Cockroaches are a severely dangerous infestation. They carry many different diseases and can live in sewers so having cockroaches can cause diseases like sepsis and food poisoning. Cockroaches lay eggs directly through their bowels as they lack a separate birth canal like mamels. This means they have to be protected from the stomach acid. To do this the eggs are encased in a leathery case called an ootheca. This ootheca can contain from five to sixty eggs depending on the species of cockroach. Larger spieces like the amercian cockroach tend to have fewer eggs as their eggs are much bigger. Cockroaches like the german cockroach are very small and have the most eggs in one ootheca, up to sixty. This is why some cockroach infestations are worse than others and why some take longer to treat than others. A cockroach generally takes a week or so from insemination to birth, from there is can take up twenty to sixty days for the eggs to hatch. An american cockroach can have over a hundred nymphs in her lifetime, a german female can produce thousands of them in a single year. This is why some infestations will last much longer than others and why knowing the cockroach species is so important in treating them. Each nymph cockroach goes through about fourteen stages before growing into an adult. Unlike other insects the cockroach hatches from the egg as a tiny fully formed cockroach and do not have an actual larva stage.
They will go through a process called moulting as their body grows and their carapace does not. These peeling of the carapace can be coated in dangerous bacteria and become air born and undetectable. They look like motes of dust. Inhaling this molt can cause serious respiratory infections that worsen when a human already has a standing repiratory illness like asmah or cancer of the lungs. This means you absolutly must treat this infestation quickly. Home based treatments can work for some of the larger breeds of cockroaches, american and brown banded cockroaches but if you have a german cockroach infestation you abolutly must call a professional. If your treatment does not show a dramatic affect after two weeks its time to call an exterminator. The longer you live with these insects in the house the wors it will get for your health and wellbeing. While they do not bite and rarely crawl on humans they can spread disease and put humans in uknowable danger. Gettign them treated professional is the best way to deal with it, just make sure you get a warranty on the service or the situation could continue after a treatment is done and you will have to pay again to get a retreatment. They are one of the most dangerous infestations and very hard to treat so take them seriously and do not let them hang around. The long term effects of a cockroach infestation is a serious danger to the health of the occupants and can result in long term harm.