Is it possible to have a small yet thriving population that remains mostly unseen for 5 years?
I live in an old (built in the 1950s) single family home with my dad. Ever since 2020 or 2021, I've sporadically seen german roaches, a handful of times a year. The most recent sightings were a baby crawling across my bedroom ceiling in September, and then a nymph on the wall next to the kitchen trash can on Thursday. Some info:
Food trash is taken out daily. There are other trash cans in the house, but they only have paper and plastic trash.
The house is pretty clean. I vacuum weekly, wash dishes 2-3 times per day, and clean other areas of the house weekly or as needed.
Cat food is out 24/7, since we have 2 cats. However, I've yet to see any bugs congregating around the cat food (save for carpenter ants in the summer).
After Thursday's sighting, I ordered glue traps, alpine, and advion because better safe than sorry and I'm sick of just hoping that I won't have another sighting.
So, my question: wouldn't the population have exploded over the past 5 years to where there would be no question about an infestation? Or are there lookalike species/I'm doing a bang up job of keeping the house clean? Thanks so much. I'll set up everything as soon as it all arrives, I'm just a bit stumped. Thanks!