Wood Roach
All About The Wood Roach
With the exception of the Madagascar hissing cockroach, who is a beloved pet and amazing specimen of nature to many cultures, the wood roach stands a few heads above his lesser cockroach cousins. Not bigger, by any means, as he rarely gains a length of more than 1 ¼ inches. And not in presentation, either, as he tends to closely resemble his direct relative, the American cockroach. He is shiny, reclusive, and will remain a proud husband and father for the entirety of his long life. That’s right; the wood roach is monogamous and takes a lead role beside his lifelong mate in the raising of their precious offspring.
This is an extremely exceptional feat, and is of great interest to the scientific and naturalist communities the world over. The wood roach has a life span of up to five years, with the egg, larvae, and nymph stages taking up two of those years. The new adults will finally leave the home of their parents and head out in search of their own soul mates. Sadly, an estimated six, out of the original 48 to 100, youngsters will be the only ones to survive and raise families of their own. As the young males fly about in search of the telling odor of a perspective mate, they can be easily distracted by porch lights, bon fires, and the like. This normally spells disaster for the species, as the females will perish without a mate. Unfortunately, when these males end up indoors, they are commonly mistaken for “dirty” roaches, and executed without trial.
Once a pair has decided on matrimony, they will mate and begin their search for a quaint, quiet, moist, and dark little home in which to raise their children. Ideally, a rotting log which is still quite hard on the outer surface will be the found, and here the long marriage will take root. Both mother and father will feed the larvae and nymphs a specialized diet which is excreted from the end of the abdomen, AKA the anus. This food will begin to support the nymphs need for the chemical it will eventually use to digest wood as his parents do. These feeding will carry on for over one year, until the large nymph decides that he is ready to consume a strict wood diet.
The family structure of the wood roach is quite fantastic, and is a rare wonder to behold. When these roaches do become accidental visitors in human homes, it is important to try and differentiate him from a more loathsome pest. The wood roach will not scurry or dart into congregational areas such as those between walls and cupboards. He is quite amiable and sluggish, and is not sensitive to either light or dark. He does not carry disease or bacteria, nor does he pose any threat to your furnishings, foundation, or structure. He didn’t mean to come in, or maybe you cut up his home for your fireplace and he has been harshly displaced because of it.