The cockroach that emerged from your sink drain and scuttled under the fridge? The nocturnal critter was most likely a German cockroach, and its ancestors were pestering people more than 2,000 years ...

Using genetics to identify the origin and the global path of the ubiquitous insect pest, the German cockroach, back to its wild origin could help us develop more effective pesticides to control them.

Now a commonly detested sight in urban homes, German cockroaches (Blattella germanica) appeared in Europe in the 1760s before scuttling across the world between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, ...