The cockroaches are back. What made them indestructible

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Vladimir LAGOVSKY July 24, 2022 15:12 0

Photo: Drawing: Katerina MARTINOVICH

The chemical weapons used against the red, mustachioed insolent creatures have made them indestructible.

We already thought we had won. Just a few years ago, headlines appeared in newspapers: “Where have the cockroaches gone?” And all sorts of experts were broadcasting with a smart look that the mustaches were killed by genetically modified foods, scared off by microwaves and radiation from cell towers...

Alas, the red-haired people returned to the apartments again.

“The evolution of cockroaches is rapid,” explains Olga Eremina, Doctor of Biological Sciences. “They mutate very quickly, getting used to any new poison. Develop resistance. A couple of weeks - and the antidote is ready.

Only with a slipper

Olga Yuryevna, the author of the study “On the resistance of red cockroaches”, knows what she is talking about. The mutations, she says, mainly affect the nervous system of cockroaches, which makes them increasingly impenetrable to toxic molecules. Poisons, which only yesterday seemed very effective, no longer penetrate cockroaches. They become useless. And they can even serve as food for them.

Surviving cockroaches pass on beneficial changes to subsequent generations. As a result, the population increases its resistance. To the point that it becomes resistant to several insecticides at once. Even super cockroaches appear, for which there is nothing fatal at all from the available “chemistry”. These are only a slipper.

How can one not recall Chukovsky’s “Cockroach”? “So the cockroach became the winner,” sighed Korney Ivanovich in 1921. Like looking into the water.

- Are we giving up? - I ask Olga Yuryevna.

“We won’t give up,” the doctor answers. - There is a remedy. But it is by no means new, but, frankly speaking, antediluvian.

Pyrethroids

Represented by the first, second and third generations. Causes paralysis, or a “knockdown effect”. It occurs within a short time, a few minutes or seconds, but can develop slowly, over tens of minutes, hours or even days.

Larvae of the first stages of development are most vulnerable to the action of pyrethroids due to the thinnest chitinous cover and small size, which ultimately ensures the fastest penetration of the active substance and damage to the insect's nervous system.

The obvious disadvantage of such drugs is the lack of an ovicidal effect—an effect on insect eggs.

If the population has pronounced resistance to the pyrethroid or mixture of pyrethroids used, then it becomes pointless to treat with a drug based on it, be it often or rarely.

Four species of baleen

Our homes are favored by four types of cockroaches: red - the most common - the so-called Prussians, American cockroaches, black and furniture, which in appearance are almost no different from red ones. All are descendants of those who survived the fight against insecticides. Accustomed to being poisoned with something all the time.

All resistant. Moreover, the resilience of the current generation of cockroaches has become simply phenomenal. They cannot be killed by doses that are several thousand times higher than the previous lethal ones.

But you have to somehow get rid of cockroaches. And not only because the proximity to them causes sincere disgust in most people. Cockroaches carry infection on themselves. And in addition to several dozen different bacilli, three types of worms also spread.

Preliminary preparation for breeding

To fully eliminate pests, comprehensive measures are used to destroy insects and eliminate the cause of their spread. Before you begin the process of getting rid of them, carry out preliminary preparations, which include the following steps:

1. Hide the food. Remove all food debris and crumbs from the table, sink and other places by thoroughly wiping the surfaces (preferably with detergents). If there are drops of grease on the tiles (usually near the stove), wash them off.
2. Remove water sources. There should be no cups with leftover drinks, puddles of water or other liquid left on the table. Be sure to dry the sink, bathtub, and close the toilet with a lid.
3. Clean up. Sweep out all the garbage and wash the floor with bleach (white), wipe the window sills.
4. Seal the cracks. To prevent cockroaches from hiding and new individuals from entering the apartment, cover all the cracks in the floor and walls with alabaster or special construction putty.
5. Warn your neighbors. Since insects, when baited, will begin to escape through the exhaust hole into nearby apartments, be sure to notify your neighbors about your actions - they need to protect their premises. For example, install a repeller, a trap, etc.
6. Prepare the poison. If necessary, make a solution or other remedy. Be sure to use protective equipment - rubber gloves, construction respirator.

Last resort

The disinfestation laboratory assures that boric acid is what gives hope for the success of “combat operations.” Boric acid is an inorganic substance, without its own smell and taste. A rare cockroach is able to develop resistance to it. The main thing is to “feed” him with it. If it works, the “fed” ones will die from dehydration.

