It's called Katsaridaphobia.
This is why I have cats. They just love to take them down on my behalf, like my own personal Army of Darkness.
Now, news of their evolution, (especially against me in particular as I choose to believe because they hate me and know I'm afraid) has hit the airwaves.
In the ongoing battle between humans and cockroaches, a new study finds
that roaches evolved their taste buds to make sweet insecticide baits taste
bitter. Now, the roaches avoid
the baits and thrive, to the chagrin of homeowners and fearful humans everywhere.
Plenty of insects evolve resistance to pesticides; they gain
the ability to break down poisons without dying. German cockroaches, on the
other hand, evolved what's known as a behavioral resistance to baits. They simply stopped eating them because they have sensitive taste buds.
German cockroaches are the small, scuttling roaches
frequently seen in human habitats, including homes and restaurants. They grow to be about a half-inch (1.27
centimeters) long and are omnivorous, scavenging everything from grease to
starch and creeping us out for decades.
Beginning in the 1980s, many pest control companies switched
from using spray insecticides to control cockroaches to using baits. The baits combine sugars with insecticide so
that roaches eat them, thinking they are sugary snacks, return to their nests
and die. Ideally, the other cockroaches
in the nest then cannibalize their dead relative, getting a dose of the poison,
too.
This worked for a while. But in 1993, several populations of German cockroaches around the
world were thriving in spite of the baits. The roaches were refusing to eat the
glucose, or sugar, that was supposed to make the bait appealing.
Pest control companies switched up the sugars in their baits
to keep them working, and for years, no one knew how the roaches had developed
their glucose aversion.
In normal roaches, some of the cells in the taste hairs
respond to bitter tastes and others to sweet tastes. In roaches that avoided glucose, however,
there was one change.
"The system was perfectly normal, except for the fact
that glucose was being recognized not only by the sweet-responding cell, but
also by the bitter-responding cell," one scientist said.
In other words, the glucose-averse roaches tasted sweet
things as bitter and thus avoided them. (Even
cockroaches have standards, it seems.)
Roaches could have evolved this response simply because
people started poisoning them with sweet baits. It's also possible that the trait goes way
back in cockroaches' 350-million-year history. Some plants produce toxic bittersweet
compounds that roaches would have needed to avoid before humans came around. Once humans started building dwellings and
roaches moved in, they may have lost this sugar-avoidance ability in order to
snack on humans' leftovers. When people
started developing sugary baits, the pre-adapted anti-sugar trait may have
re-emerged.
Either way, the finding has implications for pest control.
The industry has replaced glucose in baits with another sugar, fructose, but
evidence already suggests that roaches are evolving to avoid fructose, too. The industry needs to vary baits frequently
and make multiple types at once to stay a step ahead of the roaches.
God help us all!
I remember you telling me about the HUGE one in your house in LA. He wasn't afraid of the light coming on and would almost bust down a door to get in the room
ReplyDeleteTerrifying!! One touched a hand once and I had to scrub with a Brillo pad while crying.
DeleteWe are the finest pestcontrol service provider in Gold coast. We strongly promote the use of natural pest control in the town and it is highly appreciated by our customers.
ReplyDeletePest Control Brisbane | Pest Control Gold Coast
Girls are usually afraid of Cockroaches.There are many pest control companies from which you can protect your home and pest control gold coast provide good services that too in a cheaper rate.
ReplyDeleteعندما يتعلق الامر بمكافحة الحشرات فلا مجال للاستهانه به لما له من اثر مباشر علي صحة الفرد والاسره بصفه عامه
ReplyDeleteحيث ان وجود او مجرد ظهور الحشرات بالمنزل يؤدي الي انتشار الامراض بالاضافه الي الخسائر الاقتصاديه التي تخلفها ايضا
لذا كان من الواجب علينا ضمان عدم ظهور تلك الحشرات مره اخري بعد مكافحتها حيث نوفر لك عميلنا العزيزي افضل
مكافحة حشرات بالخرج
مكافحة الفئران بالرياض
مع ضمان عدم ظهور تلك الحشرات كل ما عليك هو التواصل معنا