Cockroaches are the most common type of pest found around the globe.
If I had a dollar for every time a person said yes to encountering a scary episode with a roach, I would be a billionaire already.
There are about 4000 species of cockroaches around the world, but only 30 species are classified as pests.
It is important to understand their behavior to avoid entering your space. You need to know what they are attracted to and what they hate.
While roaches might win the contest for being the most cringing pest to encounter, it is interesting to know that the world depends on their existence. That information does not help curb the urge to wish for cockroaches to vanish from your life forever.
This article will navigate you through the following aspects:
- We need to understand the behavior of a cockroach as it will allow us to ensure roaches do not infest our premises.
- Cockroaches hate the red color and are most attracted to the color yellow and blue.
- If your area is prone to cockroaches, you need to adopt an informed approach and avoid decorating your place with hues of yellow and blue, as it most attracts the roaches.
- Not that cockroaches are at risk of extinction any time soon, but they are essential to the world as they are a primary food source for some insects and also vitally important to the forest.
After reading this article, you will understand what to avoid in terms of color if you want to keep roaches away.
In this article, you will learn what color cockroaches are attracted to and understand the logic behind their attraction to a particular color.
How Roaches See the World
While we humans have trichromatic vision, which allows us to see the visible spectrum of green, blue, and red color variations, roaches have a completely different set of visions.
A cockroach’s vision is referred to as a mosaic vision. It consists of receiving multiple images of a thing at once.
Instead of viewing the world in depth, a cockroach’s mosaic vision helps it to identify nearby objects with great sensitivity. However, the clarity of sight may be low.
This view of multiple images of the same object makes them highly responsive and allows them to track minute movements expertly.
They exist as nocturnal as their eyes are highly sensitive to bright lights. However, some species of cockroaches are known to have evolved and may easily resist bright lights as they continue their scavenging for food.
Cockroaches can go without food for an entire month. Sealing a space to eliminate them will likely worsen the situation by creating optimum conditions for their breeding grounds.
Do Cockroaches See the World in Color?
Cockroaches can see color but not, in the same way humans can view the world.
Their mosaic vision limits the range of color shades they can perceive. For instance, cockroaches cannot perceive red due to its high wavelength.
Although there is still room left to determine the exact wavelength of colors perceived by roaches, enough experimentation is done to understand their consistent reaction toward a particular set of colors.
Do Cockroaches Have Color Preferences?
The California State Science Fair Project held an experiment to determine which colored light is most effective in deterring cockroaches.
The experiment discovered that cockroaches are most attracted to blue and yellow colors.
Cockroaches freeze when exposed to black light. The reasons are still unknown, but it takes them a couple of minutes to become mobile again.
Reason Why Roaches Are Attracted to Blue
Cockroaches are attached to blue because of their limitation to concentrate more on small wavelength colors.
They can sense the shades of blue much better, making it more attractive.
Reason Why Roaches Are Attracted to Yellow
The color yellow is generally found to be attractive to most insects, and cockroaches are no exception.
There are several reasons for this attraction:
- Many insects have evolved to detect yellow-colored leaves and flowers more suited for their nutrition. Hence, things that reflect a yellow shade are considered food to many insects, and cockroaches have evolved to follow the same instinct.
- The color yellow mimics the food they would like to eat.
Cockroaches can survive without its head for a whole week. That’s because they have two brains.
- The primary brain is within the skull of the cockroach; it is responsible for all the decision-making functions.
- The secondary brain is within the exoskeleton of the body; it is built as an extra defense mechanism.
What eventually kills the roach is thirst, as they cannot drink without a mouth.
Conclusion
Cockroaches may be one of the most resilient creatures on our planet, but we can adopt ways to ensure they don’t infest our spaces.
The scientific discovery of the colors they are attracted to enables us to keep such spaces devoid of such colors with high susceptibility to a roach infestation.
Therefore, such spaces should avoid yellow and blue as it has been proven that cockroaches are most attracted to shades of these two colors.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Killing a Cockroach Attract More?
Yes, it is true. A squashed cockroach releases oleic acid when they die, which attracts other roaches foraging for food.
They are not picky eaters and have no qualms about feasting on their fellow roaches after they die.
Are Cockroaches Important to the World?
Yes, cockroaches are important as they are the primary food source for many insects and birds.
Most importantly, they have a major impact on the survival of forests as they help trap nitrogen in the soil, which is vital for the growth of the trees.
