When buffalo hunter J. Wright Mooar killed a white buffalo in 1876, Teddy Roosevelt offered him $5,000 for the rare hide, equal to about a million bucks in today’s dollars. Mooar turned down the offer. Like Roosevelt he knew that the extremely rare white buffalo brought good luck (although obviously not for the buffalo).
What about white cockroaches? Not so lucky. Although some people believe white roaches, like white buffalo, are albinos—they’re not. White colored roaches are really just regular old, nasty cockroaches that are in the process of molting. If you find white roaches, then you have a problem.
When cockroaches are born they burst from their egg sacks which contains anywhere from 15 to 40 nymphs. The small, wriggling roaches run off in all directions looking for food and water. As the critters grow, they turn from white to brown. When their disgusting bodies outgrow their reddish brown or black exoskeletons, they molt. The shell falls away leaving a white or cream-colored roach. Within a few hours, the roaches grow a new exoskeleton and are back to their old selves. A typical roach can go through this process up to 14 times.
Most people never see white roaches. They usually hide in the dark when molting, as they are very vulnerable at this time. But if you see them, you are looking at a big problem. Where there are molting roaches, there are roach feces, abandoned exoskeletons, and most likely dead roaches. The old exoskeletons and feces dry up in your home and turn to a fine powder which can cause allergies and asthma attacks. You need to thoroughly clean and vacuum your home to remove this waste. Put all open food packages in airtight containers and make sure you’re not leaving any other roach food around, in the form of garbage, crumbs, grease on the stove, and so on.
Finally, you need put out Combat baits to kill them at the source. Baited with a mixture of food and poison, Combat will kill the roaches in your home and the roaches in their nests. While cockroaches may come in several colors, all of them are bad news. Kill them with Combat before those molting nymphs become egg-laying grownups who are determined to infest your home.
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