Cockroaches lurk behind refrigerators!
Cockroaches live where it is dark, and they prefer a humid environment. This is why cellars, outbuildings and bathrooms are good places for cockroaches to live, mate and produce even more cockroaches. However, this does not mean that cockroaches will not seek out drier environments.
Cockroaches can wander far and wide through a property, and they have no trouble migrating at night. This allows them to find new places to live that may provide more nourishment than where they came from. Scent trails and pheromones summon other cockroaches, and this is normally done through secretion in their droppings. In this way, they follow each other’s trails, establishing themselves in new areas should they prove to be a lucrative source of food.
Cockroaches breed by laying eggs. It takes anywhere from 2 to 6 months for cockroaches to develop into adults, depending on whether the environment they are in is warm or cold. The optimum temperature for cockroaches is about 25 degrees, but they seek cool, dark places to hide away in during the daytime. Cockroaches come out at night, when they become active, search for food and breed.
Cockroaches will eat almost anything. They are active during the night and hide in cracks and crevices during the day, where they can often be found behind kitchen appliances, near sinks, behind heating pipes and so on.
Cockroaches can spread diseases and bacteria including the following:
- Salmonella
- Dysentery
- Dyspepsia
- Typhoid fever
The risk of infection is higher in homes with elderly people, children or people who are already weakened by another disease.
Cockroaches are definitely a pest when it comes to foods. They leave droppings behind everywhere on the foods they eat, and also contaminate other foods as they move around inside drawers and cupboards.
It is important to store all of your food securely, preferably in plastic containers, so the cockroaches are unable to reach your food. If you have a larder or a cool cellar, you will find it more difficult to get rid of cockroaches. This is both because food is readily-accessible here, and because cockroaches prefer dark, humid environments. If you notice that areas with foods are infested, it is important to react immediately, as this is something that can rapidly get out of hand and develop into a situation that is difficult to get under control again.
Newer properties are not infested with visits from hungry cockroaches as often as older premises. This is because it is harder for cockroaches to enter newer properties due to modern building regulations requirements regarding the density of building materials. Access is easier for a cockroach to live in an older house with cracks and crevices where there are water pipes, electrical supply lines and the like. Cockroaches do not need much in the way of space to get in.
Climate change may bring southern European cockroaches to Denmark. The question is whether the Nordic climate is changing in a way that makes the living conditions for the large southern cockroaches better at these latitudes?
We do not yet know how much the temperature needs to rise before cockroaches from the South start migrating here. But we mustn’t close our eyes to the fact that if living conditions for these large cockroaches become optimal in Denmark, then they will soon show up here.
As it hasn´t yet reached that stage, we can rejoice in the fact that we only have to fight the smaller species of cockroach that are more easily dealt with. That isn´t to say that Danish cockroaches are welcome visitors – it is merely pointing out that at least the cockroaches in Denmark are not as large as their southern counterparts. But, of course, cockroaches in Denmark are still a pest, and are both harmful and a nuisance.