Cockroaches might or might not survive a nuclear holocaust – but wiping them out by other means is becoming increasingly difficult. According to a new study, the common German cockroach is rapidly evolving resistance to insecticides, making it “almost impossible” to control it with chemicals alone.
Exterminators typically use a range of insecticides, so that if some of the roaches are resistant to one class, they’ll be killed by another. But when the team at Purdue University in Indiana tested variations of this approach in an infested apartment block, they found that none of them eradicated the roaches: in some cases, they flourished. Lab tests later revealed that roaches that survive a treatment become immune to it – and pass that immunity to their offspring; but it also seems that once…
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The Week United Kingdom (Digital) - 1 Issue, V. 1236