Two recipes are in the lead. The first is boric acid with egg. The so-called balls. They are “rolled” from boiled yolk mixed with acid powder - take 20 grams of powder for one mashed yolk and add a little vanillin for flavor. The balls are laid out and left for about a week so that all the cockroaches in the area can try them. For taste, you can add a little boiled potato to the balls.

The second recipe is a solution of boric acid in water. 50 grams of powder are diluted in half a glass of clean water, and a tablespoon of honey is added - again for taste. The “cocktail” is poured into saucers, placed overnight in places where the cockroaches are drinking water - in the kitchen sink, in the bathroom sink, in the bathtub, or even on the toilet, previously closed with a lid. In the morning, the saucers can be moved to places that are not so necessary for the people themselves.

The task of the “special operation,” which must continue for about 10 days, is to shut off all available sources of water, even to the point of removing wet towels and leaving water only in saucers.

Cleanliness in the kitchen will contribute to success, and crumbs scattered here and there, puddles of spilled tea or compote will disrupt it.

New imported baits containing hydramethylnon still retain quite decent effectiveness. Possessing a delayed effect, they disrupt the synthesis of ATP molecules - energy sources necessary for the functioning of the nervous system and the occurrence of vital biochemical reactions. Our cockroaches have not yet found protection from hydramethylnon. But they will definitely find it: their relatives living in the USA have already developed resistance to it.

“Old-timers say that cockroaches can be frozen out,” I remember.

“It’s possible,” agrees Olga Yuryevna. — Cockroaches die at subzero temperatures. But does it make sense to freeze an apartment in a multi-storey residential building? One of my friends tried it by draining the water from the central heating radiators. Some cockroaches died, the rest fled to their neighbors. But they returned a day after the heat supply was restored.

The method is good for villagers. Or for cottage dwellers. If you have somewhere to go for a while. Special traps - small sticky houses - also work.

“They say that if you notice one cockroach in a house, it means there are 700 more hiding somewhere.”

“It seems like the truth,” Eremina agrees. — Our employee, having seen a cockroach in her home, bought “houses.” In the end I caught about 700 insects. Being a scientist, she counted them.

Conditions for the appearance of cockroaches

Domestic parasites appear in places where there are comfortable conditions for them. For their nests they choose cluttered places where little sunlight penetrates. It is desirable that it is damp and there is food nearby.

The kitchen has always been my favorite place; it meets all the requirements. Behind the trash can next to the sink, you can get a drink and eat.

Pests do not like the cold; they often settle behind radiators, near the stove. Cockroaches will not settle near the bedding of pets (cats, dogs), and do not tolerate such proximity.

Insects love to climb into electrical appliances - televisions, computers, microwave ovens, toasters. Laying eggs there can damage complex equipment.

Did they leave?

Many people think that the cockroaches went somewhere. But most scientists deny this. They only admit that the number of cockroaches has temporarily declined. Due to the fact that they, having grown considerably, began to be diligently poisoned with the latest means that appeared on the market.

Numerous insect extermination companies also joined the fighting. Joint actions brought success, which resulted in the current return of the mustaches. The surviving creatures, which have gained resistance to the poison, now take revenge for their dead ancestors.

Neonicotinoids

Nicotine derivatives. Remember grandma's old recipe - to sprinkle the beds with crushed tobacco powder to prevent garden pests? For the cockroach population, nicotine derivatives are not very dangerous. The drugs are effective at the initial stage of control; after 1–2 treatments, it is better to replace them with another drug, otherwise the remnants of the population will quickly restore their numbers.

Dangerous carcinogen

For the first time, fipronil-based insecticides began to be used in agriculture to kill locusts, as well as in veterinary medicine. Many international scientific papers mention the carcinogenic effect of fipronil.

Breath! Do not breath

Cockroaches may not breathe for 40 minutes. If you plant them in a closed jar, the insects will not die there. They won't suffocate. The same cannot be said about any beetles or flies. Cockroaches do not breathe on their own from time to time. By good will, as they say. And this is another phenomenon that attracts the attention of scientists.

Biologists, led by Natalya Schipf from the Australian University of Queensland, seem to have figured out the nature of such a strange habit. By holding their breath, cockroaches conserve moisture in the body. So that less of it comes out with the air, that is, they are saved from dehydration.

Olga Eremina confirms: lack of oxygen does not particularly harm cockroaches. She and her colleagues checked how tenacious the mustachios living in special warehouses are, where for the sake of fire safety they saturate the air with nitrogen or carbon dioxide. The fire in such an atmosphere did not really burn, and the cockroaches did not die.

Features of insects

Cockroaches amaze with their vitality. In the absence of normal food, they feed on dust, dirt, dried sweat from clothes, fallen hair, glue in book bindings, and insulation from wires.

