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Cockroaches Evolving To Avoid Roach Motels

Posted by samzenpus on from the sleeping-on-the-couch-instead dept.

sciencehabit writes "Only a few years after roach motels were introduced in the 1980s, they lost their allure for an increasing number of German cockroaches. Researchers soon realized that some roaches had developed an aversion to glucose—the sugary bait disguising the poison—and that the insects were passing that trait on to their young. Now, scientists have figured out how this behavior evolved."

10 of 315 comments (clear)

  1. That's fine by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe soon they will learn an aversion to everything in my house. Then they can live outside and we will all be happy.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    1. Re:That's fine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Then they can live outside and we will all be happy.

      I understand many of them have found alternative employment with Microsoft and Apple's IP standover^h^h protection legal teams.

  2. Ah, yes! by Black+Parrot · · Score: 4, Funny

    That Intelligent Designer is a crafty one! You'll never best his cockroaches!

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    1. Re:Ah, yes! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      IDers accept microevolution.

      Which just makes them more illogical, not less. For example, I accept that I live in my mother's basement, but I don't accept that I will never get a date. Yet the latter is a consequence of the former.

  3. Roach Motel - Free Wifi by srobert · · Score: 5, Funny

    I noticed the roaches weren't going for it, so I added a sign to it: "Free Continental Breakfast, Free Wifi".

  4. Re:Easy fix to this problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Cockroaches have taste and need quality stuff. High fructose corn syrup is only for lower species.

  5. Re:Easy fix to this problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    .... and just leave poison out --- let the diabetes, liver disease, and obesity kill the roaches instead ...

  6. a better class of roach requires a better trap by Tumbleweed · · Score: 5, Funny

    If they've upped their standards and don't like motels, we'll have to increase our efforts, and create roach B&Bs.

  7. Re:Evolution is bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    There are many copies.

  8. Re:This could be good by the+biologist · · Score: 3, Funny

    Another aspect of the success of the German cockroach (mentioned in article) is that they're colonial animals. If the food source runs out, they will simply eat each other and keep breeding... resulting in a slowly shrinking colony. Eventually the colony will starve itself out of existence, but generally the humans living near by will have accidentally given them some food that isn't the colony... resulting in the colony rapidly growing again.