A North Carolina State Univ. discovery of the unique chemical composition of a cockroach signal – a “Let’s hook up” sex pheromone emitted by certain female wood cockroaches to entice potential mates – could have far-ranging benefits, including improved conservation of an endangered woodpecker.
Coby Schal, Professor of Entomology at NC State and the corresponding author of a paper describing the discovery, says that the study, published the week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, advances the knowledge of fundamental biological and chemical properties of an important North American cockroach genus that serves as both a beneficial forest insect and as a pest in homes.
Parcoblatta lata is the largest and most abundant of the wood cockroaches. It also serves as the favored meal of the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. Schal says that the study, which characterized the pheromone and produced a synthetic version of it, could help scientists determine whether certain habitats have enough woodpecker food. If the synthetic pheromone attracts large numbers of adult male P. lata cockroaches, Schal says, then the roach supply is probably ample. Provided that other aspects of the habitat are also right, the area could be a suitable home for red-cockaded woodpeckers.
Besides feeding woodpeckers, Parcoblatta adult males are excellent flyers that occasionally infest houses after being attracted to porch lights. The pheromone could help control wood roaches near homes, Schal says.
Schal and colleagues from New York and California combined a number of study methods to understand P. lata’s aphrodisiac. The team used gas chromatography, in which compounds are separated in a controllable oven, to separate it from other chemical compounds that the roaches produce. By connecting this instrument to the antenna of P. lata and monitoring its electrical activity, the researchers zeroed in on the biologically active compound. They then used nuclear magnetic resonance to determine the pheromone’s chemical structure. Finally, they made a synthetic version of the compound to see if it would attract adult male P. lata.
It did. Perhaps surprisingly, it attracted a few other Parcoblatta species, as well. One common wood roach, however, was conspicuously absent: Parcoblatta pennsylvanica, which ignored the synthetic pheromone. As its name implies, P. pennsylvanica has populations into the Midwest and mid-Atlantic states.
“Parcoblatta cockroaches are endemic to North America; unlike pest cockroaches, they were not introduced from other places,” Schal says. “The compound we identified is a major component of a multi-component sex pheromone blend. So learning that the chemical we identify in this paper attracts some Parcoblatta species but not others tells us something about their evolutionary history.”
The roaches that respond to this pheromone probably make up a group of closely related species, Schal says, which together diverged from other Parcoblatta species that either can’t smell this chemical or are attracted to it only when it’s combined with other, yet to be identified, pheromone components.
Imagine purchasing a cockroach and entering it in a roach race. Well, people of Australia do just that! Yahoo Sports News reported on Australia Day Cockroach Races, which occur once a year at a Queensland hotel. It’s only $5 to purchase the roach, and $5 to enter it into the race. The roaches are all given a number (as seen in the photo), and dumped onto a circular race track. The first roach to reach the end is the winner! The event is so successful that there aren’t always enough roaches, and contestants are urged to bring their own.
The judges of the race mean business. There are a list of rules and regulations for the event, one being testing the roaches for performance enhancers such as caffeine and sugar! Who knew cockroach racing could be so competitive! JP McHale Pest Management found this article to be quite entertaining because we know roaches as pests, not participants in sporting events! Photo Credit
An Arizona woman has taken animal hoarding to a whole new level. She’s not interested in cats or dogs, but rather thousands of rats, cockroaches and tarantulas. The woman referred to her roommates as family, and it bothered her neighbors to no end.
The house has been lost to foreclosure, but for all we know the woman could have relocated to a new area to resume her animal hoarding lifestyle. If you have a neighbor who lives this type of lifestyle, don’t be afraid to speak up! Once this woman’s house was foreclosed upon, it was “…gutted and thoroughly cleaned” proving that there is hope of reviving your neighborhood to its sanitary self.
The stigma tied to cockroaches is predominantly negative. According to information shared by the National Pest Management Association, the negative ties are likely to remain.
The NPMA has announced the confirmation of roaches as major culprits for asthma and allergies, especially in young people.
We’ve mentioned to you before that sanitation is important in keeping pest activity from flourishing in your home or place of business, but this information should prompt you even further to scrub and vacuum those floors!
A recent health article described elements which families should be aware of. The decomposing bodies of cockroaches, as well as their saliva and droppings can be detrimental to your health because they contain what are known as allergen proteins which spark asthma and allergies. To top it all off, cockroaches have spiny sections on their legs which collect and transport disease- causing germs.
Providing your family with a clean home is essential for maintaining good health.
The allergens left behind by these critters are often hard to spot, remaining beneath appliances and other areas out of sight. Proper cleaning tactics can help in prevention of pest infestation. It can be difficult to decipher whether your symptoms are related to cockroaches or seasonal allergens, but if you suspect any roach activity, be sure to call!
Earlier today the NY Post published an article that talks about the vendors in sports areas and how they are not up to the health code. ESPN surveyed 107 sports areas across the county and the results they found are disturbing. The Version Center in Washington, DC topped the list. 100% of the vendors inside the arena were cited with health violations. Madison Square Garden rated the worst among the New York stadiums with 61% of their vendors being cited. Yankee Stadium and Citi Field rated above MGS, but not by much. Yankee Stadium had 48% of their vendors cited and Citi Field had 45%. The health violations include inspectors finding mouse droppings and roaches in the area where food is being prepared. Many spectators were interviewed and most of them had the same response. They are going to continue to go to the sporting events, just going to think twice about getting a hot dog. The spectators are also angry at the fact that they pay good money to see the sporting event and feel the least that the stadium could do is provide them with a healthy food vendor. If you have dropping or cockroaches in your home or business, JP McHale can help. We are a Pest Control Company in Westchester New York that serves the tri-state area. Contact us by phone 800-479-2284, email, live chat, twitter, or facebook for an inspection!
