Source webinar: Cockroaches, Dr. Dan Suiter, November 10, 2021
Series: Structural Pest Control
Duration: 54:51
CEU Categories: [PENDING: awaiting team confirmation]
Questions: 15 (6 recall, 6 application, 3 analysis)
Scope note. Every question, answer and distractor comes from this one recording, which is the cockroach hour of a longer broadcast. Nothing here draws on outside cockroach literature. Where a distractor states something false, it is false against what Dr. Suiter said in this talk.
Quiz Questions
Question 1
Timestamp Reference: 8:37 – 9:41
Difficulty: Recall
Given water but nothing to eat, how long can a German cockroach survive?
a) Just short of two weeks
b) More than a month
c) Three months
d) Forty days
Correct Answer: b
Explanation: Suiter’s slide showed a German cockroach living more than a month on its fat body reserves when given water alone. Option (a) is the figure for food without water, which he said matched complete starvation. Option (c) is the American cockroach. Option (d) is egg capsule incubation.
Source in transcript: Food and Water Requirements
Question 2
Timestamp Reference: 15:02 – 15:20
Difficulty: Recall
Suiter broke the word “urocyte” into its parts for the audience. What does the “uro” refer to?
a) Uric acid
b) Cell
c) Dark loving
d) Egg case
Correct Answer: a
Explanation: He said “CYT just means cell and uro means uric acid.” Option (b) is the other half of the same word. Option (c) is the root “blatt.” Option (d) is the ootheca.
Source in transcript: Urocytes, Mycetocytes, and the Gut Bacterium
Question 3
Timestamp Reference: 24:08 – 24:37
Difficulty: Recall
The root B-L-A-T-T runs through Blattaria, Blattodea and Blattella. Suiter translated it as:
a) Uric acid
b) Cell
c) Dark loving
d) Egg case
Correct Answer: c
Explanation: He used the translation to make a working point: you find roaches where it is dark, and if you are seeing German roaches in the middle of the day, the population is large enough that you may not want to go inside.
Source in transcript: Harborage: Warm, Humid, Still, and Dark
Question 4
Timestamp Reference: 3:45 – 6:26
Difficulty: Recall
Which statement about the Certified IPM Technician matches how Suiter described it?
a) It requires one year of experience and no license beyond local pesticide registration
b) It requires five years of experience and a state license
c) It is open only to degreed entomologists
d) It launched in 2014 alongside ACE International
Correct Answer: a
Explanation: Suiter walked the comparison across the top of his slide: five years for the ACE, one year for the CIT, license required for the ACE and not for the CIT. Option (b) describes the ACE, (c) describes the Board Certified Entomologist, and 2014 is the ACE International launch year.
Source in transcript: The Certified IPM Technician
Question 5
Timestamp Reference: 21:12 – 21:34
Difficulty: Recall
There is a real insect that carries “palmetto bug” as its common name. Which one?
a) The brown cockroach, Periplaneta brunnea
b) The smoky brown cockroach
c) The Turkestan cockroach
d) Eurycotis floridana, the Florida woods roach
Correct Answer: d
Explanation: Suiter described it as wingless, heavy, living in palm trees, and found only in Florida. He compared its build to a UGA linebacker and noted the pungent defensive compound it sprays.
Source in transcript: Peridomestic Cockroaches and the True Palmetto Bug
Question 6
Timestamp Reference: 53:15 – 53:37
Difficulty: Recall
Roughly what share of her adult life does a German cockroach female spend gravid?
a) A third
b) Half
c) 75 percent
d) 90 percent
Correct Answer: c
Explanation: Six or seven reproductive cycles of about 10 days free and 27 days gravid put her at roughly 75 percent of her adult life pregnant. Option (d) is the share of time she spends in harborage. Option (a) is the fraction of her body weight the hatching egg case represents. Option (b) is the share of Florida egg capsules found stung by parasitoid wasps.
