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The German cockroach is a small (13 mm), light brown or tan roach. A serious household pest, it chews on paper or other materials and forages in dark pantries and cupboards for food. The female German roach may produce four to eight egg capsules in her lifetime, each containing up to 50 eggs. Unlike most other roaches, they carry the egg capsule protruding from their abdomen for about two weeks until the eggs are ready to hatch. The egg case is dropped and nymphs emerge to pass through seven molts in the following 6 to 8 weeks. Life span for the German cockroach is four months or less, with several generations per year. Cockroaches can cause childhood asthma and can contaminate food with certain bacterial diseases that result in food poisoning and dysentery.
Image and text copyright © Dennis Kunkel. All rights reserved. |
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