Roaches have a reputation for being difficult to kill. Although they cannot necessarily withstand a nuclear blast, cockroaches can endure many months of starvation and several common pest control treatments without dying. You can even cut off the head of a roach and it will continue to run around alive for up to a week before dehydration kills it.

This resiliency of cockroaches has made it necessary for pest control professionals to use targeted treatments in order to successfully eliminate them when they infest homes. But scientists have recently discovered what they believe is an evolutionary survival mechanism among German cockroaches. This is one of the more prevalent roach species involved in infestations at homes in Gainesville and this new finding could mean that roaches are getting even more difficult to get rid of.

Roaches May Not Like Sweet Foods as Much

German cockroaches have historically been attracted to sugary substances as one of their favorite food sources. Scientists believe the roaches are seeking out glucose in these instances, which is a sweet tasting substance that also provides plenty of energy and caloric content for roaches.

This is far from the only food that roaches will eat. Part of their resiliency is that roaches can feed on almost anything they find in your home, including non sweet foods like:

• Trash
• Paper
• Books
• Clothing
• Other items with natural content

Yet sugary foods have been a favorite with roaches and therefore a reliable source of bait. Many commercial cockroach traps include glucose as the substance used to draw in roaches and entice them to eat the poison. DIY solutions often recommend mixing sugar with boric acid as a means of tricking roaches cockroaches into eating a toxic substance.

The new challenge that scientists have discovered is that some roaches are avoiding eating foods with glucose and instead they are seeking out foods that are bitter tasting. Scientists have previously noted that cockroaches reliably avoided bitter foods.

As a result, scientists have hypothesized that these roaches’ sense of taste has evolved to avoid the tastes associated with baits. This could be a significant challenge for homeowners trying to get rid of roaches in the future. While this finding only affects a small portion of German cockroaches at the moment, this could be an adaptation that will spread throughout populations, rendering previously proven methods of road control no longer sufficient.

The most reliable way of getting rid of cockroaches in your home has always been to trust the process to a professional team. Here in Gainesville, the pest professionals at ExtermPRO have in depth knowledge of all the different types of cockroaches that infest homes, where they live, what they eat, and how to kill them as quickly as possible, enabling us to devise a functional and fast acting treatment plan for a roach infestation.

We also make sure that our treatment options are updated accordingly, staying up to date with the latest science. This means that we always have solutions against roaches that will save you time, money, and stress in dealing with cockroaches. Call our team to get more information on our cockroach extermination services and our solutions for ongoing cockroach control.