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Dr. “The issue of how this will affect the population is really complex,” said Wada-Katsumata.
That’s because, despite snagging, roaches that don’t like glucose still find ways to get the job done.
In lab experiments, Dr. Wada-Katsumata and colleagues showed that females who dislike glucose are more timid to males than wild-type cockroaches; this is what researchers call roaches that don’t like glucose. However, they also found that men who dislike glucose make up for it by switching to sex more quickly after presenting their gift.
“Females who dislike glucose may spend, say, three seconds feeding on the male’s secretions,” he said. Coby Schal, distinguished professor of entomology at the State of North Carolina and author of the study. “The wild-type male does not respond in three seconds. The man who avoids glucose does.”
Researchers even have evidence to suggest that all these new pressures are potentially causing changes in the wedding gift chemistry of the glucose-hating man so that he can continue to attract women.
From a scientific standpoint, the German cockroach sugar saga illustrates how humans are able to drive both natural selection (cockroaches that survive our poison traps) and sexual selection – glucose-fighting cockroaches that no longer want to mate with sugary cockroaches. snacks.
Dr. “I think that’s what makes it so appealing,” Schal said. “The idea that humans impose very strong selection on animals around us, especially inside our homes, and that animals respond not only with physiological changes but also with behavioral changes.”
The good news for consumers is that pesticide manufacturers Dr. Wada-Katsumata and Dr. Schal’s enthusiasm for understanding cockroach evolution and actively changing their cockroach killing formulas to get away from glucose. But given how new this research is, it will take some time for these changes to reach products on our shelves.
Dr. “The worst thing you can have as a product is bait that cockroaches don’t eat,” Schal said.
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