Right...who else wants a one way ticket to Mars?
In news that'll send a shiver down your spine, new research has revealed Cockroaches are evolving into “superbugs” that may soon become immune to bug spray.
In a study conducted by Purdue University, researchers found that German cockroaches are becoming increasingly more difficult to kill by rapidly evolving to resist a range of pesticides.
Lead researcher, Michael Scharf, said cockroaches may soon become nearly impossible to control with bug spray alone.
“This is a previously unrealised challenge in cockroaches,” he said.
“Cockroaches developing resistance to multiple classes of insecticides at once will make controlling these pests almost impossible with chemicals alone.”
Scharf and his team tested the effectiveness of the methods used to exterminate roaches over a six-month period.
Rotating three different insecticides, researchers were able to keep cockroach populations flat over a six-month period, however they were unable to reduce them
Test later found that a certain percentage of cockroaches would be resistant to a particular class of pesticide.
The horror.
Those that survived a dose of spray and their offspring would be essentially immune to that insecticide. Basically like how once you've had the chicken pox you're now immune to them.
Not only that, but they also found to have gained resistance to other classes of insecticides, even if they hadn’t been exposed to them previously.
“We would see resistance increase four- or six-fold in just one generation,” Scharf said.
“We didn’t have a clue that something like that could happen this fast.”
Due to the very quick reproductive cycle of cockroaches, it meant that even if a small percentage of the population was resistant the population would continue to grow.
Scharf suggested combining chemical treatments with traps, improved sanitation and vacuums that can remove cockroaches.
“Some of these methods are more expensive than using only insecticides, but if those insecticides aren’t going to control or eliminate a population, you’re just throwing money away,” Scharf said.
“Combining several methods will be the most effective way to eliminate cockroaches.”
