Would Getting Rid Of Cockroaches Hurt The Environment?

I remember vividly working with my daughters Girl Scout troop and teaching 18 little 6 to 8 year olds about nature’s food chain.  The girls were fascinated as they devised their own construction paper food chain starting from a single type of insect that they observed at camp.

Not wanting to disrupt the normal course of nature unless absolutely necessary, I don’t usually make a habit of interrupting life’s food chain, unless something on the food chain interrupts my life.

According to Life’s Little Mysteries on June 20, 2012, the question was posed to the professor and chair of the biology department at the University of Texas, Tyler.  Being a world expert on cockroaches, Srini Kambhampati shared some interesting information about cockroaches that may make you reconsider grabbing your shoe if you see them scurrying about your home.

Kambhampati believes that the absence of cockroaches would in fact impact the environment in a negative way for a variety of reasons.  Cockroaches are no doubt offensive to most people, but they do serve a purpose when they release their feces into the environment.  That nitrogen that is released is used by the soil and helps keep forests healthy, and indirectly everything that lives within the forest healthy.  In addition to the nitrogen, cockroaches are an important part of the food chain of the environment that we live in.  Cockroaches are a food source for many birds, mice, and rats.  If there were a lack of mice and rats, other bigger animals that prey upon these creatures would be impacted and the food chain would be forever impacted.

Despite the evidence collected, cockroaches indoors need a pest control professional in Ocean County, NJ to kill them off!  Maybe some of the outdoor ones can live…if they stay away from my doors!