What Cockroaches Teach Me - Lessons Humans Can Learn from Cockroaches

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Cockroaches are the most repulsive of all household pests. Not only do they look disgusting, but they act disgusting.

Cockroaches can contaminate food and transmit disease carrying organisms, including staphylococci, strep, colform molds, salmonella, yeast’s and clostridia. Roaches will ear animal and human feces, rotten and contaminated food, leather and even the glue on packages.

So you hate cockroaches? You ask, well, who doesn’t? But do you know something? Cockroaches are one of the most robust of living creatures and they are one of the few organisms that can withstand a nuclear attack (for comparison sake, human beings have no chance against a nuclear bomb L) . ( Note: The following article from a reputed science publication however refutes the popular notion that cockroaches can survive nuclear attacks. It also says the following – “At the moment, the real King of Radiation is a foul-smellingreddish bacterium called Deinococcus radiodurans, or Conan the Bacterium by its admiring researchers. It was discovered growing happily in canned meat that had gone bad, even though the meat had been sprayed with radiation to preserve it - a nice example of evolution. This bacterium frolics happily in background levels of 1,500,000 rads of radiation…”

So anyway, maybe they cannot survive a nuclear attack, not at least as much as it is popularly thought, but well, they have survived for 300 million  years – long outlasting the big but vulnerable dinosaurs. They are everywhere, they have an uncanny ability to harm the far more brilliant humans, so huh, what’s their secret? Are there lessons we humans can learn from these despicable creatures? Perhaps yes…

So what are the secrets behind the cockroaches?

1. Cockroaches are horny creatures and have innovative methods of mating & reproduction. For instance, when female German cockroaches are ready to mate, they raise their wings, lower their abdomen, stilt their legs and send chemical signals – called sex pheromones – that advertises their availability to adult males. These phermones are sent in infinitesimal amounts but that is good enough for the fairer sex to respond. Scientists have been trying to find out more about this phenomemon and the chemical composition of the pheromone, but with little success so far. I won’t be surprised if is a lead sponsor of this research J  (see more here; Hmm..appears they have discovered something about this chemical – see here – Cockroach Love – A Secret that Could Finally Kill Them))
2. Cockroaches can live for nine days without its head

This is a work in progress…I will continue doing my “great” research on cockroaches and will type out my findings here on a regular basis. So watch out!

Roach Reference

There are 4 types of cockroaches. The German Cockroach; the most common and the smallest of the species. American Cockroach; light brown with yellowish wings, can’t really fly, but glides. Oriental Cockroach; dark reddish brown. Brown Banded Cockroach; yellowish or brown with brown bands on wings. Cockroaches can grow to be 2 inches long.

Cockroaches on a Secret Mission – A 1997 article on a Japanese mission to use cockroaches as mini-robots. Will surprises never end? See also: Secret Agents – Robotic Cockroaches

Cockroach Holds Secret of Women’s Fertility – A research article on the female dusky roaches

Cockroaches Inspire Robot Antenna Design – an article from National Geographic

A Side Item - The Sex Lives of Insects

Insects have interesting sex lives that will truly amaze you. The following article from Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Gateway to Science section tells you more.

Tidbits from the article:

1. Insect penises come in an extraordinary variety of shapes and sizes. Brush-shaped, football-shaped, and other fantastic structures... Rarely, however, do penises come in pairs. Earwigs of the family Anisolabidae are an exception! In particular, males of the earwig species Euborellia plebeja have two penises that are often longer than the earwig's one centimetre body.
2. Fire ants maintain a multi-queen system, with several queens inhabiting a nest at once. Certain queens in the nest carry a particular gene that is both a curse and a blessing - it make the queens more fertile, but also sends a chemical signal to the nest that results in their execution.
3. For an Australian wasp, reproduction can be an uncertain experience, thanks to an ingenious orchid. The female orchid of the species Chiloglottis trapeziformis dresses itself as an attractive female wasp and it uses the same perfume! They exactly mimic the appearance and pheromones of a female wasp of the species Neozeleboria cryptoides.

Read the full article, it’s very interesting!