Five Things A Cockroach Can Survive That Kill Humans

The cockroach is an insect that can be found on almost every continent. They are even be able to survive in Antarctica, where they catch a ride in with people and spend their time living in our heated research bases! Truly, this insect has made a living of living off of humans. But besides being able to live anywhere, cockroaches can survive things that would kill the average human, and indeed most any other creature on the planet.

Lack of Oxygen

Scientists have found that cockroaches can survive for up to forty five minutes without air. They have even been found to survive being submerged underwater for up to thirty minutes. The average human can go about three minutes without air, but some may be able to survive without permanent brain damage after six to eight minutes.

Bleeding Out

A cockroach can also survive major wounds without bleeding out. Insects have an open circulatory system and are cold blooded. When cut or damaged, cockroaches wouldn't bleed out of a major wound the way a warm-blooded human does. It would simply clot up and heal, if not infected. The open wound does represent a vulnerable spot where disease can enter the body and infect a cockroach and later causing it to die.

Starvation

Because they are small and cold-blooded, cockroaches can live a month or more without food. They use very little energy. Researchers have found that a cockroach may even survive for much longer on things that humans consider inedible such as, glue, cardboard, feces and even their own shed exoskeletons. However, a cockroach can only survive about a week without water.

Losing Its Head

These little insects can even survive a beheading! As mentioned above, cockroaches are cold blooded so they wouldn't bleed out from the injury. Plus, cockroaches have several brains in the form of nervous ganglia distributed throughout the body that perform many of the same actions of the brain. Without a mouth, the cockroach would eventually die. However, digests food very slowly and uses very little energy, so the cockroaches last meal can sustain it up to a month.

Nuclear War

If humans ever killed themselves off with nuclear war, the mild cockroach may yet survive us. Researchers have found that cockroaches can survive extreme radiation. The German Cockroach can endure between 90,000 and 105,000 rems of radiation before dying. By contrast, the amount of radiation that can kill a human is as little as 350 rems.
While cockroaches can survive a great deal, they can still be killed. They aren't invincible! The small creatures are susceptible to insecticides, poisons and even many pathogens. Sometimes they even die from falling on their backs and not being able to turn themselves back over again! And of course they are still succeptiable to a reliable squashing from the stomp of a shoed foot.

Photo Credit: Cobalt123 via Flicker Creative Commons

Author Bio:
About the author: When not catching late night horror flicks Chris works for a Jersey City pest control in NJ. He doesn't miss the irony that he now kills bugs for a living after growing up watching horror flicks with giant civilization destroying insects.