The Oriental cockroach (scientific name: Blatta orientalis) is the largest cockroach in the world.
Oriental cockroaches are extremely greedy, and they like to eat all kinds of food, whether dirty, smelly, or fragrant, or human sputum and feces. They often vomit part of the food they have eaten from their stomachs and excrete feces on the food, which not only has a bad smell, but also has the function of spreading bacteria. They are gregarious and live in groups during the day in dark and hidden places, such as various gaps in warehouses and processing plants, and gaps in kitchens and canteens such as stove walls, cabinets, and chopping boards. At night, they move around, are active, and crawl very fast. When they encounter sudden strong light, noise, and vibration, they will immediately flee. The dorsal glands have holes that can secrete oily liquid with a special odor. They have wings and can fly, but their flying ability is very poor. The most suitable activity temperature is 20-33℃.
Oriental cockroaches have a long life span. Under abnormal food and temperature conditions, it takes more than 2 years to complete a generation. Under the most adapted conditions, the life span can be as short as half a year. Male nymphs develop significantly faster than female nymphs. When both sexes are mature, they can mate in 4-9 days, and produce egg sheaths in 8-10 days. Within 1-2 days, the entire egg sheath is laid in a place with abundant food. Occasionally, parthenogenesis occurs. A female nymph lays an average of 8 egg sheaths, each containing 16-18 eggs. Under normal circumstances, they hatch in 40-50 days, but in winter, the eggs may hibernate until the temperature warms up. The nymph stage is 130-165 days for males and 280-300 days for females. They shed their skin 7-8 times to grow into adults, and the adult stage is 35-180 days.
Prevention and control measures: 1. Always keep the hidden places clean. To find the source of insects, you can suddenly turn on the lights at night when the cockroaches are active, observe where there are cockroaches and where they are running, and then find their hidden places and eliminate them. 2. For sheltered places, you can use dichlorvos or 1% lindane oil, or 1-2% lindane powder, or sprinkle lime powder in places where cockroaches often come and go. 3. Apply paper bars and lime (500 grams of paper bars plus 50 kilograms of lime, then add water to make a coating) to all gaps to fill the gaps. 4. If there are too many cockroaches in warehouses, factories or indoors and the harm is serious, sulfur or aluminum phosphide can be used for fumigation and elimination.
