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COCKROACH & LIFECYCLE

Cockroaches are insects belonging to order Blattodea.

They represent a primitive and highly successful group of insects whose origins extend back at least 300 million years.

While there are about 3500 species of cockroach world wide, only about ten species have seriously exploited the dwellings of humans.

Cockroaches reproduce sexually which often involves attractant pheromones usually secreted by the female.

Eggs developed in the female and may contain 12 – 40 eggs depending on conditions. Baby cockroach (Nymphs) development involves a number of moults and may take up to 2 – 4 months.

Adult life span may be a few months to over a year and in this time each female may produce about 5 – 30 oothecae depending on the species and condition for growth.

Cockroaches are Omnivorous (virtually eat anything), mostly nocturnal and hide during the day.

Why Are Cockroach Considered a Pest?

While there role in the transmission of disease to humans is usually the main concern, there are various reasons for their pest status:

Contamination
Annoyance Or Fear Reaction
Odour
Allergic Reactions
Disease Transmission

Common Types of Cockroach

German Cockroach
American Cockroach
Smokybrown Cockroach
Australian Cockroach
Oriental Cockroach
Brown Banded Cockroach

Australian Cockroach

American Cockroach

Smokey Brown Cockroach

German Cockroach

Oriental Cockroach

RODENTS

Whislt the vast majority of pest in urban environments are arthropods, certain mammals have established themselves over the years as extremely important pests of humans. Mammals are characterised by being warm blooded and covered with fur or hair and by their habit of suckling their young. Within the large mammal group , rats and mice belong to the group known as Rodents. This name referrers to their gnawing habit, which is necessary to control the size of their characteristic, chisel shaped font incisor teeth.

The Rodents that are of great concern, not just in Australia but many countries are:

House Mouse
Norway Rat
Roof Rat

Throughout history, rats and mice have been responsible for enormous losses of food and to their ability to transmit disease to humans by a variety of means:

Contamination of food or utensils
Direct contamination with urine and faeces
Indirect contamination via blood sucking parasites such as fleas

The distribution and abundance of pest Rodents is largely determined by the availability of food and shelter.

Being social animals, rats and mice live in groups. Indoors, they may construct nests in wall voids, in roofs voids, under floors and even within stored foods. Out of doors they may nest in burrows adjacent to waterways, under buildings, rubbish tips, rubbish piles and other places where food and shelter are within reasonable range.

Rats are very much creatures of habit, tending to use the same routes of travel to and from food sources for as long as possible. They are referred to as Neophobic, they have fear of new objects or changes in their familiar environment. This can be the cause for disinterest in a new bait station for the first few days.

Mice on the other hand are very curious and adventurous creatures. Mice often investigate new food sources within a very short period of time, and they prefer nibbling at small amounts of food at numerous different locations. This preference for feeding is to be taken into account on mouse baiting programs.

House Mouse

Roof Rat / Norway Rat

SPIDERS-TICKS-MITES

Members of the class Arachnida. They have eight jointed legs and their bodies are divided into two sections, Cephalothorax and Abdomen.

The body and legs may be heavily or sparsely clothed with hairs. Although the general appearance of Arachnids varies, their basic structure remain the same.

Life-Cycle : After the female has been fertilised, the male is often caught and consumed by the female. The mature female spider produces an egg sac. The egg sac is round and composed of rough web material in the case of Redbacks. Some spiders leave their sacs near their habitats or in burrows The eggs hatch inside the egg sac and the young moult once before emerging. By successive moults they reach the adult stage.

Most web spinning spiders life cycle is 12 months, but some ground dwelling spiders develop slower and appear to have a life cycle of many years.

Most Arachnids are nocturnal. During the day they are seldom seen unless disturbed in their natural environment. When daylight fades they leave the protection of their burrows or shelters and go out in search of food or, in the case of web spinning spiders, construct their webs to snare their food.

TICKS

Ticks have their head, thorax and abdomen fused into one region and in this way may be distinguished from spiders. Ticks may cause the death of warm blooded animals by introducing toxins into the bloodstream, or cause non-fatal infections. Continuity of growth depends on the tick obtaining a blood meal to enable it to pass from one stage of its life cycle to the next and the adult female must have a blood meal for the protein that enables it to produce eggs. The adult male does not feed on blood and therefore does not become attached to an animal host.

MITES

Mites are minute animals, 0.1 – 2.0mm in length, which have unsegmented abdomens and four pairs of legs in the adult stage. They obtain oxygen through their body surface.

Many mites tend to feed on fungi which, like the mites themselves favour moist conditions.

Mites are mostly associated with moist or humid conditions and for this reason are seldom pest in airconditioned buildings.

When a bird nest is removed from a roof cavity and the area is not treated, those mites often descend to the interior causing temporary irritation to the occupants of the house.