American Cockroach

• It goes through 10 to 14 moults before reaching adulthood, one of the longest nymphal developments of any common cockroach.
• It eats practically any organic material, food scraps, paper and other waste included.
• It is an extremely abundant synanthropic species, found in sewers, cellars and towns the world over.
• fisiologíaIt can survive several weeks without its head, since it breathes through small body openings and does not need the brain for basic functions; in the end it dies of thirst.
• Despite the name, it is not American: it comes from Africa and reached the Americas on the ships of the colonial trade.
• It is the largest of the common household cockroaches, at up to 5.3 cm, and the adult can live more than two years.
• The males have full wings and fly when disturbed; the females' are shorter and they do not fly.
• The nymph takes between six months and a year to become adult, passing through ten to fourteen moults.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton

Habitat & environment

Warm, humid places worldwide — sewers, cellars and towns — though native to Africa and the Middle East

Birth weight

A newly hatched nymph, whitish and darkening quickly

Size at birth

A whitish nymph on hatching, darkening to the characteristic reddish brown within hours

Sexual maturity

Full development from egg to adult takes between 168 and 786 days depending on conditions

Gestation / incubation

38-49 days of ootheca incubation

Litter / clutch size

14 to 16 eggs per ootheca, with 6 to 90 oothecae produced by a female in her lifetime

Sources consulted: Terminix; University of Arizona Extension; PestNow; PeskyLittleCritters; PMC (life-history traits study); Oklahoma State University Extension; UF/IFAS Entomology