It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Cockroaches quickly lose sweet tooth to survive
page: 16
share:
I don't know about you, but I love cockroaches. Marvelous little creatures who are a miracle of life. When I was doing a carpentering job there were
numerous of cockroaches in the house. Thankfully it wasn't filthy. Just too many cockroaches. It's common to think cockroaches would outlive us if
nuclear war broke out. But here is a study that is very scary. The bait mixed with poison and sugar that cockroaches love has become ineffective
because the rapid evolution of cockroaches loosing their sweet taste because of the threat of the bait traps. Which I find remarkable because how
these little insects could rapidly adapt to survive man's traps against them. I guess you can truly never exterminate them. There is more information
in the source links. But this is the jest of the article I wanted to share. What are your thoughts on this topic and cockroaches.
Source 1
Source 2
For decades, people have been getting rid of cockroaches by setting out bait mixed with poison. But in the late 1980s, in an apartment test kitchen in Florida, something went very wrong.
A killer product stopped working. Cockroach populations there kept rising. Mystified researchers tested and discarded theory after theory until they finally hit on the explanation: In a remarkably rapid display of evolution at work, many of the cockroaches had lost their sweet tooth, rejecting the corn syrup meant to attract them. In as little as five years, the sugar-rejecting trait had become so widespread that the bait had been rendered useless.
Source 1
Source 2
Well, imagine a food hall with hamburgers that were laced with poison.
All the people who like hamburgers would eat them and die.
All the vegetarians would be left scratching their heads.
I don't know if it's such an evolutionary trait, or that we're left with the fitness freak roaches. Oo
But I agree with you. I've often though there is more going on inside a roaches little head than we'll ever care to know, too many people stepping on them, spraying them, etc.. to stop and really look at the little buggers.
I feel guilty killing them for no reason. Simply because I know there is more than a mindless bug crawling around in their space. I saw one in the bath a few months ago, it was young and on it's back and obviously not happy. And there was a big one right next to it, with it's feelers twiddling away towards it. I just ignored them and the next morning, they were still there. the little one dead, but the big one still 'mourning'.
They are definitely more aware than we give them credit for.
Now bees. Bees on the other hand. There is not enough fly spray in the world to save me from them evil blobs of floating pain and terror. Wobbling through the air as it spots your face and thinks it's a rather pretty flower, getting tangled in your beard before getting stuck in your hand as you dance all over the living room furniture and almost break your leg above the knee doing gymnastics that would score you a gold medal.
bees.. Oo
All the people who like hamburgers would eat them and die.
All the vegetarians would be left scratching their heads.
I don't know if it's such an evolutionary trait, or that we're left with the fitness freak roaches. Oo
But I agree with you. I've often though there is more going on inside a roaches little head than we'll ever care to know, too many people stepping on them, spraying them, etc.. to stop and really look at the little buggers.
I feel guilty killing them for no reason. Simply because I know there is more than a mindless bug crawling around in their space. I saw one in the bath a few months ago, it was young and on it's back and obviously not happy. And there was a big one right next to it, with it's feelers twiddling away towards it. I just ignored them and the next morning, they were still there. the little one dead, but the big one still 'mourning'.
They are definitely more aware than we give them credit for.
Now bees. Bees on the other hand. There is not enough fly spray in the world to save me from them evil blobs of floating pain and terror. Wobbling through the air as it spots your face and thinks it's a rather pretty flower, getting tangled in your beard before getting stuck in your hand as you dance all over the living room furniture and almost break your leg above the knee doing gymnastics that would score you a gold medal.
bees.. Oo
This post got me to thinking.
In a post-apocylyptic(sp) and/or other worldwide crisis I've always wondered.............
Who would make the cheese?!?!
Because I like cheese and wouldn't want to be without it
In a post-apocylyptic(sp) and/or other worldwide crisis I've always wondered.............
Who would make the cheese?!?!
Because I like cheese and wouldn't want to be without it
As long as they don't think humans are going to be forced into horrible foods to survive, because they plan on doing all they can to destroy our
world and seeds.
And I'm keeping my sweet tooth, forever, into infinity. I can't wait to find out how many flavors of icecream there are when there are infinite colors....!!!!
And I'm keeping my sweet tooth, forever, into infinity. I can't wait to find out how many flavors of icecream there are when there are infinite colors....!!!!
