They grow by incomplete metamorphosis, beginning with an egg. These eggs are not easily affected by insecticides. From the egg hatches a nymph, which looks like a small adult without wings. Nymphs move out in search of moisture, harborage, and food, so sighting these your cockroaches may indicate that the population is growing. After numerous molts, a nymph becomes and adult.
Cockroaches are good climbers.
They taste their food before eating it and learn to avoid chemically treated surfaces. The Pennsylvania wood roach is sometimes discovered in homes during warm months. It is about the size of the German and brownbanded, but does not reproduce inside and dies quickly. The Oriental cockroach is larger, like the American, and the adult has shortened wings. It can survive longer in colder locations than the American.