It never seems to fail; the dead cockroaches you find in your home are always lying on their backs. Whether you feel disgusted or relieved that the roach is dead, you scoop it up into the trash, forget it, and go on with your day. Have you ever stopped to wonder why roaches always seem to die in that position? Here is an explanation of why cockroach control Cambridge is one of the main reasons cockroaches die on their backsides.

Do Insecticides Cause Them to Flip Over?

Professional pesticides are the only way to ensure that any roaches you see are indeed dead and on their backs. Why are they in this position? The primary reason is that chemicals used to kill them work by destroying communication between their nervous systems and muscles. As a result, the poisoned roaches lose control of their movements and wind up on their backs as they thrash around.

The geometry of a cockroach’s body is the reason muscle spasms land it upside down. Their long legs put their center of gravity high on their backs. Once a force pulls them over, their slightly rounded exoskeletons make it difficult to right themselves. A healthy roach would move its legs and wings to rock itself back and forth until up on its feet again, but one suffering the effects of an insecticide is unable to do so.

Why Don’t Cockroaches Die on Their Backs Outdoors?

Most of the world’s 4,500 cockroach species, including the 55 in North America, prefer to live outdoors. As disgusting as it sounds, cockroaches are actually full of protein and provide a nutritious meal for a host of larger animals. That’s why bigger, faster, and stronger spiders prey on them. The reason your yard is not littered with dead cockroaches is that they are gobbled up long before they can hope to die of old age.

The four species that invade human homes have a different lifestyle from their country cousins. With no natural predators, they can potentially live out their entire 6-month lifespans. However, without blades of grass or clumps of soil to grab onto, the smooth surfaces of your home make it difficult for old and clumsy insects to flip themselves upright once their bodies fail, and they find themselves on their backs where they eventually die.

Do Cockroaches Just Pretend to Be Dead?

There are many reports of people stepping on or spraying cockroaches until they stop moving, only to come back later to find the insects gone. This has caused some to wonder whether roaches might feign death. Scientists refer to the behavior of pretending to be dead as thanatosis, and have documented it in some beetle species. Cockroaches, who are more closely related to termites than to beetles, however, are not hardwired to do so.

Although pretending to be dead is not one of them, cockroaches do possess other amazing powers of staying alive. For example, roaches can survive the following attempts on their lives:

• Drowning – They can hold their breath for 40 minutes.
• Freezing – temperatures must be lower than -9 degrees Celsius to bother them.
• Crushing – Their exoskeletons often protect them.
• Starving – A cockroach can survive without food for 50 days.
• Decapitating – Seven days with no head is no problem for a roach.

Cockroach Control in Cambridge

Part of our mission statement at Truly Nolen is to add value to the lives we touch; this means improving your quality of life through a pest-free home. You can trust Truly Nolen to use the safest and most effective treatments in all seasons of the year. Contact us  to schedule a home inspection and set up a treatment plan today.