When people go on longs flights, exceeding a few hours, the airlines provide the travelers with a prepared food meal. How do you know if the place where the food is made safe? The FDA recently inspected some of the top airline caterers and the buildings they use to prepare the food in. What they found is both surprising and disturbing. Inside the buildings the FDA discovered employees were handling food with their hands, there were dead and alive cockroaches, ants, and fleas, and some of the areas tested positive for harmful bacteria. After the discovery, a spokesperson said that the company was taking immediate measures for cleaning up the problem. Read the whole NY Post story. JP McHale is a Westchester pest control company that can conduct an inspection for your home or building to check for pests. We also service companies in need of pest control. Simply contact us by phone 800-479-2284, email, live chat, facebook, or twitter.
I recently found a great National Geographic video explaining all about cockroaches. Cockroaches are about 5/8-inch long. They are usually light to medium brown with two dark longitudinal streaks on the thorax. From the way their body is shaped, cockroaches can get into the smallest of cracks. The roaches only need three things to survive: food, water, and warmth. A house has all three! Cockroaches only need to eat once every month. They have large, round eyes and their antenna detects where food and water is. Once a cockroach is alarmed of a human, they dart at a rate of 11 inches per second! Cockroaches reproduce in large amount numbers so if you have a cockroach problem, contact us immediately. For more information or to solve a cockroach problem, contact us by phone 800-479-2284, email, live chat, facebook, or twitter.
AOL.com published an article that describes an England scientist who likes to experiment with cockroaches to examine their behavior. The scientist recently conducted an experiment where he wanted to see if cockroaches’ behavior is social or independent. He wanted to see if cockroaches ate by themselves or in groups. To conduct this experiment he put two slices of food on opposite sides of a 1 x 1 meter box and observed which piece the cockroaches went to. He then formed groups of 50 to 200 cockroaches. In the small groups, there seem to be no preference to which piece they ate but in the larger group, the number was not evenly distributed. In some cases 65% of the roaches would gather around one piece. These results show that somehow the cockroaches communicate between one another and signal to each other that the food is good and everyone should get fed. In his next experiment, he wants to conduct the same experiment but one of the pieces of food will have poison on it to see if the cockroaches would be able to communicate to each other that the food was bad and they should not eat it. Cockroaches travel in groups so if you see one cockroach, there are most likely others. If you have a cockroach problem, contact us by phone 800-479-8422, email, live chat, facebook, or twitter. JPMcHale is one of the leading pest control companies in Westchester, New York.
A home in Etobicoke, Toronto was home for 28 cats and kittens. Neighbors have been complaining for over a year about the smells that were coming out of the house to their neighbors. It wasn’t until recently that the Humane Society went into the household and found the 28 cats and kittens. What they also found was a house that resembled a litter box. Feces, urine, and garbage were all over the place. There was something else in the house. A cockroach infestation that one member of the Humane Society said was the largest amount of roaches he has ever seen in one place at a time. When they went into the house to get the cats, they would pick one cat up and more roaches came out. They were coming out of everywhere. Two women are living there, and that resulted in the Health Department being called in.
Officials said that there were roaches all over the floors and walls. When entering the house, officials wore masks and protective clothing. They said it was unbearable to breath in the house. The cats were taken to the vet and examined. Most were ok, while some were treated for respiratory problems. Once they are taken care of, they will be put up for adoption. The rescue was the largest single rescue that the Etobicoke Humane Society has ever done. The amount of roaches and the conditions found were considered “horrifying” to the officials.
Chinatown restaurants in Ottawa, Ontario Canada are struggling to keep its restaurants up the Ontario’s Health Standards. 23 of the 42 restaurants in the district have been found to have non-critical infractions that affect food safety. However, 18 of the 42 have been found to have critical infractions. What has caused these infractions? Cockroaches and Mice have been rampant in these restaurants. Cockroaches and Mice have used the large areas and the big staff to make these new restaurants their home. What makes Cockroaches so concerning is the fact that they can hold up to 40 eggs, so when they give birth, there is another 40 possible Cockroaches coming. Mice have also been linked to infesting restaurants for many years.
It isn’t just the lower rung of restaurants having this problem. For example, Chu Shing, the largest restaurant on the block, and may be the most popular restaurant in the area, has been hit. Chu Shing has line that are notoriously long just to get into the place. Waits of up to a half hour isn’t an unusually occurence. However, Chu Shing has been hit with a Cockroach problem. They have a pest control company come about every 2 weeks. After getting hit with a bunch of critical and non-critical infractions, the popular restaurant got the all important word that it was clean from infractions. The district has made its restaurants go through a safety training, and all that have taken it has passed. However, even with the training, cockroaches and mice continue to linger around these restaurants, and its going to be hard to get rid of all of them.
A North Carolina State Univ. discovery of the unique chemical composition of a cockroach signal – a “Let’s hook up” sex pheromone emitted by certain female wood cockroaches to entice potential mates – could have far-ranging benefits, including improved conservation of an endangered woodpecker.
Imagine purchasing a cockroach and entering it in a roach race. Well, people of Australia do just that! 
Providing your family with a clean home is essential for maintaining good health.
