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American Cockroach Food Chain

American cockroaches are omnivores that consume a wide variety of foods, including cosmetics, milk, plant shoots, soap, and fermenting fruit. American cockroaches will also eat sweets and starchy items such as book bindings, glue and wallpaper paste. However, they prefer decaying plant and animals for sustenance. Although American cockroaches can spoil human food and destroy clothing, goods and surfaces, they do provide ecological benefits as they break down organic matter.

The American cockroach is prey to many small mammals, birds, spiders, amphibians and reptiles. In the tropics, their predators include arthropods, ants and spiders. They have also been found in the stomachs of fish, salamanders, toads, frogs, turtles, geckos and lizards. Among their mammalian predators are opossums, porcupines, monkeys, rodents and cats.

Cockroaches also sometimes suffer from parasites and viruses. These parasites include bacteria, protozoa and fungi, as well as wasps, flies and beetles. Certain wasp species feed solely on cockroach eggs. Three species within the Hymenoptera family, two in the Diptera and one beetle species consume both larvae and adult cockroaches. Other insect species feed cockroaches to their young.

American Cockroach

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American Cockroach Anatomy

American Cockroach Life Cycle