The American cockroach quickly deposits the ootheca, hides it and leaves it to hatch. The ootheca contains from sixteen to thirty-two eggs, depending on species. Cockroaches are an essential part of the ecosystem. They can eat a wide range of substances including other cockroaches and waste. Because of the variety of bacteria and protozoans in their gut, they play an important role in the rapid decomposition of forest litter and animal fecal matter.
Cockroaches are then food for many animals, including some humans.
Household cockroaches have been identified as disease carriers. The insects are also ideal laboratory animals, easy to care for and easy to handle because they do not sting or bite. Due to the rapid breeding of cockroaches, the fact that they soil things, have a bad odor and are at least potential disease carriers, they are often attacked with insecticides. However, they have adapted to several of them and new types have had to be used. Attempts to use pheromones as sex lures or to sterilize male cockroaches have thus far not proved practical on a large scale.