Poor home sanitation and residents’ tolerance regarding German cockroaches were a good predictor of the pest’s presence in their apartments, according to a Rutgers study in Paterson and Irvington, New Jersey.
The study in the Journal of Economic Entomology included interviews with senior citizen and disabled residents in 388 apartments in seven apartment buildings. Apartment conditions were also checked and glue traps placed to detect cockroaches.
The researchers found 29 percent of surveyed apartments had German cockroaches (Blattella germanica), a high rate compared with the rest of the society. Surprisingly, 35 percent of residents in apartments with cockroaches were unaware of their presence. This is alarming because lack of awareness allows cockroaches to reproduce, contaminate food, spread to neighbors, leave cockroach allergens that can affect human health and diminish future infestation control efforts.
Read more at Rutgers University
Image: These are German cockroaches (Blattella germanica). (Credit: Changlu Wang/Rutgers University-New Brunswick)