Cockroaches have long lived side by side with a man and enjoy all the benefits of his home: heat, water, food. Their main ration are the remains of human food, but in the conditions of its lack, insects go to any objects that can bite and digest. The answer to the question, is a cockroach a predator or not, is negative.
Main diet
In a person’s home, two types of cockroaches are more common - red and the black. Their main food is food waste, which is abundant in every apartment building. Garbage cans, leftover food on the floor or kitchen table - all these are ideal places for feeding baleen pests.
On a note!
The first thing that attracts ordinary cockroaches in residential premises is the presence of water. Without moisture they cannot live and a few days.
When there is a lack of habitual gibberish food, they switch to a different diet. It may include:
- animal feed;
- paper, cardboard, wallpaper;
- book bindings;
- Leather Products;
- indoor plants, plant debris in flower pots;
- wallpaper and other types of glue;
- pressed wood furniture;
- clothes;
- hair and more.
Black and red cockroaches prefer organic waste, do not disdain the remains of their counterparts and other crawling insects.
When a cockroach becomes a predator
Entomologists - cockroach science and the entire detachment of insects, have long been studying the behavior and ability of these pests to adapt to various conditions of existence. And the substitution of one type of food for another is one of the main reasons for the high survivability of cockroaches.
There are several cases when a mustachioed pest turns into a predatory insect:
- Cannibalism - occurs with an acute shortage of food in a limited space. Adults begin to eat masonry eggs and the younger generation. Often cannibalism can be observed in aquariums where barbel is bred as a live feed to other animals.
- Competition - Found Among prusakov and their black congeners. Red-haired representatives of cockroach attack young rivals, destroy their masonry.
- In extremely rare cases, when huge colonies of insects have nothing to eat, they can attack humans or animals. Given their omnivorous nature, this can only happen in an exceptional situation. Carnivores cockroaches are able to bite for soft skin, delicate skin of children.
Wild species of cockroach that live in the jungle, steppes, forests, caves are mostly herbivorous insects. Some of their representatives eat the remains of dead animals, fish.
After this article I can’t sleep now! I never thought that cockroaches can bite a person. I hope this happens very rarely.