Florida Woods Cockroach, Eurycotis floridana¹

D. R. Suiter and P. G. Koehler²

APPEARANCE

The Florida woods cockroach is large, dark brown to almost black, averaging 1.5 to 1.75 inches in length. The wings are short and barely extend beyond the mesonotum.

Florida woods cockroach.

HABITAT

The Florida woods cockroach is found in the West Indies and Florida. It is found in almost any outdoor sheltered location and is often found in stacked lumber, firewood, leaf litter, and sometimes treeholes. It may occasionally enter houses.

BIOLOGY AND HABITS

Florida woods cockroaches have only one generation per year. Adults may survive for several years.

CONTROL

Because the Florida woods cockroach is found outdoors, applications of insecticides to foundation plantings, wood piles, mulch, and other infested locations are recommended. Treatments placed to intercept cockroaches are both environmentally- and entomologically-sound. Residual barrier sprays have been shown to provide substantial reductions of Florida woods cockroach populations around houses.

Footnotes

This document is ENY237, one of a series of the Entomology and Nematology Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Original publication date October 1991. Reviewed May 2003. Visit the EDIS Web Site at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

D.R. Suiter, research assistant; Philip G. Koehler, professor, Entomology and Nematology Department, Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville FL 32611.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Millie Ferrer-Chancy, Interim Dean.