Cockroaches are everyone’s favorite bug to hate, but did you know that they’re one of the oldest and most fascinating creatures on Earth? Here are seven crazy facts you may have never heard about your very unwelcome friends:

1. Cockroaches, especially the American species, love beer. They are attracted to many different types of alcoholic beverages, but the combination of hops and sugar seems to really get their legs kicking.
2. Cockroaches can run up to a mind-blowing three miles per hour…that’s as fast as some humans jogging! The ability of the cockroach to cover lots of distance quickly makes them expert spreaders of bacteria.

3. A baby cockroach after 1 day of life is only as big as a spec of dust…but can still run almost as fast as its parents!

4. A cockroach can live for up to a week without its head—and even then, it only dies because it’s unable to drink water without a mouth and dies of thirst. It can go without food for up to one month!

5. Cockroaches don’t use their heads to breathe (which is what makes #3 possible). Instead, each of their body segments contain tiny holes through which they absorb oxygen.

6. It’s very difficult to drown a cockroach, with some surviving underwater for half an hour. If a headless cockroach is dying of dehydration, it will hold its breath to sustain itself…for up to 40 minutes!

7. The world’s largest cockroach, hailing from South America, can grow up to six inches in length and extend up to a footlong wingspan.

The resourceful, rapid-moving cockroach is incredibly resilient, a master of survival, and perfectly suited to carry and spread nasty pathogens and disease. This can make managing or eliminating cockroaches in the home a challenge.

If you’ve been keeping your space tidy, putting food away as soon as you’re finished with it, and regularly taking out the garbage—and are still struggling with cockroaches, contact Greener Texas at (512) 930-0897 to schedule your free estimate and get this bizarre bug under control.