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Cockroaches becoming resistant to most chemical insecticides

sciencemag.org

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Re: Cockroaches becoming resistant to most chemical insecticides

#61

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

pard68 wrote: post #49
elboru wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many would eat all that? What about their waste how big would it be?

So I have about three hundred at any given time. As for waste, I don't worry too much, like fish the young eat the feces of the adults. In the last six months or so the 60gallon tubperware they live in has accumulated enough wase to cover the bottom about an inch deep or so

You have 300 roaches in a 60 gallon tub? Are you raising them as food for something else or just for fun? I'm certainly not one of the "eww roaches" people but I have to say I don't see the appeal myself ;)

Re: Cockroaches becoming resistant to most chemical insecticides

#62

Post by CriticalCathed »

lawlessone wrote: post #47
stirfrykitty wrote: post #42

Mix baking soda and sugar together and put them in a bowl. Will kill them dead without toxicity to humans. Boric acid has no resistance. Bay leaves repel about every insect known to man. Roaches hate bay leaves and will not be in the same area with them. Editing to say that bay leaves can be crushed in a coffee grinder, put in a plastic ketchup/mustard bottle as a powder, and the resulting powder "puffed" into areas…

Boric acid is mentioned in the article, they are developing resistance.

How can they develop a resistance to something that physically destroys their exoskeleton? It acts as an abrasive.

>Boric acid also has the reputation as "the gift that keeps on killing" in that cockroaches that cross over lightly dusted areas do not die immediately, but that the effect is like shards of glass cutting them apart. This often allows a roach to go back to the nest where it soon dies.

edit: found the article,

>All of the tested resistance intervention strategies selected for increased resistance to all AIs applied in field treatments except boric acid....Our results also showed non-significant, but nonetheless elevated cross-“tolerance” towards boric acid in some instances.[0]

So it's probably noise in the data. Boric acid is different from the rest of the substances studied. It may not be all that effective however, according to the paper, is my take.

[0] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-44296-y

Re: Cockroaches becoming resistant to most chemical insecticides

#63

Post by elorant »

stirfrykitty wrote: post #42

Mix baking soda and sugar together and put them in a bowl. Will kill them dead without toxicity to humans. Boric acid has no resistance. Bay leaves repel about every insect known to man. Roaches hate bay leaves and will not be in the same area with them. Editing to say that bay leaves can be crushed in a coffee grinder, put in a plastic ketchup/mustard bottle as a powder, and the resulting powder "puffed" into areas…

Powdered or crystallized sugar?

Re: Cockroaches becoming resistant to most chemical insecticides

#64

Post by andrewl »

hanoz wrote: post #17

I can't help but think that AI plus robotics is going to have pest control sewn up in the not too distant future, rendering these chemical brute force attacks largely redundant.

I've wondered about that. Could small crawling robots, perhaps 3-inches long, be built to roam around houses and inside walls and under sinks and so on to seek out and kill cockroaches and other household pests? I doubt anything can develop resistance to being torn apart by a robot. The answer is probably that it could be done now, or fairly soon. Whether it would be economical is another question entirely. But I don't like the idea of spraying chemicals around my house. Robots would be non-toxic.

Perhaps in the future every building will have a fleet of tiny robots roaming around functioning like macrophages. Maybe iRobot could come up with something.

Re: Cockroaches becoming resistant to most chemical insecticides

#65

Post by elorant »

muro wrote: post #29
tuesdayrain wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must not live with cockroaches if you feel no need to stop them.

Lots of large ones in Australia. Regularly seen them fly to our apartment in Sydney. Hate those things and I don't miss them at all in Europe.

Where do you live in Europe that doesn't have roaches? I live in Greece and the cities are infested with them during summer.

Re: Cockroaches becoming resistant to most chemical insecticides

#66

Post by maxaf »

throwaway5752 wrote: post #58
athenot wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a very strong health consideration that you're overlooking. You don't want random pollutants to be a part of your food intake, and roaches are not picky at all so they are guaranteed to be feeding on (and contain) various contaminations. This is good for the primary role of roaches, to be the cleanup crew for all sorts of organic matter in nature and helping in the breakdown cycle. But if you were inclined to…

I think the commenter addressed this with "farming" - that implies a controlled feed stream.

Correct - this would be just like alligator farming. I never miss the opportunity to savor gator meat whenever I'm in Florida, but obviously this isn't wild caught gator. Who knows what it might have eaten last night? I don't wish to be dining on poor Jim Bob who may have blundered too far into the Everglades after a night on the town...

In fact, the only gator meat that can be sold legally is farmed gator.

Re: Cockroaches becoming resistant to most chemical insecticides

#68

Post by [deleted] »

_jal wrote: post #59
hanoz wrote: post #17

I can't help but think that AI plus robotics is going to have pest control sewn up in the not too distant future, rendering these chemical brute force attacks largely redundant.

That is assuming AI + robotics does not become the next major pest infestation.

[deleted]

Re: Cockroaches becoming resistant to most chemical insecticides

#69

Post by y4mi »

gdhbcc wrote: post #51
petre wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We could use Tokkay Gekkos to get them. Then the cockroach problem becomes a gekko problem. Then we use a cat and the gekko problem becomes a cat problem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokay_gecko

Is having too many cats a problem though? Looks more like a bonus to me

To many cats results in no birds, resulting in more flying insects
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