Thought experiment: The most environmentally-friendly way to bring cockroaches to extinction?

[RainDreamer]

Makes me think, if we were to master both genetic engineering and time travelling...the kind of creatures that we can create and the disasters that may happen...

And because I have calmed down...there is this short animation that is relevant to the topic at the beginning of the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuaNuBp09Gk

[AngelLestat]

Also, a myth about cockroaches outlive humans is just that - a myth. They won't live any longer than humans. They are parasites and without us they won't have any food / places to live. Besides, some biologists say that cockroaches will soon extinct completely. Some 20-30 years ago cockroaches were a scourge of any urban area where I live. Now I cannot even remember the time I saw one for the last time. There is hypothesis that they hate electromagnetic emissions we have surrounded ourselves with. Cell phones, wi-fi routers, etc. all of this apparently makes them uncomfortable. Add some new materials and mass infestation baits that affect their ability to reproduce.

Is a myth? where is your prove that is a myth?

The reasons you give are wrong, first they are not parasites!

Cockroaches has 400 millons of years of evolution with not significant change in its design.

This means that they already accomplish the ultimate design in the ecosystem niche they fill, but they only takes few years to evolve and combat a new threat.

They survive 5 major worldwide extinctions (we none so far)

There are 4500 cockroaches species, they dont need us for survive, even the german cockroaches (the most common cockroach that always lives with humans), it can survive perfectly without us, it can even eat leather to survive.

Also their position in the ecosystem is so important, that in case their get almost become extinct. It would produce a chain reaction in the ecosystem that will extinct us. Maybe as the blight in interstellar.

Here is how they learn to avoid and recognize the bait used in cockroaches traps

They also become inmune to many types of poison.

[Yakuzi]

As mentioned a couple of times above, a large human population is the main reason why there are so many urbanised cockroaches (and mice, rats, pigeons, chlamydia trachomatis, etc). They are just filling the niches we create in the wake of our uncontrolled global dissemination. Get rid of us, get rid of them... furthermore, this would be the most environmentally-friendly option by far.

If pan-humanic cleansing isn't your thing, how about some genetic engineering of roach specific pathogens? Insects are susceptible to various viral, bacterial and fungal infections, so I'm sure we can engineer some diseases to be particular vicious to cockroaches. All we need is a cockroach cell-line and some candidate pathogens to get started with (and some funding, got change?).

We don't necessarily need to kill them outright (high selective pressure = adaptation = current situation = bad), we could change their living patterns (for instance to live outside in the light) through parasitic "mind-control" wizardry, as several fungi and eukaryotic parasites have evolved (click to see

,

and

).

Unfortunately, releasing any genetically modified organisms into nature (including Slashy's above) is like opening Pandora's box... so in my objective opinion we're best off living either with roaches or without humans.

[xXIndestructibleEVAXx]

its kind of an important species to exterminate in masse. but they are enough of a health concern to justify extermination in ones home. my personal favorite is boric acid.

last apartment i was in had mice. they are more of a nucince/health concern than roaches, because they can chew their way into food containers and leave little presants behind. their other favorite pass time was getting into the toilet paper and shredding it. this kind of infestation can be delt with by a couple of cats. they were still around but more limited in their movement, because if they tried to get in the kitchen they would get eaten. and unlike a roach, a mouse is kind of cute.

Cockroaches arn't a health concern. They carry no known diseases. We only dislike them because they are "gross"

[RainDreamer]

Cockroaches arn't a health concern. They carry no known diseases. We only dislike them because they are "gross"

At worst, they only contaminate food with their dropping or carry bacteria on their legs to food, while being a recycler of our trash. But that is difficult to think about when your first thought on the sight of one is to either kill them or run away, get some dangerous stuff, and kill them with that. Can't even watch the video above.

For many people like me, reaction is not just "dislike" because they are gross, but an almost instinctive "fight or flight" reaction, that can disable higher thinking and reduce us to a mess, and have to cope with their fear. It is irrational, it is emotional, and it makes no sense, but I can't help not feeling what I feel and get a bit crazy about it to cope.

I sometimes wonder if at one point during the last few thousand years human, being no longer hunted by predators, have our instinct of self-protection just got switched to some other random things and create a bunch of phobia. I don't think early human worry much about cockroaches when they are chased by tigers and finding food (sometimes "food" is cockroaches too.) Ugh. >.<

Edited February 28, 2015 by RainDreamer

[vger]

Never imagined someone would figure out a way to put "friendly" and "extinction" in the same sentence.

[ultrasquid]

Roaches fill an ecological niche, and in their absence another pest would take their place.

[Starwhip]

A species that decides they want to completely wipe out another species just because they don't like them is far more disgusting and is a true threat to life. Maybe we should be thinking of the most environmentally friendly way to bring humans to extinction.

My god, This. ^

[Bill Phil]

A species that decides they want to completely wipe out another species just because they don't like them is far more disgusting and is a true threat to life. Maybe we should be thinking of the most environmentally friendly way to bring humans to extinction.

Cockroaches are more than disliked. they can very badly affect structures and crops. It's why they're called pests.

