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Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Cockroaches and crickets

I had forgotten that there are so many cockroaches in Las Vegas. They are a very common insect here. And it's not like the only time you see them is if there is a mess or some food left out or something...NO! They are everywhere...not like swarms of them, but one or two here and there. Scampering across the sidewalk, hiding out in the garage, crawling around in strange places where you least expect them. Generally I'm not really freaked out too much by insects, but cockroaches give me the willies and gross me out every time.

I found the info online about Las Vegas roaches....
The cockroach may be the most objectionable household insect. They consume human food and contaminate it with saliva and excrement. They also produce secretions that impart a characteristic stinking odor. There are more than 3,500 known roach species, 57 of which are in the United States. Most of the roaches observed in the Las Vegas area are German, Oriental, American, or brown- banded. Cockroaches can carry boils, dysentery, hepatitis, plague, salmonella, typhus, and several other diseases. Cockroaches are primarily carbohydrate eaters. They feed on just about anything of vegetable origin. But cockroaches also like meat. While they prefer starch, they thrive on grease, sweets, paper, soap, cardboard, book bindings, ink, shoe polish, and even dirty clothes. They've been known to gnaw on a fingernail while people sleep and on infants' eyelashes. They are especially fond of beer. Cockroaches can live for 3 months without food and for 30 days without water. Since they taste their food before eating it, they learn to avoid chemically-treated products. Therefore, most chemicals do not provide good long-term control. Pesticide sprays, such as chlorpryrifos, will kill only nymphs and adults. Therefore, to be effective, the pesticide would have to be applied 2 or 3 times at 2 week intervals to kill new nymphs as the eggs hatch. The one-shot killing of mature cockroaches may provide the homeowner with a false sense of security because the egg stage remains a potential pest problem.
Crickets are another very common insect in Las Vegas. If one gets in the house at night and cant find its way out, it can be VERY annoying. It will chirp all night. Generally they stay outside though and it you go out and sit in the quiet of the night you will undoubtedly hear them calling out....chirpchirp, chirp, chirpchirp.

Living in Bethel, I'm really not used to having any kind of insect around anymore, so it's weird to see/hear insects living around me. Vegas also has several types of poisonous spiders such as the black widow and brown recluse, but I havent seen any of those this summer.

1 comment:

Christine said...

ack!! I haven't seen those since we left Texas. *shudder*

And there are plenty of mosquitos in Bethel...