Cockroaches are part of the order DICTYOPTERA and of the sub-order

BLATTODEA. They are rather flat insects with quite long antennae and
also long spiky legs, boy!! can they move. Most of them have wings but can
only fly when temperatures are quite high. Generally speaking, cockroaches
are omnivorous, in other words they will eat anything, including each other
if there is no other food source available.

Cockroaches are regarded as a primitive insects and fossil species from the
Carboniferous period, that's about 250 million years ago, are very like those
known today. There are about 3,500 different species of cockroach with the
vast majority living in the open and almost never coming into contact with
man. The majority of cockroaches are tropical with only a few small species
native to our wonderful climate, but those tropical ones which have found
their way here, in the last 200 hundred years, are pretty much dependant
upon our heated buildings, especially hospitals, laundries and kitchens
where conditions are hot and steamy.

Cockroaches are very gregarious, like to party and boogey on down, yeah
man..!!, and they emit an aggregation pheromone, in other words a gathering
together smell, which is why you see lots of them together when there is a
problem. On this page I am only going to cover the four main species which
give us problems in the U.K.

DISTRIBUTION:
Cockroaches are common in commercial premises associated with the
production or handling of food. Also in public buildings and domestic
premises eg blocks of flats. Gregarious and nocturnal, they spend the day
hiding in cracks and crevices around such areas as sinks, drains, cookers, the
backs of cupboards and in refrigerator motor compartments. They especially
favour buildings with service ducts and complex plumbing installations.
Infestations may be introduced as egg cases or adults in incoming laundry,
on raw materials, in crates and packaging, or arise as the insects enter
buildings via such routes as drains or refuse chutes.

SIGNIFICANCE:
Cockroaches are potential vectors of diseases such as dysentery,
gastroenteritis, typhoid and poliomyelitis. Their diet is omnivorous and
includes fermenting substances, soiled septic dressings, hair, leather,
parchment, wallpaper, faeces and food for human consumption. The latter
may be contaminated either by the mechanical transfer of causative agents
of disease from the insect’s body, or by transmission in the faeces. An
outbreak of food poisoning in a Brussels hospital subsided immediately an
infestation of B. germanica was controlled.
Cockroaches and their faeces may cause allergic reactions especially
amongst sensitive individuals eg asthmatics. Exposure may result from
ingestion or through the inhalation of materials derived from cockroaches in
airborne dust. In addition, food may be tainted with the characteristic smell
of the cockroach, which is produced by faeces and salivary/abdominal gland
secretions, or by the dead insects.

Structure of Insecta Respiratory System.

Eg.cockroach
The blood of cockroach is not responsible for the transportation of gases, it
serves as a stationary medium for exchange of gases.A complicated system
of numerous, shiny, transparent and branched air tubes or tracheae are found
for gaseous exchange in the haemocoel cavity.
There are 6 longitudinal tracheal tubes -2 dorsal, 2 ventral and 2 lateral which
are interconnected by transverse commissures. Chitinous rings prevent
collapse of trachea.
Atmospheric air enters into and escapes out from this system through ten
pairs of slit-like apertures called stigmata or spiracles located on lateral sides
of the body.
Two pairs of these are thoracic and eight pairs are abdominal.Thoracic
spiracles are some what larger. One pair of these in between prothorax and
the other between mesothorax and metathorax upon respective pleurites.
The first pair of abdominal spiracle are dorsolateral upon tergite of first
abdominal segment, but the remaining seven pairs are upon the pleurites of
second to eight segments.Each spiracle is surrounded by a ring-like sclerite
called peritreme.