Source in transcript: German Cockroach Reproductive Biology
Question 7
Timestamp Reference: 26:39 – 28:36
Difficulty: Application
You are treating tree holes and a hollow block wall for smoky browns. Suiter gave one specific reason to reach for granular bait instead of a pyrethroid microcap residual. What was it?
a) The microcap will not kill peridomestic roaches
b) The spray also kills the small wasps that sting cockroach egg capsules
c) These roaches will not feed on any surface that has been treated
d) The granular bait kills the egg capsules on contact
Correct Answer: b
Explanation: Suiter said the microcap would work, then made the trade-off explicit: it kills the parasitoids too, and about half the egg capsules his Florida study recovered had been stung. He also noted the granule stays available far longer, citing five inches of rain two nights after a liquid residual went out in an ant trial.
Source in transcript: Egg Case Parasitoids and What a Spray Costs You
Question 8
Timestamp Reference: 29:13 – 29:27
Difficulty: Application
You bait a smoky brown population and knock the adults down. Weeks later the customer calls with roaches again. What did Suiter say to expect?
a) The bait degraded and needs replacing every two weeks
b) Surviving females mated again and produced a new generation
c) The egg capsules incubated for 40 days and a second wave hatched
d) The parasitoid wasps were killed, releasing the population
Correct Answer: c
Explanation: He told the audience to keep the 40-day incubation in mind: the first application kills adults, and another influx arrives when the capsules hatch. Option (a) contradicts his point that granular bait stays available a long time in a protected place. Option (b) contradicts the biology he covered, where the female mates once.
Source in transcript: Egg Case Parasitoids and What a Spray Costs You
Question 9
Timestamp Reference: 42:08 – 44:26
Difficulty: Application
A customer with hunting dogs will not accept a spray or a bait. You want an overnight count of the large roaches on the property. Which setup did Suiter describe for that job?
a) A quart paint can, inside lip coated with mineral oil and Vaseline mixed one to one, holding a screened cup of beer-soaked white bread, set against a wall
b) A baby food jar with Vaseline inside and a piece of dog food or banana as the attractant
c) A quart paint can with a smear of gel bait inside, set against a wall
d) A screened cup of dog food placed out in the middle of the floor
Correct Answer: a
Explanation: That is the peridomestic version, and Suiter has caught 75 adults in one can overnight, finished them with hot soapy water, and reused the can. Option (b) is the German cockroach version of the same idea. Option (d) contradicts his instruction to always place the trap against a wall.
Source in transcript: Trapping Cockroaches Without Pesticides
Question 10
Timestamp Reference: 45:12 – 46:05
Difficulty: Application
A graduate student in Suiter’s lab collected cockroaches killed by indoxacarb and fed them to fire ant colonies. What was the result, and why?
a) The ants ignored the dead roaches, since the bait matrix was gone
b) Entire colonies died, because activated indoxacarb was still in the cockroach and the dead roach worked as a fire ant bait
c) Only foraging workers died, since the material never reached the brood
d) The ants carried the roaches into the mound with no effect on the colony
Correct Answer: b
Explanation: Suiter’s framing was that killing large roaches outdoors in the South is followed by fire ants arriving on the bodies, so the cockroach becomes the delivery vehicle. He described killing entire colonies this way.
Source in transcript: Gel Bait in the Field and Fire Ant Secondary Kill
Question 11
Timestamp Reference: 52:06 – 53:03
Difficulty: Application
Suiter compared cockroach control to Georgia deer management, where DNR allows 12 does and two bucks. What treatment decision does that analogy support?
a) Broadcast a residual across open floor surfaces where males forage
b) Concentrate on knocking down the male population first
c) Get aerosols into screw holes and bait into cracks and crevices, where the females harbor
d) Remove food and water from the kitchen until the population starves
Correct Answer: c
Explanation: Since the female mates once and produces every egg case from that mating, killing males does not move the population. Reducing an animal population means reducing the female population, and reaching her means treating the harborage. Option (d) contradicts his point that you cannot keep enough water out of a kitchen to desiccate roaches out of it.
