Imagine your home is infested with cockroaches, just the thought of them is enough to make some people’s skin crawl. In an attempt to relieve yourself of its presence, you might have had to deploy numerous strategies. But sometimes these attempts were in vain and you had to resort to whacking it to its death anyway.
Here are 4 facts that you may not have known before about the pest almost everyone detests.
4 Facts About Cockroaches
Can hold their breaths for up to 40 minutes
If drowning is your preferred method to getting rid of a cockroach, you’ll need to make sure it’s kept submerged for at least 30 to 40 minutes. They are able to do this by regulating water loss, using spiracles (small tubes in their body) to transport water vapour out, and shutting these tubes will help them conserve water. So even if you’ve successfully managed to flush a cockroach down the toilet, it doesn’t mean that you’ve effectively gotten rid of it for good. It’ll simply hold its breath until it’s able to find a way out of the sewer or climb out of the toilet to return to terrorise you another day.
Can live without a head for a week
This is one that we’ve all heard of before but don’t know why. A cockroach does not have blood vessels to pump blood flow, so it can survive for another week even without its head. Additionally, an incision on their neck seals through a clotting function almost immediately. Cockroaches also do not breathe through their nose but through spiracles passing their through their tracheae. Despite these pros, being headless does come with a con: they are unable to consume water without their head. So while they can survive without food, they will eventually meet their deaths without water.
Cockroaches GLIDE, not fly
You know the situation has escalated when a cockroach starts flapping its wings. We may think it’s ready to take flight, but they don’t actually have the ability to fly. A cockroach’s wings actually only aid in gliding from one spot to another and getting out of harm’s way. This fact may come with little relief because no one likes it when a cockroach starts ‘flying’ but just know that it’s not actually trying to attack you, but instead finding a way to get away from you.
Can run very fast
If you ever wondered why cockroaches disappear as soon as you return with your weapon of choice, this next fact should answer your question. With their six legs, cockroaches can sprint up to 1.5 metres per second — acting as a way of self defense by making a run from predators. So keeping something nearby might just give you a higher chance of whacking them next time.
The occasional one or two cockroaches may not be too large of an undertaking, but if you’ve identified a horde of them, engaging a cockroach control expert in Singapore like Verminator might be your best option. Having been in the pest management business since 1993, Verminator specialises in getting rid of pests in your home or workplace safely and effectively at affordable rates. Contact us today!