Originally posted by Unity_99
And I'm keeping my sweet tooth, forever, into infinity. I can't wait to find out how many flavors of icecream there are when there are infinite colors....!!!!
There are already infinite colors around us, it's just our optical nerves cannot sense them.
In fact there are infinite possible shades between two slightly different shades of the same color.
To the OP:
When we say the roaches "adapt quickly" that is by our standards of the human life cycle.
By the roach life cycle it took them many generations to adapt, a very long time according to them.
In their paradigm, what happened last year is ancient history.
reply to post by muzzleflash
Yes, we're only taking in the data from 98.5 FM basically, but full spectrum is all around us. We're already home, we never leave home but its a pretty good illusion, it sure fooled me. But some of the other gets through as well for some of us.
Yes, we're only taking in the data from 98.5 FM basically, but full spectrum is all around us. We're already home, we never leave home but its a pretty good illusion, it sure fooled me. But some of the other gets through as well for some of us.
I have seen cockroaches living in building where no one had lived for over 15 years. Zero food for them but other smaller bugs that are hard to
see.
Cockroaches can live good on things like dust mites and other bugs
Where i live in the desert.cockroaches in the summer come into the house not for food but for water and they can slip through the smallest cracks to get in.
A good food to feed cockroaches is water with splenda mixed in.
Its sweet but not a poison so they just keep drinking it and die from starvation. mixed with sticky traps put in dark places around the house and a yearly bug bombing you can keep them under control.
You will never kill all of them in your home ever.
Cockroaches can live good on things like dust mites and other bugs
Where i live in the desert.cockroaches in the summer come into the house not for food but for water and they can slip through the smallest cracks to get in.
A good food to feed cockroaches is water with splenda mixed in.
Its sweet but not a poison so they just keep drinking it and die from starvation. mixed with sticky traps put in dark places around the house and a yearly bug bombing you can keep them under control.
You will never kill all of them in your home ever.
reply to post by winofiend
I'm the exact opposite. Roaches disgust me (I agree with your sentiment on killing them, though. I only kill spiders when my girlfriend would freak out...) but I dig bees thoroughly. Especially the fluffy, bumbly ones. They're actually pretty tame. If you catch one in a good mood they'll let you pet them. Lol.
I'm the exact opposite. Roaches disgust me (I agree with your sentiment on killing them, though. I only kill spiders when my girlfriend would freak out...) but I dig bees thoroughly. Especially the fluffy, bumbly ones. They're actually pretty tame. If you catch one in a good mood they'll let you pet them. Lol.
well i guess it's back to pointy toed shoes,
and catching them in the corner.
and catching them in the corner.
i could do without cockroaches thanks. depending on where you are they aren't so small either, here they are 2-3 inches (and they can fly). in mexico
i remember them being even bigger.
i have heard for years about a roach's adaptability to actually make poisons ineffective against them. so i do find it a little odd to hear that they have lost their taste for sweets due to sweets being used as poison bait. why bother doing that when they can just adapt to the poison? one thing i will always remember is when the local transit back in north america would try to deal with the roaches, they would spray the buses, so the buggers would just "migrate" to the subway, by the time they would get to the subways to spray the buses would be safe and so they would just migrate back. and yes that is where a lot of people probably get their roaches from, riding public transit, or even just being in public areas since if one person has a roach problem, they will inadvertently transport both live ones and egg cases to wherever they go.
contrary to popular belief having roaches has nothing to do with cleanliness (though a mess does give them more hiding spots). all having roaches means is that one found it's way to your abode. i find it almost funny now that back in north america a roach found in a restaurant is almost enough to get it closed for heath violations. here i think if you didn't see the occasional roach in a restaurant you might consider that if THEY aren't there should YOU be the thing is they are EVERYWHERE especially outdoors, at night you will see them everywhere outdoors, indoors, clean house, dirty house, food left out, food put away it does not matter. i see them eating my dog's poop for crying out loud, they eat ANYTHING. they seem to LOVE eating wire casings and headphone pads, both felt and rubber. they eat Styrofoam (and you can plainly hear them chew it), plastic, rubber, paper and cardboard, wood. in fact the ONLY things i can think of i haven't seen them eat or signs of them eating is things like metal, and ceramic, as well as cigarettes, (tho i wouldn't count on them not eating cigarettes). that is the big thing with a roach, is the fact that almost anything is food to them. which is what makes controlling them difficult as you can't just try to make sure their food sources re secure, since almost everything is a food source.
