So just to give you the willies in the New Year, here’s a picture of the biggest cockroach in the world. Cockroach cake that is!
The cream and chocolate filled Madagascan Hissing Cockroach cake was crafted by New York nurse Katherine Day.
The creation has split opinion as to whether it’s something you might tuck into or not, but there’s little doubting that it’s a work of cake art to be proud of. But could you eat it?
Katherine has made a name for herself creating off the wall and, frankly disturbing cakes, including cakes resembling babies’ heads, brains and blood sucking lamprey…. some of which can be seen here:
In reality the Madagascan Hissing Cockroach is one of the biggest cockroaches in the world at 2-3 inches in length.
So called because it makes a ‘hissing’ sound, this wingless species is one of 20 species of cockroach native to Madagascar and is actually commonly kept as a pet!
Here’s a video showing a real Madagascan cockroach doing its ‘hissing thing’:
Luckily here in the UK we don’t have them present. The cockroaches you are going to come across here are the Oriental Cockroach and the German Cockroach – although both are pretty disgusting to be honest?
TEN COCKROACH FACTS
1
Cockroaches taint materials with their characteristic ‘musky, oily’ smell and even the air in infested premises may contain fragments of their excrement.
2
Cockroaches are difficult to kill with insecticide – the approach we use here at Pest Professionals is with very powerful sweet, toxic gels, which kills them from the inside out. Sticky traps help us monitor the situation.
3
Cockroaches can apparently live for a week without their head! Yep they are that disgusting. They can breathe through little holes in their body segments and are thus not dependent on their head to breathe, but they eventually die of thirst. Yuk.
4
Female cockroaches carry eggs in their tails which can still hatch after they die – so often two or more treatments are needed.
5
Cockroaches are great at holding their breath and it’s said they can easily survive for half an hour or more underwater if necessary.
6
Cockroaches can live without food for a month. That’s not as long as bed bugs, but does who how resilient they are.
7
The world’s largest cockroach isn’t in fact Katherine’s cockroach cake or the Madagascan cockroach, but one from South America which is about 6 inches long when an adult and has a one-foot wings span.
8
There are over 4000 species of cockroach in the world, the most common of which is thought to be the German cockroach, we have here in the UK.
9
Soldiers are taught not to try and kill cockroaches by stamping on them, because this can spread the young and eggs in a female’s tail all over the place.
10
Cockroaches carry over 30 types of bacteria plus parasitic worms and various other pathogens. A cockroach problem in your home is a very serious threat to your family’s health and must be dealt with quickly.
More Cockroach Facts
