An interview with a brownbanded cockroach (Supella longipalpa).
Photo: Clemson University – USDA Cooperative Extension Slide Series, Bugwood.org
Pest Management Professional (PMP): Thanks for agreeing to this interview, although I must say, meeting in the library isn’t super-conducive to talking.
Brownbanded cockroach (BC): A thousand apologies, but I really couldn’t risk being elsewhere. I need to be warm and dry, and I have a weakness for paper. [Gestures with a jointed leg.] Besides, look at the crown molding, the framed paintings on the walls, the many ceiling light fixtures, the high-rise shelves, the closets, the filing cabinets and the desks. And thanks to the internet, the book areas are rarely disturbed! I just try to stay away from computer keyboards, since they are rife with scaredy-cat humans. Although I must say, the hum of a nice, warm printer is a siren song to me sometimes. I’m also partial to coffee brewing stations.
PMP: Are you discovered very often?
BC: I try to go out during the evenings, but sometimes the desire for starch — or any food, really — makes me venture out during the day. What really throttles my thorax, though, is when someone shouts “Ewwww, a roach!” and everyone just assumes I’m German. There are other species besides Blattella germanica, you know, and I’m a lot more petite than those big galoots. Heck, I’m not even in the Blattella genus: I’ve got a genus all to myself.
PMP: Is it perhaps because you and German cockroaches both have dark bands?
BC: [Bristles a bit.] Those ol’ Croton bugs have two dark, distinctive bands behind their heads. Mine are much lighter and along my wings — and, dare I say, much prettier. I mean, it’s my common name, for Linneaus’ sake!
PMP: When we set up this interview yesterday, you had just found out you were expecting. Congratulations! How are you feeling?
BC: Aw, thanks, but it’s no big deal. We females carry an egg capsule about 14 times in our lifetime, which, since we average a lifespan of about 206 days, is like once every couple weeks. [She gestures to her underside, where the capsule is attached.] I’ve been “with ootheca” this time for about 14 hours, which only gives me about 10 to 22 hours more to find a good place for the young ’uns to hatch. I’d wager that I have an average ootheca going on this time — about 10 to 18 eggs.
PMP: Wow, that seems like a lot to raise all at once.
BC: Oh, they grow up so fast — 90 days in a lovely environment such as this. If we were in a noisy or cold or humid place, it could take almost a whole lifetime just for them to develop. I try to give mine a decent upbringing, since their skinny little fathers can never be bothered to help. Those males are just off scavenging along, thinking only of themselves, trying to fly and occasionally making a short flight. [Rolls eyes.]
PMP: Do you get much help from your nestmates?
BC: You know, we’re pretty much a band of loners, as it were. I see a sister brownbanded cockroach now and then, and I pass by my offspring on occasion. But unlike those other cockroach species, we’re hardly the co-dependent type. It helps in our elusiveness, really. And when I need to get another ootheca going, I just send some sex pheromone out into the environs and well [blushes], I’ve never had much trouble from there.
PMP: I see. Well, thanks again for the interview. I don’t want to hold you up on your egg capsule placement hunt any longer.
BC: Much obliged. I have my eyes on the underside of a nicely upholstered chair across the room. It’s going to be a hike, and the dangers are many. This is the large-print books area and it’s full of old humans stomping around and asking the staff for help all the time. [Sighs.] The things we do for our offspring!
Editor Heather Gooch can be reached at hgooch@northcoastmedia.net or 330-321-9754.
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