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Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7813-1518

Date Available

4-14-2026

Year of Publication

2026

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

College

Agriculture, Food and Environment

Department/School/Program

Entomology

Faculty

Zachary DeVries

Faculty

Charles Fox

Abstract

German cockroaches (Blattella germanica L.) remain one of the most challenging indoor pests to manage, due to resistance to many commonly used insecticides, and necessary contact/interaction with common management tactics. As such, it is critical to fully understand their aggregation, movement, and longevity, such that treatments can be optimally placed to result in maximal efficacy. The first part of this study explored the effects of multiple factors (harborage width, harborage materials, heat, resource-harborage distance) on initial site selection, and how environmental modifications and infestation density impact harborage site switching. The second half of the study aimed to explore the effects of diet, temperature, relative humidity, and life stage on survival. When evaluating initial harborage site preference and the effects of environmental modifications on site switching, German cockroaches displayed clear patterns of site preference and predictable patterns of movement based on habitat modification. When evaluating survivability, lower temperatures and higher relative humidities resulted in longer survival times, with water as a limiting resource amongst lower RHs, and food limiting amongst higher RHs. These results expand our understanding of the role sanitation can play in management efforts.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2026.39

Archival?

Archival

Funding Information

This work was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Healthy Homes program (KYHHU0090-24), and The Bill Gatton Foundation. This work was also supported in part by the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station, Hatch project award no. 7010213, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). All funds were supported from 2024-2026. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the sponsors.

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