During summer, more and more people are seeing cockroaches within their homes or businesses. The warmer weather certainly speeds up the hatching of any eggs and a small problem can escalate to a major issue pretty quickly, cockroaches can withstand a Melbourne winter and cause problems for businesses and residential properties all year round.
These are the 3 main cockroaches quite a few of you will see during the summer months, whether it is at home, office or workplace.
GERMAN COCKROACH
This is the most feared cockroach for business owners especially cafes and restaurants but infestations can be rife in households too.
The German Cockroach is 12-15mm in length, light amber brown with 2 dark stripes on its pronotum (head). The time frame from hatching to adulthood can be as little as 40 days and each egg case a female produces can contain up to 30 eggs. So infestations can get out of control very quickly in the warmer months.
The German Cockroach commonly infests internal areas of buildings, especially kitchens, pantries and food handling areas.
They are found behind stoves, hot water services, in and around dishwashers, coffee machines, drains, grease traps, under sinks, cupboards, fridge/freezer
motors, microwaves and various other appliances as well as wall cavities, roof voids and subfloor areas. The German Cockroach prefer warm, moist areas, so kitchens and bathrooms are particularly at risk but can infest computers, phones etc. If you’re seeing this cockroach in other areas of your premises you could be harbouring a large infestation.
The threat of disease transmission to humans is significantly high with this cockroach as they tend to walk on food preparation areas, utensils and leave behind regurgitation marks and bacteria from their bodies, they also can contaminate food stocks which can cause gastroenteritis among other food poisoning conditions.