How to Identify Florida Roaches
There’s an old adage that the only good roach is a dead roach. If you’ve ever had an intrusion of cockroaches scatter in your kitchen, you probably agree! A group of cockroaches is called an intrusion, by the way. The truth is that cockroaches play a pretty vital role in outdoor ecosystems. There are good roaches… But the odds of them being in your home are very slim. Roaches you see inside are never a good thing. Some are bigger problems than others.
That’s why it pays to learn how to identify roaches. In this article we’ll help you identify each of Florida’s most common roaches. While there are over 70 species in America, you’re really looking out for the big three: American, Asian, and German roaches.
How to Identify an American Cockroach
We’ll start with one that has a cutesy nickname. The American cockroach is sometimes erroneously called a palmetto bug. They’re found in places other than palmettos, though. In fact, ‘palmetto bug’ properly refers to the wood roach, which lives outdoors. If you see a large cockroach, it’s likely an American cockroach. It’s the single largest species of invasive, home-dwelling cockroaches.
They have huge bodies, a dark reddish-brown body with orange edges to their wings and backs. They can use their wings to glide short distances, such as across a room. They prefer to live outside like palmetto bugs, but they will happily come inside for a meal looking for pet food or water. Unfortunately, they are about three inches long. You will not mistake an American roach for another variety.
How to Identify Asian Cockroaches
Asian cockroaches are about half an inch long. They’re mercifully much smaller than American cockroaches. They have light brown, beige bodies with two black stripes behind their black eyes. They’re easily mistaken for German cockroaches, but you can tell them apart by their wings. Their wings are a bit longer than their bodies, showing very little of the body below. Their middles are a bit wider, too. Like American roaches, they’d rather be outside, but they can come inside as they are attracted to light.
How to Identify German Cockroaches
Here’s the worst of the bunch. German roaches are a bit darker than Asian cockroaches on average and have shorter wings. This is the most common roach in the country, and as the name implies, it is an introduced species. If you see a lot of roaches at once, you’ve stumbled onto German cockroaches more likely than not.
These roaches are destructive, and unlike the other two, they exclusively live indoors. They’re perfectly adapted for causing trouble in human homes. These roaches move into each room in your home, laying eggs anywhere they can. A single female roach only needs to mate a single time. After that, she can spend seven months laying tens of thousands of cockroach eggs. If a single female roach makes it into your home, you have a major disaster on your hands. You can NOT kill them all yourself, no matter what products you use.
Florida Roaches – What to Do If You See a German Cockroach
Don’t even hesitate. As we’ve written on our website before, the German cockroach is a pest that can quickly take over and contaminate a home. Call Consolidated Pest Control the minute you see German roaches. To tell it apart from an Asian roach, check its wings. The wings will be shorter than the body of a German cockroach. You also typically won’t see German roach nymphs indoors.
