
Cockroaches, or roaches, are probably some of the least welcome insects people encounter in their homes, kitchens, offices, restaurants, or landscapes. Indoor cockroaches can create significant public health problems by contaminating food and producing allergens.
To help manage both indoor and outdoor cockroaches, UC Cooperative Extension IPM Advisor Andrew Sutherland and UC Riverside entomologists Dong-Hwan Choe and Michael Rust tackle the challenge of cockroach management in the newly revised Pest Notes: Cockroaches.
What's new in this version?
Since it's critical to first identify...
/h2>- Author: Andrew Sutherland
- Posted by: Elaine Lander

Two species of Blatta cockroaches can be common peridomestic pests in California, including the familiar oriental cockroach (B. orientalis) and a relative newcomer, the Turkestan cockroach (B. lateralis, Figure 1). Adults of both species are large (usually one inch or more in length) and conspicuous insects that harbor and breed outdoors within moist crevices around structures, such as subsurface utility ports, voids associated with concrete expansion joints, and soil cracks formed at junctions of landscape and hardscape elements (Figure 2).
From these harborage sites, cockroaches venture out at night to feed on a wide variety of...

Last Saturday, UC IPM staff greeted a swarm of visitors at their Picnic Day booth. Picnic Day, UC Davis' annual Open House event, invites people to visit the campus and interact with fun and educational exhibits. UC IPM has participated in Picnic Day for more than a decade and this year attracted visitors to their booth with live insects like hissing cockroaches, a termite colony, and crane flies. UC IPM staff answered many questions about pests, pesticides, and cleared up misconceptions about some common insects.
What did we talk with people about?
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice

![Female German cockroach with egg case. [J.K. Clark]](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/UCIPMurbanpests/blogfiles/43940small.jpg)
Most of us have clutter we've hidden away in closets, drawers, garages, or in other storage space. Although you may not have the time or energy to go through these excess “stuff” and cluttered areas, we have an incentive for you: pest reduction and prevention.
Consider the following pests when thinking whether you should reduce clutter and get rid of unneeded items in your house:
Cockroaches may come into contact with human and pet excrement and can transmit bacteria to food. They prefer to hide in warm, moist environments. The German cockroach female is capable of laying over 30,000 eggs per year,...