like i said i could do without them, but i am smart enough to understand that i can kill everyone i see, and i will still see just as many later on. i just have to be satisfied with watching the dog chase them around and play with them like a cat plays with a mouse, until they die, as well as some interesting tiny ants that like to eat them, including while they are still alive and kicking but turned turtle on their backs. not to mention stomping the occasional one that gets too close.
i have heard for years about a roach's adaptability to actually make poisons ineffective against them. so i do find it a little odd to hear that they have lost their taste for sweets due to sweets being used as poison bait. why bother doing that when they can just adapt to the poison? one thing i will always remember is when the local transit back in north america would try to deal with the roaches, they would spray the buses, so the buggers would just "migrate" to the subway, by the time they would get to the subways to spray the buses would be safe and so they would just migrate back. and yes that is where a lot of people probably get their roaches from, riding public transit, or even just being in public areas since if one person has a roach problem, they will inadvertently transport both live ones and egg cases to wherever they go.
contrary to popular belief having roaches has nothing to do with cleanliness (though a mess does give them more hiding spots). all having roaches means is that one found it's way to your abode. i find it almost funny now that back in north america a roach found in a restaurant is almost enough to get it closed for heath violations. here i think if you didn't see the occasional roach in a restaurant you might consider that if THEY aren't there should YOU be the thing is they are EVERYWHERE especially outdoors, at night you will see them everywhere outdoors, indoors, clean house, dirty house, food left out, food put away it does not matter. i see them eating my dog's poop for crying out loud, they eat ANYTHING. they seem to LOVE eating wire casings and headphone pads, both felt and rubber. they eat Styrofoam (and you can plainly hear them chew it), plastic, rubber, paper and cardboard, wood. in fact the ONLY things i can think of i haven't seen them eat or signs of them eating is things like metal, and ceramic, as well as cigarettes, (tho i wouldn't count on them not eating cigarettes). that is the big thing with a roach, is the fact that almost anything is food to them. which is what makes controlling them difficult as you can't just try to make sure their food sources re secure, since almost everything is a food source.
like i said i could do without them, but i am smart enough to understand that i can kill everyone i see, and i will still see just as many later on. i just have to be satisfied with watching the dog chase them around and play with them like a cat plays with a mouse, until they die, as well as some interesting tiny ants that like to eat them, including while they are still alive and kicking but turned turtle on their backs. not to mention stomping the occasional one that gets too close.
Originally posted by ANNED
I have seen cockroaches living in building where no one had lived for over 15 years. Zero food for them but other smaller bugs that are hard to see.
Cockroaches can live good on things like dust mites and other bugs
not to mention wallpaper, wallpaper paste, wire insulation, wood, etc. they eat just about anything.
Where i live in the desert.cockroaches in the summer come into the house not for food but for water and they can slip through the smallest cracks to get in.
i noticed first in Mexico then here that people use "drain grates" not to keep stuff from falling down the drains but rather to try to keep the roaches from coming in through the drains
good food to feed cockroaches is water with splenda mixed in.
Its sweet but not a poison so they just keep drinking it and die from starvation. mixed with sticky traps put in dark places around the house and a yearly bug bombing you can keep them under control.
don't know how well the splenda trick would work, I've only seen them go after liquids if the liquid was the closest thing, they are just happy munching the first thing they can find. heck i don't think a "daily bug bombing" would even help here, even covering the floor and walls with sticky traps would fail, new ones would move in almost as soon as you got rid of the old ones.
You will never kill all of them in your home ever.
truer words are rarely said
edit on 24-5-2013 by generik because: (no reason given)
reply to post by Phoenix267
That's an interesting story. At one time I had an ant problem and some of the commercial baits were completely ignored by the ants. I didn't figure it out at the time, and it may be speculative but now I have to wonder if the ants may have similarly evolved some kind of aversion to some of the commercial baits.
I ended up trying several different kinds of baits and finally found some they were still attracted to. But since insects have such short lives it's not so surprising they can evolve so quickly over generations when generations aren't that long.
That's an interesting story. At one time I had an ant problem and some of the commercial baits were completely ignored by the ants. I didn't figure it out at the time, and it may be speculative but now I have to wonder if the ants may have similarly evolved some kind of aversion to some of the commercial baits.
I ended up trying several different kinds of baits and finally found some they were still attracted to. But since insects have such short lives it's not so surprising they can evolve so quickly over generations when generations aren't that long.