I’ve got bad news and worse news. THE BAD NEWS: Cockroaches can survive underwater for up to 40 minutes and can even survive a nuclear explosion. THE WORSE NEWS: Cockroaches are becoming resistant to bug spray.
Science
Yes, folks, the movie MEN IN BLACK tried to warn us all that cockroaches are the true rulers of the universe and now, it appears that may be true. Not only are the pesky bugs becoming resistant to common household bug spray such as RAID, but scientists now fear it could soon become impossible to ever kill them at all.
According to a recent research study conducted by Purdue University in Indiana, a strain of German cockroach—Blattella germanica L.—will only become more difficult to eliminate as future generations are becoming increasingly immune to human efforts of population control.
“This is a previously unrealized challenge in cockroaches,” said Professor Michael Scharf of the Department of Entomology who led the six-month-long study and whose findings have now been published in the journal Scientific Reports. “Cockroaches developing resistance to multiple classes of insecticides at once will make controlling these pests almost impossible with chemicals alone.”
According to Scharf, not only would roaches that survived a treatment be “essentially immune” to that type of insecticide class in the future, but their offspring would be too. And if that wasn’t enough, they’d also have resistance to other insecticides even if they hadn’t been exposed to them and had not had previous resistance.
“We would see resistance increase 4 or 6-fold in just one generation,” Scharf said. “We didn’t have a clue that something like that could happen this fast.”
Since female roaches have a 3-month reproductive cycle (which results in about 50 offspring), Scharf believes even a small number of insecticide-resistant cockroaches could quickly become catastrophic. In fact, a population of roaches wiped out by a single working bug spray could spring back in mere months, he added. An infestation of this magnitude could become especially problematic for areas of low-income or federally subsidized housing.
So, are we all doomed to hell by a cockroach population intent on world domination?  According to Scharf, our only hope is to begin combining chemical treatments with roach traps. Additionally, we must all do our part to immediately improved sanitation and to not lay out the welcome mat to cockroaches with leftover food, spilled grease, and other life-supporting entrees for them to feast on in our kitchens.
This is nasty and informative all in one. I wish we know their secret.