite literally. These pests have been ruling the dark corners of the world for more than 280 million years, much before the humans, and even dinosaurs. So don’t be astonished if one fine day they come out claiming which, technically speaking, was theirs first (yeah, we are talking about roaches taking over the world). If you, like us, are believers of this theory then there is only one way to stop the obvious: eat those bastards (only a figurative speech), as these already are considered delicacies in many parts of the world. This is not the end of them though (pun intended), for there are many more such interesting facts to keep you hooked till the end of the page and make you respect them a little more. Have a read!

Fast Facts

Common Name: Cockroach
Scientific Name: Blattaria
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Class: Insecta
Subclass: Pterygota
Infraclass: Neoptera
Superorder: Dictyoptera
Order: Blattodea
Common Species: Blattella germanica, Blaptica dubia, Blatta orientalis, Blattella asahinai, Gromphadorhina portentosa, laxta granicollis, Periplanetaamericana, Periplaneta australasiae, Supella longipalpa
Found: Worldwide
Diet: Omnivore
Average Clutch Size: 40
Size: 1.5 to 5 cm
Number of Species:  Above 4,000
Average Lifespan: 18 months
Skin Type: Shell (Exoskeleton)

Interesting & Fun Facts About Cockroach

• There are about 4500 known and classified species of cockroaches found all over the world.
• Cockroaches wear their skeleton inside out, meaning they have an exoskeleton.
• You will be amazed if you bruised your skin and started bleeding white, but for roaches, it is quite natural as these little creatures have white blood.
• Cockroaches have mouths which work sideways meaning they have to put food in their mouth from sides.
• Most cockroaches have a nice set of wings called diaphanous, which are translucent and help them in flight. Although they cannot fly for longer distances because of their heavy bodies (as compared to the weight of their wings).
• When a human grows, he outgrows his clothes; when a cockroach grows, it outgrows its exoskeleton. Hence, these tiny creatures have to shed their exoskeletons to grow out a new one, several times a year.
• A cockroach cannot chew. It spits out a chemical from its mouth which liquefies the food. This soft food too takes about forty eight hours to move through the guts of a cockroach.
• Cockroach has no heart; it just has a tube with various valves. This tube itself pumps blood inside the insect. And the beauty of this pseudo-heart is that it can stop functioning without harming the roach.
• When a female cockroach is ready to mate, it produces a peculiar odour which attracts males towards it. This odour makes a male cockroach behave in a strangely wild manner. Also astonishing is the fact that a female cockroach stays pregnant for rest of its life after mating just once.
• When a male cockroach is interested in mating, it offers female a bundle called spermatophore, which contains its sperms wrapped in a protein rich covering which female can eat to obtain nutrients.
• All cockroaches which are found in America are immigrants. Meaning, there are no species of cockroaches native to America; they came to America through global shipping, along with the early settlers.
• Cockroaches were probably the first sailors from the insect world, as they were brought to most parts of the world on wooden ships by early merchants and travellers. A popular sailor story about roaches is related to the war ship H.M.S. Bounty, which was so infested by these gruesome creatures that captain of the ship, Captain William Bligh, a British Admiral popular for his mean temper, got the entire ship disinfected with boiling water.
• Cockroaches may cause allergies and respiratory problems in young children which seems similar to asthma.
• The largest known roach in the world, living in South America, is six inches long and has a wingspan of one foot. This also makes it the largest flying insect known to human.
• Cockroaches are omnipresent; they are found in every part of the world. Though most species live in hot and humid conditions of the tropics, some are also found in colder including north and the south poles.
• It seems as if these insects have already prepared themselves for the apocalypse, as they can survive without food for a month; all they need to have is water and that too, once in a week.
• Roaches are good swimmers; they can virtually walk across a water body. Even under water, they can hold their breath for as long as 40 minutes. The problem (for us) is just that these pests don’t breath through nose but through sides, hence making it quite difficult to come out to the surface to breath.
• Cockroaches are quite lazy creatures. If given a chance, these couch potatoes might hibernate at the drop of a hat. The fact is that these creatures spend almost seventy five percent of their time resting and in the remaining, they eat.
• Interestingly, if you want to find out if a cockroach is active or is resting then you just need to look at its antennae. If these are pointing up and forward at an approximate angle of sixty degree to each other then the creature is resting.
• The bodies of cockroaches are designed in such a way that they can crawl into astonishingly small spaces. Young roaches can crawl into a half millimetre space without much problem, whereas grownup roaches can get into a crack which is just 1.6 mm wide.
• At times, you must have come across white cockroaches. These are the ones which have recently shed their skin. They come back to their natural colour in a few hours.
• It is a widely known fact that a roach can live headless for almost a week, but no longer than that as it cannot survive without water.