Family BLABERIDAE
Most people are repulsed by cockroaches inside the home, and not without due cause, as they are disease carriers of the highest order.
Outside the home, gardeners also often come across cockroaches under rocks, logs and in mulch. Unfortunately these roaches are undeservedly tarred with the same brush as their indoors cousins and usually end up under a well placed boot.
Australia has in excess of 400 native roaches and very few could ever be considered pests. Most pest species are imported, the Australian Cockroach and couple of others being the exception.
Wood Roaches
Most roaches are wood roaches, and carry no known diseases that will harm humans.
It is believed that cockroaches have been roaming the earth for almost half a million years. During those millions of years, their primary function has been to break down dead and decaying trees, bark, leaves and other vegetation.. Few other animals or insects have this ability, although it is something they share in common with termites, and with whom it is believed they are distantly related. Wood roaches and some species of termites contain simple celled protozoa that reside in their gut. The protozoa assists in breaking down plant cellulose.
Australia is home to the heaviest cockroach, the Giant Burrowing Cockroach that weighs in at around 50 grams. They are wingless and often mistaken for beetles.
Unusual for cockroaches, the female gives birth to live babies that she will raise in a burrow.
More common, and easily discovered is the Australian Wood Roach Panesthia australis. Usually found in at least pairs and more often aggregations of at least a half dozen, these fellows are totally harmless and make for unusual pets. They are usually around 25mm in length and dark glossy brown in colour.
Some wood roaches are born with wings and a few are born totally wingless. Those that are born with wings will have their brethren chew their wings completely off.
Generally, the disease carrying cockroaches have long spindly legs and are excellent runners. Wood roaches have much shorter, stocky legs and are slow moving.
In recent times, breeders have been raising these roaches for sale to reptile keepers, especially those with lizards.
We don’t offer any quick kill solutions for these insects.
If you come across wood roaches in your garden don’t kill them, welcome them for their role in the environment. If you unearth them in the bush, be sure to replace the rock or stone so that they may continue to flourish as nature intended.
Technorati Tags: cockroach,pest control,australian pests,insect
I often wondered the purpose of cockroaches. Interesting blog. Thanks for educating me.
Dagny dm@onnotextiles.com
Great post! I’ve been very interested in Wood Roaches control for a long time. I didn’t know these points mentioned in this article before.
Would have hoped that after reading the item, you may have decided NOT to control them.
James
Great post! Wood roaches are very interesting buggers who unfortunately, as you said, get killed for being a relative of the nasty roach. Thanks for the post its good to educate those that may not know the differences. danielle@westhillmedia.com
If they dont have wings, or only have small wing buds, it almost certain they are not disease carriers.
I have no qualms about Reptile owners feeding their pets German, American and Oriental ect roaches. Just consider it natural pest control, and that can not be all bad!
So… there are these small brown roaches that I occasionally see – they’re a sort of brown with grey undertones – a bit more like dirt than the pest species, but they DO have wings. Only thing is, they much prefer to wander about – are they a pest species or not? I’ve seen them in the drain at my mother’s house which relies on bore water.
Casey, if they live in drains, or frequent drains, bet on it! They will be at the very least, spreaders of disease.
This is the first blog I have came across that says don’t kill cockroaches – are the wood roaches found outside australia?
Are these wood cockroaches only native to Australia?