Post #13956

We ourselves made cockroaches invincible: 3 reasons for their total dominance Our eternal war with cockroaches is the very case when humanity itself has created an invincible enemy for itself. Centuries ago, when cockroaches first entered our homes, they were small, slow, careless and could die from any poison, even the weakest. But how did it happen that these practically harmless weaklings turned into seasoned veterans, whom not even any advanced chemistry accepts? There are 3 reasons for this transformation. Reason one: Similar taste habits Having penetrated human homes, cockroaches discovered mountains of delicious food, which is impossible to obtain in such quantities in the wild. After all, cockroaches and I have very similar diets. Both we and they can eat plant and animal foods in many different forms. Well, yes, cockroaches are not able to eat dry cereals, pickled vegetables or smoked meat, but they like garbage and crumbs from the floor, which are uninteresting to us. And thanks to the abundance of food, they got rid of their biggest problem - hunger. Reason two: Natural selection Of course, people did not like uninvited neighbors spreading parasites and eating our food. Therefore, as befits people, we began to exterminate them. And thus we screwed ourselves up. After all, surviving under the thumb of humanity has become a powerful factor spurring their evolution. By destroying the stupidest and slowest insects, we, at the same time, deprived the fast and cautious cockroaches of competition. Over time, we completely exterminated the clean cockroaches, allowing only those who hide from us in the dirt and garbage to leave offspring, albeit at risk to their health. And when people learned to set cunning traps and sprinkle poisons, we thereby spurred their resistance to toxins and their ability to develop this resistance in a short time. Today, cockroaches can develop resistance to a new insecticide in just 1-2 generations! And their generations change very quickly. Reason three: High reproduction rate Already 2 months after birth, the female cockroach is ready to lay the first clutch of 30-40 eggs, and in total there can be up to 10 such clutches in its entire life. And although the cockroach lives no more than 5 months, even this fact is beneficial for the species - the old ones give up the food supply to the younger and more adapted insects. With such a rate of reproduction, cockroaches can afford to lose 95-99% of the population in each generation, and even turn such a frantic mortality rate to their advantage. After all, those who are less fit die, while each newborn baby cockroach is a new combination of genes that may be more effective than the previous one. Or even have a new mutation in your genome that can help cope with the next insecticide. Of course, in most cases this is not the case, but the cockroach mother’s mission will be considered successful if at least 2 children out of 400 survive and leave of