There are real legends about the incredible endurance of cockroaches: they live for years, and they are not afraid of radiation, and they do not need food and water, and even without a head, cockroaches can exist just as if they didn’t need it at all.
Of course, with strong radiation exposure, these parasites die, like any living creature, they can simply endure without harm to themselves a dose that is 15 times higher than safe for humans. But are the statements that the cockroach lives not only without water and food, but also without a head, and in general, how long cockroaches live, still need to be figured out ...
Life stages of a cockroach
All cockroaches have an incomplete development cycle, i.e. without the stage of transformation of the larva into a pupa.
- In most of them, the females, after fertilization, lay their eggs in an ootheca (a small light bag) and wear it on their stomach. Over time, the ootheca darkens and begins to swell from the eggs that have grown inside, which takes from two to four weeks;
- Females of some species dump the ootheca into a secluded (warm and humid) place, most often into some hard-to-reach gap, where tiny white cockroaches (nymphs) about 3 mm long hatch from it. In other species, the females carry the ootheca on them until the eggs hatch, and even tend to them for some time after that;
- Over time, the nymphs darken and their chitinous covers become hard. After going through the stages of several molts, the nymph turns into an adult, which in very common red cockroaches takes about 2 months in the warm season (at a temperature of 30 degrees and above) and up to six months at a temperature of 22 degrees. The life span of an adult (imago) red cockroach is 20-30 weeks;
It turns out that from the moment the nymph hatches, the Prussian theoretically lives for about 9-12 months, if nothing prevents him.
There are species of cockroaches that live for several years, which include the black cockroach (can live up to two years). The total number of individuals in the colony can increase thousands of times in 3-4 months after a small number of parasites enter the dwelling. This interval is explained by the longer life of females, which are very prolific, as well as by the long development of eggs than in males.
Can cockroaches live without food?
These insects can actually go quite a long time without food. Red cockroaches live without food for up to 40 days, and black cockroaches - up to 70 days. This is due to the fact that they are cold-blooded creatures (poikilothermic), which means that they do not need to expend energy to maintain a certain body temperature.
The metabolism of such organisms is 20 times slower than that of warm-blooded ones, and it is enough for a cockroach to eat once in order to live for a long time (even several weeks) without experiencing hunger after that.
And further: Good old Karbofos poisons cockroaches with a bang - watch our video ...
On the other hand, the main source of energy for poikilothermic organisms is external sources, so cockroaches live only in heated dwellings, and at sub-zero temperatures their numbers are sharply reduced (this can be used to combat cockroaches by freezing the room).
The need of cockroaches for water
Despite the fact that cockroaches live for several weeks without food, without water they die within a week, and sometimes even earlier. This is due to the fact that water plays an exceptional role in the life of any organism, since it is a structural component of the cell, and almost all metabolic processes, consisting of a chain of chemical reactions, occur with the participation of water.
Cockroaches do not live long without water and prefer to eat moist food (waste), because water is necessary for the digestion process itself, for the functioning of the salivary glands and the circulatory system.
On a note
The effect of the use of many insecticidal agents is significantly reduced if cockroaches have access to water - insects simply drink and remove substances harmful to them (for example, boric acid) with waste products.
The remarkable heat-conducting properties of water also determine its important role as a thermoregulator in living beings.So, the release of excess fluid through the Malpighian vessels on the body saves from overheating of cockroaches, and the nocturnal lifestyle and waterproof chitinous covers, on the contrary, help save water in case of low humidity and too high temperature.
Do cockroaches live without a head?
No matter how strange this question may sound, the answer “yes, a cockroach lives without a head” sounds even more strange.
American scientists, in order to study the ability of these insects to reproduce, conducted a series of experiments on their decapitation. After that, the researchers came to the conclusion that not only the body of a cockroach lives without a head, but also its head (placed in a cool place and fed with a special solution) may well exist without a body. In turn, deprived of their heads and sealed with special wax in the neck, the bodies of cockroaches live in a flask for several more weeks, according to entomologist K. Tipping.
In order to understand why this is possible, one must understand that all the life support systems of insects (nervous, circulatory, digestive) are arranged quite differently from those of humans.So, the loss of a head in a person is fraught with deprivation of a critical amount of blood, a drop in blood pressure and a disruption in the supply of oxygen, and with it important nutrients to the internal organs.
And further: Good old Karbofos poisons cockroaches with a bang - watch our video ...
In insects, the circulatory system is not closed, there are no thin capillaries in it, and pressure does not play a decisive role in it. According to the physiologist and biochemist J. Kankel, if you tear off the cockroach's head, the neck vessels will simply be sealed with clotted blood, and the circulatory system will continue to work.
Of course, food still enters the digestive system of these parasites through the mouth organs. However, without a head, a cockroach can live for 9 days or even longer, since it can go without food for quite a long time, being more likely to be destroyed by mold or other microorganisms than to die of starvation.
For the normal process of breathing, a person needs a head, because it contains the mouth and nose, through which, in fact, air enters, and the brain that controls this process. In cockroaches, the respiratory process is carried out using special openings on the body, called "spiracles", and a network of small tubes - trachea. In this case, the brain does not take part in breathing, and after the elimination of the head, the body continues to be supplied with oxygen in the same mode.
Moreover, the brain as such is not particularly needed by cockroaches, since on each part of the body they have nerve nodes (ganglia) responsible for the main nerve functions at the level of reflexes.
Without a head, cockroaches move their paws, stand up and even move.True, as Nick Strosfeld of the University of Arizona points out, the head of these insects receives a lot of sensory information from the body, so their brain, deprived of a body, will not be able to function normally. So, the conducted experiments prove that cockroaches demonstrate memorization skills during training, when the head and body are inseparable unity. When the head is cut off, of course, these creatures lose their abilities.
So, cockroaches are indeed incredibly tenacious insects and are able to live without food, water, and even without a head for a very long period. The chitinous cover is so strong that, even if you slam this insect with a slipper, you cannot be sure that after a while it will not move away after the blow and will not run away.
On the other hand, deprivation of water threatens them with imminent death, so those who wish not only to get rid of uninvited guests, but also to prevent their appearance in the future, should by all possible means avoid water leaks from taps, pipes and flower pots.
Folk methods of dealing with cockroaches
How many days can an ordinary cockroach live without a head?
9 days.
Great article.
Great article.
Killed cockroaches by hand, spent 4 nights raiding the kitchen throughout the night. He acted according to the principle: first he crushed large individuals with eggs (he took into account who is easier to hide in a hard-to-reach place), then small ones, since their speed of movement is much less. He also identified places where eggs were laid.
During the night he killed about 200 individuals. Now lonely passengers are running, but they don’t run))
After he brought out all the cockroaches, one dead one remained. He lay with his paws up and covered with dust for several weeks. Then the paws moved. Here is such a failed monument. Conclusion: Some cockroaches can resurrect. What can scientists say to this?
So how long can cockroaches live when exposed to high temperatures - 60 degrees and above?
I breed cockroaches and hook up with neighbors from below. That's all.
This year is just an INVASION of cockroaches. They poisoned the whole house. The result is zero, they still came.
We never had them in our apartment. They appeared in August 2018. We are still suffering. Naberezhnye Chelny.
I once observed in the village with a granny: she poisoned them, and they went across the road in a train to a neighbor. On the road in winter! They need to be poisoned at the same time, otherwise you won’t see luck. What will scientists answer: how do cockroaches live without a head? After all, they walked one after another, thought about something and did not run away.