December 10, 2007
And you thought "living" roaches were bad
Let's go buggy for...
Two new states for roaches have been discovered recently: the undead and the robotic.
The undead "zombie" roaches are the victims of the jewel wasp, whose brain-injected toxin stops a roach's will to escape. Creepy as that is, scientists are now using this parasitic relationship to better understand the chemical nature of movement.As for the 'droids, European scientists have newly invented a robotic cockroach. The machine, covered in a paper filter drenched in cockroach pheremones, is capable of influencing roach group-behavior. Researchers speculate that these robots could be used to lead cockroaches to traps, eliminating the need for pesticides.
Check out the BBC video here.
- Karyn
Photo courtesy Ram Gal, via news.nationalgeographic.com