There are plenty of details about cockroaches that will make anyone’s skin crawl.

It is said that the six-legged, winged insects can withstand the radiation from a nuclear blast, and can survive several weeks without food. They are attracted to damp, dark areas so they’re often lurking unseen. Even if they are in plain sight, it might not be for long since roaches are known for their speed -- and not just on land but in their rate of procreation.

If you live in Edmonton, these details might be especially irksome this year. At least one exterminator claims the city is experiencing an unprecedented cockroach crisis.

“If nothing is done about it, within a six-month period of time you can literally have 100,000 cockroaches,” Tom Schultz, owner of Edmonton Exterminators Ltd., told CTV Edmonton.

In his four decades solving roach problems in the city, Schultz has never seen it so bad. He guesses the change is due to the city’s growing population and imported food. When food from warmer climates arrives, so do the roaches.

And they’re not easy to get rid of. While there is no hard data from Alberta Health Services on roach infestations, a rep for the agency said that anecdotally it would seem that inspectors have seen more restaurant roach problems in recent years.

While plenty of pests can carry germs and even spread disease, cockroaches are “more of a nuisance than they are anything else,” says Schultz.

Still, no one is immune. “You can have the cleanest place in the world and still get them,” he says.

With a report from CTV Edmonton’s David Ewasuk