Despite having a reputation for being urban dwellers, American cockroaches inhabit a variety of environments throughout the country. These roaches usually live outdoors, using pheromones to communicate with other roaches about habitats and food. American cockroaches typically remain in one area or neighborhood with other members of their families.

These roaches live in warm areas with lots of moisture. Underground infrastructures create the perfect conditions for American cockroaches to thrive in larger cities. Outside of cities, they can be found in mulch, gardens, roof shingles, wood piles and other similar places.

When they move indoors, these roaches commonly live in bathrooms, kitchens and basements. They can enter through garages and windows, under doors that aren’t properly sealed or through holes in a roof. Crawl spaces, drains and kitchen cabinets are amongst other places you might find them living inside a building.

• American cockroaches are expert scavengers with a diet that includes almost anything. Their preferred food sources are decaying materials, especially organic matter. American roaches eat items ranging from sugary foods to wallpaper, book bindings to feces and many, many other things.

• With access to food and water, an adult American cockroach can live for over a year. A female roach lays sixteen eggs at a time and over its lifetime can lay up to two hundred eggs or more. They usually hide their eggs in places that are difficult to access and sometimes cover the entrance with scrap materials.

• Outside, American cockroaches come together in groups, sometimes in the open. They follow each other’s trails to food and water. These roaches tend to stay in neighborhoods where their familial group lives. Sometimes, an infestation will migrate between buildings during the warmer months. Municipal landfills, which trap heat, can become infested by roaches hiding for the winter.

• American cockroaches are also fast runners. If you spot one, it will probably run under an appliance, through a hole or into another hiding place. They can also fly away from danger—otherwise, they rarely use their wings to fly. This makes it difficult to pinpoint where these roaches are living without professional help.

• Since American cockroaches eat almost anything, homes and businesses are full of attractive items. Garbage, organic waste (such as compost) and unsealed food items are some of the main culprits of a roach infestation. American roaches will congregate in the kitchen area, where most of the food supply is. Companies handling food are also attractive targets for cockroaches. An infestation in a grocery store or food production plant can be devastating to any business.

• Warmth and humidity are a cockroach’s favorite living conditions, so areas of a house with these qualities—especially bathrooms, basements and attics—are where infestations are likely to begin.

• Cockroaches are extremely resilient and resourceful pests. Their adaptable diet and ability to escape quickly makes them difficult to get rid of without the help of a pest expert.

• Prevention is the best way to ensure that cockroaches don’t move into your home. Follow these tips to keep them out and away from your property:

  • Practice good cleaning habits: regularly change garbage bags, wash dishes and sweep or vacuum floors to remove food sources.

1. Seal food and raw ingredients in metal or glass containers so it won’t attract roaches.

2. Repair weather stripping around doors and any cracks in window frames or screens.

3. Inspect for holes or cracks in crawl spaces, attics and basements.

4. Call Aptive to begin an ongoing cockroach control plan.