How To Kill A Cockroach

Cockroaches.

Filthy.

Yucky.

Apart from acting as an indicator of hygiene, the presence of this six-legged creature often prompt nerve-breaking shrieks and wails from ladies and men alike.

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Cockroaches, however, are no less fascinating. They're nocturnal, have two brains (one inside their skulls, and a second, more primitive brain that is back near their abdomen), they have cream-colored blood, they can tolerate a higher dose of radiation (cockroaches survived the atomic bombs test blast at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands), and female stores sperms which may last her a lifetime.

Cockroaches will eat almost anything including glue, feces, hair, decayed leaves, paper, leather, banana skins, other cockroaches, and dead or alive humans. They will not, however, eat cucumbers. They are particulary fond of dried milk around a baby’s mouth. German cockroaches Blattella germanica, the most common domestic roach in the United States, have been observed to live 45 days without food, and more than two weeks with neither food nor water.

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The roaches are not confined to any particular environment and live in a tremendous variety of places, from underneath woodpiles in Alaska to high in the jungle canopy in the tropics of Costa Rica. They are even found in the caves of Borneo and under the thorn bushes in arid stretches of Kenya. Wherever they live, they are masters at surviving.

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The insect is also notoriously hard to kill.

Richard Schweid, the author of The Cockroach Papers observes that

“when a cockroach feels a breeze stirring the hairs on its cerci, it does not wait around to see what is going to happen next, but leaves off whatever it is doing and goes immediately into escape mode in something remarkably close to instantaneous fashion.”

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Studies show that a cockroaches can respond in about 1/20th of a second, so

“by the time a light comes on and human sight can register it, much less react by reaching for and hoisting something with which to squash it, a roach is already locomoting towards safety.”

Image: buzzle.com

Since it's almost impossible to kill a cockroach physically, we must resort to chemicals.

I had the opportunity to test the resolve of the German roach firsthand.  In one of my past employment adventures I cared for roaches.  Yes, a long story for another blog entry.  Suffice to say, captive roaches do not fear Raid or HotShot nearly as much as I felt they should.  So what can one do if these visitors have infested their home?

Make them come to us and fight back dirty!

Get some moist stale while bread with warm, slightly soured beer, and then place it in a jar. Apply petroleum jelly, for example Vaseline to the interior rim of the jar to prevent the trapped insect from climbing out.

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Next, dispose the intruder accordingly. I suggest fire grinding or draino.  Raid will work, but close the container and let it steep. 

You may not want it to return so make sure it is killed and not released. It's not an endangered species anyway.

Info: http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/why-is-it-so-hard-to-kill-a-cockroach-with-your-shoe/