Source in transcript: Reaching the Gravid Female
Question 12
Timestamp Reference: 23:48 – 25:47
Difficulty: Application
A homeowner reports smoky browns indoors. Based on the conditions Suiter named, where should the inspection start?
a) The attic and soffits, particularly around pipe penetrations that may be leaking
b) The kitchen prep area and the floor under the coolers
c) The sewer and manhole covers on the street
d) Dry, sunlit, breezy areas of the yard
Correct Answer: a
Explanation: The three conditions he named are high humidity, still air and darkness, and his framing is that an attic with a leaking pipe penetration is the ecological equivalent of a big tree hole. He illustrated it with the half inch of smoky brown frass that came down on him when he pulled the bathroom ceiling drywall in his own house. Option (b) is German cockroach territory and (c) is where you find American roaches.
Source in transcript: Harborage: Warm, Humid, Still, and Dark
Question 13
Timestamp Reference: 12:37 – 16:44
Difficulty: Analysis
Suiter connected the nitrogen story directly to why the large roaches take bait so readily. What is the connection?
a) They are permanently half starved for nitrogen, so they will eat almost anything they find
b) The gut bacterium needs a fresh protein source every day or the roach dies
c) They cannot survive more than two weeks without food, so they feed constantly
d) Stored uric acid interferes with digestion, so they must keep eating to compensate
Correct Answer: a
Explanation: Cockroaches hold onto excess nitrogen rather than voiding it as other insects do, because nitrogen is scarce on a forest floor. Suiter’s manhole cover story makes the consequence visible: a car crushes a group of American roaches, and minutes later the survivors come out and go straight for the uric acid in the bodies. Option (b) inverts the system, which recovers nitrogen from storage during starvation.
Source in transcript: Why Cockroaches Keep Their Nitrogen
Question 14
Timestamp Reference: 17:54 – 19:48
Difficulty: Analysis
Allopurinol killed cockroaches in Suiter’s University of Florida work, and the university patented the use. Why did it kill them, and why did the approach fail as a product?
a) It blocked the gut bacterium so stored nitrogen could not be recovered, and it cost too much to formulate
b) It packed the gut with uric acid until the gut ruptured, and it worked only on adults
c) It removed the enzyme that converts the precursor into uric acid, so precursors built to toxic levels, and it acted far too slowly
d) It killed first instars feeding on their mother’s fecal matter, and it never reached the adults
Correct Answer: c
Explanation: Allopurinol is a gout drug that strips out that enzyme in humans, and Suiter’s lab fed the same drug to cockroaches. The roaches had never encountered those precursor levels. He described the speed as growth regulator speed, months to a reduction, and a commercialized bait using oxypurinol had the same problem. Option (b) describes what happens on a high protein diet with the system intact.
Source in transcript: Gout, Allopurinol, and a Patented Use
Question 15
Timestamp Reference: 50:15 – 51:56
Difficulty: Analysis
Within a single reproductive cycle, when is a German cockroach female most reachable with bait, and what makes that window different?
a) During the 27 days she carries the ootheca, when she is moving between harborages
b) During the roughly 10 days after the egg case hatches, when she eats most of her food, drinks most of her water and moves most
c) During the six or seven nymphal instars before she reaches adulthood
d) Right after mating, when she is releasing the pheromone that attracted the male
Correct Answer: b
Explanation: The Purdue study Suiter cited splits the cycle into a short active stretch and a long gravid one. Once she is gravid she backs into a harborage, often a hollow stool leg, and does not eat, drink or move for about a month. Option (a) reverses that.
Source in transcript: German Cockroach Reproductive Biology
Answer Key
| Q | Answer | Difficulty | Q | Answer | Difficulty | Q | Answer | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | b | Recall | 6 | c | Recall | 11 | c | Application |
| 2 | a | Recall | 7 | b | Application | 12 | a | Application |
| 3 | c | Recall | 8 | c | Application | 13 | a | Analysis |
| 4 | a | Recall | 9 | a | Application | 14 | c | Analysis |
| 5 | d | Recall | 10 | b | Application | 15 | b | Analysis |
Processed for UGA Center for Urban Agriculture / GTBOP Archives
Source: Corrected SRT (Stage 1) — GTBOP_Transcript_2021-11-10_Cockroaches.srt (741 blocks); Archive Summary (Stage 2) — GTBOP_Archive_Summary_2021-11-10_Cockroaches.md