[RainDreamer]

Roaches fill an ecological niche, and in their absence another pest would take their place.

Putting aside concerns about bio-engineering (because this is a thought experiment and not a proposal in reality), can't we create a type of creature to fill that niche? Like, maybe a type of butterfly that eat up trashes? or something. I would be fine with even spiders. Or Centipedes. Anything that doesn't have the same shape as a cockroach.

[Newt]

Putting aside concerns about bio-engineering (because this is a thought experiment and not a proposal in reality), can't we create a type of creature to fill that niche? Like, maybe a type of butterfly that eat up trashes? or something. I would be fine with even spiders. Or Centipedes. Anything that doesn't have the same shape as a cockroach.

Cockroaches are not alone in their role, other organisms eat through decaying wood and similar thing to them. I suppose that there may be environmental differences that define the land of the cockroach from elsewhere. Where I live, I have never encountered them. Perhaps you could move something else to the regions where the cockroach lives, or more likely several other organisms could take its place together, no engineering and relocation needed. Organisms go extinct, and they do not always cause total environmental collapse when they go. If the cockroach disappeared tomorrow, there might just be more rats and mice and other creatures doing the same things in a few months.

As I said, I do not really deal with these most fearsome and horrid of beasts, hideous to behold as they are. I have been thankfully spared much of the mental scaring that accompanies every encounter with them, and as such I cannot compare my naive opinions with those of battle hardened forum goers who know the true power and terror that a cockroach can inflict. But, why? I mean, they just are other organisms, who cares if you do not like how they look or how they feed themselves. They generally do not pose much danger to people, and we probably could spend our time and energy elsewhere. Anyone ever heard of poverty? Or ongoing ethnic violence? Anyone interested in developing cures for diseases, or exploring the moons of Neptune? There are many things that deserve more attention than the cockroach, who is, as far as I can tell, pretty much just minding its own business.

[GreeningGalaxy]

Here's how you get rid of cockroaches:

EAT THEM ALL.

I've not had the opportunity to try them, but I hear they can be quite tasty and nutritious.

[Nuke]

i personally have no problem with them living in my house if they pay rent. but they dont so i get the raid. some of the more exotic species make interesting pets. it might help your phobia to handle some of the pet grade specimens.

very few roaches here though, its too cold and wet for them i suppose. ive seen dead ones but not live ones, so at some point this building was infested with the german variety, i suppose the unit was unocupied for an extended period and there were just not any food sources available and no heat so they all died out.

i have found a few bed bugs but thats nothing you cant fix with a hand full of spiders. they are slow, lumbering, and hide in very predictable areas and you can kill them with a simple hair drier or a well placed finger (and make a pleasing popping sound). if they pay rent and food they can stay, but again they dont.

the real pests around here are the skeeters (or as we call them the alaska state bird, aka giant blood sucking helicopters) and gnats.

Edited February 28, 2015 by Nuke

[Charzy]

There's no reason to believe that removing all humans would cause cockroaches to become extinct. They've survived for an incredibly long time as they are before we existed and to assume that they need us to survive as a species is as arrogant as it is misinformed.

[Scoundrel]

Destroying all cockroaches would be an exercise in futility. Simply "destroy" their habitat by engaging in OCD-level cleaning for a month or two should do it. As a former resident of LA (a town that has cockroaches big enough to look like they stepped off the set of Jurassic Park - yeah both human and insect heheheh) it is the only sure-fire way I know of. And yeah, they eat the microscopic food bits on your toothbrush, so even that is not safe. You seriously have to go all out and not leave even the tiniest crumb anywhere.

With regards to rationalizing destroying humanity because certain aspects of humanity act irrationally: such a suggestion is itself an absurdity, thus making individuals who accept that rationale the equivalent of those who suggested an irrational act in the first place. There is no moral or ethical justification for extinction-level acts - only the imperative for survival can even remotely justify such atrocities, and even that is debatable.

[RainDreamer]

Makes me think about organic bath products that I use. Says on my shower cream that it has "real" cocoa butter in it. It is listed as "SODIUM COCOABUTTERAMPHOACETATE" (What the *beep* marketers? can't you name a compound in a more sensible way?) on the ingredient, and some emulsifiers made from coconut oils extract. Wonder if that actually confused and attract them though as they thought there are food around?

...I am not going to test that hypothesis.

Off topic notes - the stuff I uses smell amazing though. No regret. Except if its attracts cockroaches.

[Yakuzi]

There's no reason to believe that removing all humans would cause cockroaches to become extinct. They've survived for an incredibly long time as they are before we existed and to assume that they need us to survive as a species is as arrogant as it is misinformed.

I think the OP was talking about cockroaches living in her/his house... so I think the majority of us are discussing domiciliary cockroaches (~25 species) that have specifically adapted to human life/dwellings. Indeed, removing humans from the equation won't lead to an extinction of all cockroaches, but it would make life for the domiciliary roaches quite uncomfortable, most likely leading to extinction of at least some of the ~25 species.

Putting aside concerns about bio-engineering cockroaches, can't we create a type of creature to fill that niche?

So a mockroach of sorts? (couldn't help it... I'll let myself out)