INSECTS AFFECTING MAN AND ANIMALS 397 



person who is well aware of the danger attending its use. 



Bedbugs are sometimes found in poultry houses where they 

 may be very annoying. The closely related bugs often found 

 so abundantly in swallows' nests and in other places out of 

 doors do not become household pests. 



Cockroaches. Like the bedbugs, the cockroaches are night 

 foragers. But they are much less particular about the kind of 

 food that they eat. Their mouth-parts are fitted for biting. 

 Kitchens, pantries, restaurants, hotels and bakeshops where the 

 air is warm and humid, are their favorite haunts, and almost 

 any kind of organic matter that can 

 be found around such places suits 

 their taste. 



There are four common species 

 found in dwellings in this country, 

 only one of which is native. The 

 American roach, Periplaneta americana, 

 is the largest of these. It is light 

 brown in color and about one and one- 

 half inches long. The Australian 

 roach, P. australasia, is nearly as large 

 as the preceding species, but is darker 

 in color. The Asiatic roach, P. orien- 

 talis, or black beetle, as it is some- 

 times called, is about one inch long, 

 and brownish black in color. The 

 wings of the female are rudimentary, 



and in the male the wings do not reach to the tip of the 

 abdomen. The most abundant and destructive of the group 

 in many parts of the United States is the little, yellowish- 

 brown, German cockroach, Ectobia germanica, which is only 

 about half an inch long. It is often caUed croton-bug because 

 of its intimate association with the pipes of New York City's 

 Croton water system. 



The eggs of cockroaches are laid in small, purse-like, horny, 

 brown cases which are usually carried about by the female 

 until the young are ready to issue. It probably takes about a 

 year for the young to become fully developed. 



FIG. 184. The croton- 

 bug, or German cock- 

 roach, Ectobia germanica. 

 (Twice natural size.) 



