Oriental cockroach
The oriental cockroach is a big, shiny, dark brown or black cockroach. It loves dark, damp places like drains and cellars, so people also call it the waterbug. The male has long wings and the female has only tiny stubs, but neither of them can fly.
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Fun facts
It is slower than most other cockroaches.
It comes out mostly at night, so you might not see any at all during the day.
The mother lays her eggs in a little brown purse called an egg case, with about 16 to 18 eggs inside.
The egg case starts out yellow-white and slowly turns reddish and then almost black.
Baby cockroaches have no wings at all.
Most asked questions about Oriental cockroach
?Can oriental cockroaches fly?
No. The male has long wings and the female has tiny ones, but neither can fly.
?Is the oriental cockroach dangerous?
It does not bite, but it can carry germs onto food. That is why people do not want it in their kitchens.
?Why is it called a waterbug?
Because it likes wet, dark places such as drains, sewer pipes and damp cellars.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Blatta orientalis
- Group
- Cockroaches and termites
- Family
- Blattidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Blattodea > Blattidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Waterbug, Black cockroach
Where the facts come from
- Oriental cockroach (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Dimitวr Boevski. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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