American Cockroach
They’re called water bugs or Palmetto bugs, but they’re actually American cockroaches and they’re huge.
They can fly, they run fast and will even come back to life on you after they’ve been smashed.
When we lived in Louisiana, they were a real problem especially when it rained or got cold as they’d find any tiny hole to get into your home. We actually set mouse traps for them and they worked!
They’re so large, you can hear them shuffling around in cupboards and on tile floors, even though we keep everything really spic and span.
Tonight, we just got rid of our 4th one this week that somehow found a way into our home here in Dallas.
Tough to catch, really smart and super fast, it’s not easy to pick one up to put back outside. They have been clocked at 3.4 mph – that’s equivalent to a human running 205 mpg (50 body lengths per second)!
My husband tried to corale #4 into a brown shopping bag, but it was too smart for all of that…It took a good 3-4 minutes trying to convince it to even step foot on the bag. Then, there was a mad dash to the door because it crawled out of the bag and almost up his arm!
Creepy crawlers that are so big, you can’t help but see them run across the floor or on the wall out of the corner of your eye.
Instead of being the typical roach black, they’re rusty in color! Yikes!
Here’s a photo I found of a bunch of them, except the ones we get down South are much bigger!
I guess I’m just not much of a bug person!
Scientific Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Blattaria
Family: Blattidae
Genus: Periplaneta
Species: P. americana
Conservation Status: This is not a threatened animal species. In fact, it is joked about that they’d be the only animal to survive a nuclear bomb.
American cockroaches are actually found all over the world due to global shipping and travel.
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I hope you enjoyed this Insect Information on Exotic Animal Lover! Until next time…
Live Exotically,
Kimberly Edwards 
P.S. For more information on the American Cockroach, check out this really informative book:
Technorati Tags: water bugs, cockroaches, Texas bugs, Texas insects, Texas cockroaches, roaches, big roaches, Palmetto bugs, American cockroach
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