This 1960s documentary produced by the Rentokil Film Unit covers cockroaches as well as means to exterminate them. It begins with a short history of how cockroaches came to be so prevalent and the environments which they favor. This is followed by the life cycle of cockroaches including mating, laying eggs, hatching, molting, and development of pigment and wings. The second half of the film looks at efforts made to exterminate them including the use of DDT and other lacquer based pesticides. The film features a lot of extremely high definition close up footages of cockroaches.

0:08 “The Intruders”, 0:14 produced by the Rentokil Film Unit, 0:37 footage of cockroaches in different places in a house, 1:13 close up of a cockroach, 1:20 animation of a prehistoric forest, 1:56 fossil remains of cockroaches, 2:25 a ship being unloaded, 3:01 a kitchen with a cockroach in it, 3:13 cockroaches mating, 3:39 a cockroach egg case, 4:00 different angles of different types of cockroach egg cases at various stages of development, 4:39 cockroach larvae hatching from the egg, 5:09 young cockroaches running around, 5:20 cockroach molting, 6:09 cockroach wing development and close-up footage of color changes over time, 6:48 a cockroach eating a freshly molted cockroach, 7:05 two different species of cockroach found in the UK Blatta Orientalis and Blatetella Germanica, 7:23 an American cockroach species, 7:35 cockroaches in sewers, 8:00 cockroaches eating bread, 8:41 stains left by cockroaches on different objects, 9:01 cockroaches squeezing through tight spaces, 9:21 cockroaches eating tomatoes, 9:49 trains and trucks driving to highlight commerce’s role as a spreader of cockroaches, 10:13 egg cases in different household objects, 10:31 a person putting a cockroach trap in a corner, 10:54 a scientist in a laboratory, 11:05 scientist injecting DDT into a box of cockroaches, 11:31 scientist spraying DDT in a kitchen, 11:56 close up footage of cockroaches cleaning themselves, 12:42 close up footage of different types of cockroach, 13:14 scientists mixing and applying lacquers in a lab, 13:48 scientist applying lacquer in a kitchen, 14:08 close up of a cockroach dying, 14:20 close up footage of cockroaches in glass boxes, 14:50 “The End”, produced with the co-operation of the British Museum and the Disinfestation Service