Cockroaches show up in homes and places around the world because of the easy food sources they find in them. They can live for months without eating but only live for a week without water. Understanding how they eat is one of the keys to controlling them. So, what do cockroaches eat? they eat many things varying from leftover foods to decaying one, rotten tree to decaying fruits, and etc. Keep Reading this article to check the full list.
What Do Cockroaches Eat in The wild?
Desert cockroaches or sand cockroaches (Arenivaga erratica) are only found in the driest regions of the world. They absorb and retain water to survive, and are most commonly found burrowing through sand dunes outdoors.
So, what do cockroaches eat in the wild?
Desert cockroaches may gain weight by absorbing water vapor from the atmosphere. However, the strange substance or objects on the mouthparts can prevent the absorption.
Also, they feed on the desert shrub roots and eat decaying leaves. Desert cockroaches may be entering homes in search of food, but typically do not breed in. Put some traps outside your doors and windows for anticipation.
We know that cockroaches can live anywhere. There is a species that lives in a forest called forest cockroach (Blattella nipponica). These cockroaches live in forests and gardens. They can be found in dark places—in the leaf pile, barks, and under stones. Like other cockroaches, they are nocturnal.
They eat almost everything. They are recyclers of the forest and their guts are likely to contain all the diseases and bacteria of the forest. They have a distinctive smell from their own salivary gland secretions and the consumed feces of other animals.
Generally, cockroaches have a certain role in the animal food chain. As they crawl through flowers for food, they also transport pollen and help with plant reproduction. Cockroaches eat what other organisms’ have eaten, breaking it down and increasing the amount of nitrogen in the soil by using their fat. Without their nitrogen-rich excrement, the forest would suffer.
What Do Cockroaches Eat Outside?
Basically cockroaches are omnivore. When they are on the outdoors, they prefer to eat bird droppings and a wide variety of plant matter. The cockroach is the least picky eater among the animal kingdom. If it’s organic, chances are that cockroaches will eat it, including food that we have eaten and a lot of material we cannot even digest. Even they eat their own kind of cannibalism.
Cockroaches’ ability to digest cellulose lets them eat all kinds of materials, like papers, clothes even woods. They’ll nibble on newspapers, book bindings, documents, cardboards, and woods. Some cockroaches eat the glue too. So, watch out your yard, don’t let them chew your mails and newspapers.
So, what do cockroaches eat outside? Here are the things that cockroaches eat outside your house:
- They eat dead trees, rotten wood, and other decaying matter
- They eat and live in grass clippings, especially as the grass decays and become easier for them to digest
- Feces are a rich source of nutrients for cockroaches and they’ll eat it wherever they find it, including dogs’, cats’, and rodent droppings
- Dead insects, like ants and flea
- Decaying fruits. Make sure to check your trash can when discarded fruit and fruit peels may have collected
- Decaying plants
What Do Cockroaches Eat in The House?
Cockroaches not only seek out human food, but also prefer foods we like most, like greasy foods, starches, meat products, and sweets. They eat organic waste from the garbage can. They even like beer so much that it makes very nice bait for your homemade cockroach trap. Beer can draw cockroaches by its aroma along with the sugar in beer, which is a natural give away.
Not only those can feed them, but also your cereal cardboard can feed them. They’ll chew through paper, even thin plastic containers to reach foods inside. Keep in mind that as soon as a package of food is penetrated by a roach, it should be considered contaminated for sure. These bugs come from all kinds of places—including the dirtiest—and pick up lots of germs. They truly live in places most people wouldn’t even defecate in.
So, what do cockroaches eat in the house? With food and water everywhere, cockroaches love kitchen surfaces and other things as follows:
- Any crumbs left out, yours or your pet’s
- Smaller splatter around a stove burner
- Unsealed leftovers
- Dirty dishes
- Fruits like banana
- Coffee grounds
- Stray vegetables in the sink
- Pasta
- Clothes, they even can damage the fabric
- Hair
What Do Cockroaches Eat and Drink?
As written above, we all know that cockroaches eat everything—including disgusting things. They enjoy a symbiotic relationship with some kinds of bacteria and germs that live in their digestive systems. The bacteria use the cockroach as a host, in return provide the cockroach with nutrients and help it to digest many nasty substances. Cockroaches have adapted over millions of years surviving in harsh conditions and eating everything.
So, what do cockroaches eat and drink? Here is the list as follows:
- Baking soda with sugar. This is an effective cockroach killer. Cockroaches won’t be attracted to baking soda but will eat it along with sugar.
- Soaps contain oil and fat that cockroaches will eat and digest.
- Not only the paste itself but also any particles of food they find in it—including the toothpaste at the bottom of your sink and the toothpaste stuck in your toothbrush. Keep your bathroom clean and seal every possible entry for cockroaches!
- Onions
- Coffee grounds
- Spices
- Bed bugs. Because they are slow and easy to catch.
- Water from every source, from clean to dirty. Cockroaches wouldn’t mind living in the sewage and drink the water from it.
So, what do cockroaches eat? Based on the discussion, it can be concluded that they eat many various things ranging from leftover to decaying foods and even the rotten one.