Differences Between Wood Roaches And Other Cockroaches

If you live in The Quad Cities or our Illinois & Iowa service areas, there is a good chance you've seen one of four cockroach species. They are, in no particular order, the American cockroach, the German cockroach, the brown-banded cockroach, and the Oriental cockroach. All of these cockroach species have a wide distribution in the United States, and all have found a home here in our area. What makes these four species so noteworthy is that they love to get into homes and businesses. But they're not the only cockroaches that can present a pest problem for us. There are over 4,500 species of cockroach in the world. It only makes sense that there would be more than five frustrating cockroach pests. As it turns out, there is. Today we're going to take a look at Parcoblatta pennsylvanica (DeGeer), otherwise known as the wood cockroach.

The wood cockroach looks like an American cockroach and is often mistaken for the American cockroach when it gets into a human dwelling. Both of these roaches have a chestnut coloration, an oval shape, long antennae, and six legs. Where they are different is mostly in size. American cockroaches are between 1-1/4 to 2-1/8 inches in length. Wood cockroaches are between 3/4 and 1 inch in length, with male wood cockroaches being more toward 1 inch and females being more toward 3/4 of an inch.

Like other roaches, the wood cockroach enjoys moist locations and will be found underneath organic material in nature. This may be leaf litter, underneath loose bark on trees, inside rotting logs, or under branches or tree fronds.