Among then the most common are the household cockroaches. They occupy houses, stores, markets and almost any other structure with abundance of food, shelter and the right range of temperature and humidity.
Besides eating whatever food is left accessible to them, they spoil stored products with their excreta. They also eat into look bindings, container leabels and the like. Some species carry harmful pathogens like Salmonella and Poliomyelitis virus harmful to man. Hence they are the most important economic and health hazards to man.
Majority of cockroaches are nocturnal (move about during time). They hide in leaf litter, under bark, or stones and in thick grass. The diurnal species are found on foliage of trees and shrubs. Most cockroach species are unconnected to man.
Some species are extremely beautiful with spots of white or bands of orange on a dark colored body. The life cycle long, certainly more than a year in many species. Some of these cockroaches are "rural" species. They live in the thatched roofs of huts and breed in them.
Some species are attracted to light in the nights but most of them are rarely visible during day time. They keep close to the soil and rarely come out. Frogs, reptiles, birds are their predators. The wasp family Evanii Dae are specialized parasites of cockroach egg-cases. They are specially fond of adult cockroaches. The female wasp lays an egg on a benumbed cockroach, the larvae hatching out, completes its life cycle, feeding on it.
