American Cockroach Facts for Kids

A Picture of an American cockroach
  • Kingdom: Animalia
  • Phylum: Arthropoda
  • Class: Insecta
  • Order: Blattodea
  • Family: Blattidae
  • Genus: Periplaneta
  • Species: Periplaneta Americana

17 American Cockroach Facts for Kids

  1. The American cockroach is a common species of cockroaches.
  2. The binomial name for the America cockroach is Periplaneta Americana.
  3. The American cockroach is the largest species of common cockroaches.
  4. The name American cockroach is deceiving, they’re actually a native species of Africa and the Middle East.
  5. The American cockroach was introduced to the Americas in the 17th century.
  6. The American cockroach can be on found worldwide on every continent.
  7. The American cockroach has a reddish brown color with some yellowish color on their pronotum.
  8. There are three stages of development for an American cockroach, and they are egg, nymph and adult.
  9. The American cockroach is an omnivore and will eat virtually anything.
  10. The average lifespan of an American cockroach is a little less than two years.
  11. The average length of an adult American cockroach is 1.6 inches.
  12. The fastest an American cockroach was recorded running was 3.4 miles per hour, or about 50 body lengths per second.
  13. An American cockroach nymph (young) has the capabilities to regenerate a limb.
  14. The American cockroach is considered a pest. It’s one of the most common types of pests found in a manmade building.
  15. The American cockroach is a disease vector and can transfer disease-causing bacteria, like Salmonella, and contaminate food preparation areas, resulting in humans getting food poisoning.
  16. Humans with asthma can have an asthma attack trigger by household dust that contains feces and body parts of the American cockroach. This same contaminated dust can also cause an allergic reason in people without asthma.
  17. A manmade building with an American cockroach infestation can be controlled and eliminated by using insecticides, poison and glue traps.

Additional Resources with American Cockroach Facts

About the author
Facts Editor

This is an author profile for articles that are created from a collaborative effort. It is not uncommon that articles on this site were either written, researched or fact checked by several authors and team members. So this author profile will be displayed to reflect that. Our team of editors, writers and fact checkers do extensive research before publishing articles on the site, and we do our best to provide the most accurate information possible.