Only glass, iron, and some types of plastics are not suitable for food. Pests can live up to two months without food. Parasites do not cope well without water; one drop lasts for several days. The insects will survive absolutely without water for one week.

Even without a head, pests get along well. If for some reason they lose it, a kind of clot forms in its place, although the cockroach continues to live. He can breathe with his whole body, but dies from the inability to get drunk after about a week.

Increased levels of radiation do not have a lethal effect on household pests. In such conditions they even continue to reproduce.

Interesting fact: cockroaches can pretend to be dead. But they do it unconsciously. A special gene was discovered in the insect’s body that causes the parasite to switch off when it eats poison or smells it.

If a dead-looking pest is found, it is swept up into a dustpan and thrown into the trash. There the insect comes to its senses and crawls away. That is why it is recommended to flush dead insects down the toilet and not throw them in the trash!

The secret to instant disappearance

How do cockroaches jump from one surface to another - perpendicular? Or even from the top plane of the board to the bottom? And thus they seem to disappear from sight, becoming invisible to their pursuers, for example, a person with a slipper in his hand.

Scientists from five departments at the University of California—biophysics, bioengineering, integrated biology, computer science, and mechanics—were looking for answers to these questions. After conducting numerous cockroach races and filming them with a high-speed camera, scientists figured out what was happening. It turned out that cockroaches have the skills of circus trapeze artists. And they instantly move from the top side of a plank or branch through a somersault. When performing a somersault, cockroaches cling to the edge of the board with their hind legs. At the same time, the body, becoming a kind of pendulum, turns over by inertia to the opposite side of the board, which the cockroach grabs with its front legs.

The acceleration experienced by insects performing somersaults is approximately 4 G. Fighter pilots are exposed to such overloads.

This trick, according to amazed scientists, allows insects not to reduce their running speed during such a complex maneuver.

Why do cockroaches appear in a clean apartment?

Sometimes even in a perfectly clean apartment, home parasites appear. This means they came from other places. If there are no comfortable conditions for them, they will not stay. Household parasites are constantly migrating.

Cockroaches reproduce around the clock; the new generation requires territory, which they have to search for. Even if the owners are confident that the house is clean, they need to take preventive measures. Uninvited guests may like the apartment.

Cockroaches may appear in a clean apartment:

• through common sewerage or water supply pipes;
• through general ventilation;
• from a common garbage chute;
• with old things when moving;
• with the things of someone who came to visit;
• with postal parcel;
• with delivery of furniture from a furniture store;
• with things from the trip.

There are many options for insect entry. It is important to notice this in a timely manner and begin extermination.

Warning from Rospotrebnadzor

Svetlana Roslavtseva, head of the laboratory for disinfestation problems at the Institute of Disinfectology of Rospotrebnadzor, warned about the invasion of cockroaches, Sputnik radio reports. The insects need places with water to lay their eggs, she said. They develop in about three months, depending on the temperature.

The next invasion of cockroaches into apartment buildings and their mass breeding occurs in February. This is the first peak of the year, and the second will be in the summer

Svetlana Roslavtseva.

Associate Professor of the Department of Forest Protection, Wood Science and Game Science at the St. Petersburg State Forestry University named after S. M. Kirov, entomologist Dmitry Musolin, in a conversation with “360,” did not agree that there will be an invasion of cockroaches in February. The specialist was embarrassed that Rospotrebnadzor was talking about the scale of the problem. According to Musolin, there are no general prerequisites for the invasion, so the department’s statement is strange. However, local problems are possible.

The 360 ​​interlocutor added that, regardless of the timing of Russians’ arrival at their apartments, cockroaches pose a danger. These insects live in places invisible to humans in apartments where there is garbage. They feed on waste, die there and remain.

There is a danger because they live in hidden places in the apartment, where there is garbage, they feed on waste, they die there, it all remains. It affects a person. They spread and eat dead insects - all this is unhealthy and carcinogenic. There is such a danger in apartments

Dmitry Musolin.

That is, garbage and rotting food debris stick to their paws, and then the cockroaches run to the food - regardless of its degree of freshness. After all, they don’t care what or where they eat.

Photo source: Pxhere

There have been no problems with cockroaches in Russian apartments for many years, because new insect repellents began to be used. People began to live cleaner, make repairs more often, and the share of communal apartments and dormitories decreased. However, cockroaches know how to adapt, so after many years they were able to get used to the chemistry and new materials with which they were fought. Musolin added that in recent years there have been more cockroaches in cities.