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WILD WORLD
OF MEDICINE
response is spectacular and almost like that of humans. They have recyclers, eating decaying organic material and breaking it down for
an incredible sense of smell; they touch food with their antennae re-use by plants.
and cerci (appendages) which pick up tastes, smells and vibrations;
they have palps in front of their mouth which are used for tasting; Without the recyclers we could be ankle-deep in dung, dead bod-
they bite a piece of food with their mandible and if it is not good ies, and other waste. They make good food for hedgehogs, frogs,
they will spit it out. Should they eat a poisonous bait and live mice, centipedes, spiders and reptiles. If you don’t like roaches in
through it, the future generations will develop resistance to the your home, do all you can to protect the common house centipede.
bait. They can regenerate previously severed antennae, mouthparts They will decimate your roach population as will the gecko.
and broken legs while molting. They can disappear within 1/28th
of a second which is equal to 93 mph. Their bodies are covered Always keep in mind that when using pesticides, adhere to rec-
with wax (cuticle). They can flatten themselves and get into cracks ommended levels. We must not jeopardize human health, the en-
no bigger than a match stick. vironment, and other wildlife. There is considerable public
concern about the effects chemicals have on the genetic resistance
There are over 3,000 roach control products registered in the of insects to the chemicals and the disruption of naturally occur-
U.S. About the only way to get rid of them is to deny them water ring biological control.
as they quickly dry out. Flushing them down the toilet won’t do
any good because they take up residence in your sewer line. If you Roaches are important in medical research because they develop
vacuum them, the best thing to do is freeze the bag of roaches and cancerous tumors similar to those grown by humans and are used in
then discard. cancer research.
Despite this, there is not one way to totally control cockroaches. Lastly, a cockroach aversion is learned, not inherited. According
And, do you really want to? Like termites, roaches are the ultimate to two U.S. Dept. of Agriculture researchers, they found that chil-
dren under the age of 4 have no aversion to cockroaches until their
parents teach them.
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