Ruminations

Resistance is Futile : Where Have We Heard That Before?

"Roaches, in their evolutionary history, have been exposed to everything out there, and so they’re multi-resistant today."
"We were trying to figure out how we, or anybody, could go into low-income housing and help knock the populations down quickly in a cost-effective way. There’s not a lot of money in low-income housing to deal with this, but it’s a problem for the people who are forced to live there."
"What we were surprised about was that virtually nothing worked [to overcome roach resistance to extermination]."
"This is a previously unrealized challenge in cockroaches. Cockroaches developing resistance to multiple classes of insecticides at once will make controlling these pests almost impossible with chemicals alone."
Michael Scharf, entomologist, Purdue University

Pictured: A cockroach, plotting global domination CNN

Cockroaches are pedigreed in the sense that they are quite ancient as residents of planet Earth. They date back to 320 million years. They virtually colonized this globe. And homo sapiens? We're late-comers, upstarts, colonizers shoving our way into habitat originally meant for other creatures. So which of us is entitled to hold dominion over all we can grasp? We're bigger, and we think we're smarter, so possibly we have the leading edge.

Cockroaches: we definitely have an aversion to them; they are gruesome, intrusive and unhygienic, so we do our best to destroy them.

Trouble in Paradise: they resist destruction. Cockroaches of all sizes think they have the nature-given right to exist. And if they feel like living in our homes, well, that's just the way it is. Or not. We're smarter, of course, so we develop chemicals meant to kill the nasty little wretches. Oh, they're smart too? Their life cycle enabling them to develop genetic resistance to all our killing chemicals? Drat! Ever seen the size of cockroaches in Asia? They grow pretty big in the southern U.S. too.

It can be very, very embarrassing if you're having a dinner party and suddenly one leaps across the table onto a guest's shoulder. Trust me, it's embarrassing. And it's kind of awkward seeing one or two or three scurrying around your kitchen, and you're scurrying after them with a long-nozzled spray bottle 'guaranteed' to finish them off. Only, does it? We'd like to think that where's the will there's a way. If we can't do the job ourselves, we call in The Exterminator, the professionalsssssssssssssssss.

So what else is new? Resistance. It's not only a human trait, it's a biological trait hard-wired into all living creatures. All that lives has no wish not to live. Cue the cockroaches. Did you know? Cockroaches with their heads severed from their bodies can survive for over a week? Now, that's resistance, against all logic. Separating the head with its brain acting as command centre fails to stop the body from -- ugh -- moving about?

Seeing that would make anyone behave like the veritable chicken with its head cut off...

To make a short story even shorter, they're even resistant to radiation. We're not. So they're tough, really tough, that much is beyond contention. Researchers have concluded according to a study published in the journal Scientific Reports, that some cockroaches are able to develop resistance to pesticides in a matter of months. Purdue University researchers studied German cockroaches which though called 'German' is a species living in worldwide human environments.

Researchers tested common insecticides and found cockroaches have developed high levels of resistance. istockphoto

Remember when fascist Germany aspired to dominate the world with its Nazi ideology of Aryan superiority, causing World War II's upheaval and massive loss of human life? They failed, but German cockroaches appear to have succeeded. These are diabolical cockroaches. Which are able to carry various antibiotic-resistant microbes, along with E.coli, threatening to our health. Researchers tested insecticides on cockroach colonies in low-rise buildings in Indiana and Illinois over a six-month period.

They carried out their study in areas of inner-city, low-income communities which tend to be most susceptible to cockroach infestation. They used professional exterminators and widely available commercial insecticides. Using sole-type insecticides and alternately various combinations of them as well, or making use of all different types at the same time, the researchers discovered that it made little difference what the method; cockroaches still developed resistance to them all.

And the end result? Their numbers increased. By up to 80 percent. Fantastic, isn't it? Not admiring-fantastic, but dammit-fantastic. According to the study conclusion: "Broad resistance to nearly all available insecticide classes was identified at both study sites". In both study buildings the cockroach population increased even when insecticide use was repeated. When that happened the cockroaches were inspired to disperse and invade previously uninfested apartments.

Surprise, surprise...Imagine, if you will, the outraged reaction of the inhabitants of those new;y-infested apartments?

Oh, there's more good news in the reminder that a study out of Purdue University in 2017 found bedbugs to be developing resistance of their own to specific insecticides, while a 2018 study found that bugs in general have become increasingly resistant to farm crops treated with pesticides. Where there's breath there's hope. By studiously applying oneself to discovering which of the available insecticides might wipe out a colony and using the winner to good effect, there remains the potential of conquest.