How big is the southern cockroach? Do you have a picture?

Periplaneta americana is a common cockroach in South China.

Periplaneta americana is the largest insect in Periplanetaceae. Adults are 29 ~ 40 mm long, reddish brown, and their wings are longer than the ventral end.

Periplaneta americana has a wide range of food habits, likes sugar and starch, pollutes food, spreads germs and parasites, and is a worldwide health pest.

The researchers found that their bodies were more or less covered with Shigella dysenteriae, Salmonella paratyphi A and Salmonella paratyphi B, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Proteus, as well as eggs of Ascaris lumbricoides, hookworms, pinworms and Giardia.

It is reported that the intestine of Periplaneta americana often contains active Vibrio cholerae, tuberculosis, leprosy and so on. This insect is an important vector of many infectious diseases, mainly infectious intestinal diseases. Periplaneta americana secretions and feces also contain carcinogens.

Extended data

Cockroaches shuttle between humans, food and garbage, which means that they may spread pathogens of many diseases, including leprosy, salmonella typhi, entamoeba dysentery, Yersinia pestis, hookworm, enterovirus, hepatitis virus, staphylococcus, Escherichia coli, salmonella and streptococcus.

When they eat, they often ruminate a little food from the crops, save a little food for the last meal and eat more fresh food. They also defecate when they move and eat, and the tiny brown excrement falling from their backs is as big as pepper, which makes cockroaches easily spread diseases.

In the1960s, researchers at UCLA found that the high-incidence area of hepatitis A in Tass National Residential Area in Cameli, Southern California was almost eliminated after unified drugs were used to kill cockroaches.

Reference materials? Baidu Encyclopedia-Periplaneta americana