# How can we drive cockroaches to extinction?



## Hero of Freedom (Nov 23, 2014)

I'm just wondering what would we have to do to drive the cockroaches to extinction(eradicate them as a species)? Yes I am serious, I hate them and am sick of seeing them around my city or at my school. They are also frightening for me because they are a dangerous species as well as disgusting due to the fact they carry/spread diseases and viruses on them all the time, sometimes dangerous ones even. It would benefit hygiene a lot more if cockroaches were driven to extinction or near extinction.

They are one of the major possible causes of the spread of Flu in Sydney, Australia due to the fact that all of them carry pathogens on them. Which is why I run at the sight of one, especially a big one or kill them with someone else's chair/belonging if it's a long object. People laugh but I'm in no way getting sick from the pathogens they carry by allowing them to touch me.

What would we have to do and what are the best ways? Creating some sort of virus or a fungus that specifically targets cockroaches and spreads rapidly among their population killing them? Putting it in wastes before they go to the dump as well?

A recent invention that is able to kill or wipe out an entire infestation of cockroaches in your house is the Mortein Nest-bait/Nest-killer. As far as I know what it's called in my country. The bait is designed to have some kind of infectious poison or toxic poison which is designed to be carried back to nests by cockroaches and the infected cockroach along with its bait somehow infects and kills the entire colony and eggs at the home or room it's placed in. It's designed to break the breeding cycle.

Another way I can think of is if they could design tiny bots programmed to hunt down and kill cockroaches along with their nests. Which can be sent into tiny very small compressed areas to do the work that we can't. While we just sit back as they do all the work in the tiny spaces we can't reach. Make it that it can fly, since I heard that robotic insect replicas which can fly are possible.

Other way could be to introduce a species of lizard that feed mainly on cockroaches and get them to spread rapidly and replace them.

Many multiple factors can be combined together to kill the cockroaches off as quickly as possible.


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## cerenach (Mar 26, 2015)

I despise them as well (and have a phobic reaction to them) but I think they are one of those animals that has an important role in the ecosystem for which a direct replacement doesn't exist. Ecology isn't my strong suit though and I can't look up anything specific. :/


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## DeductiveReasoner (Feb 25, 2011)

Why kill off cockroaches when you could kill of mosquitoes?

Yeah they're a bit nasty and can survive radiation, but those fuckers don't bite my friends and ruin my outdoor parties.


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## Hurricane Matthew (Nov 9, 2012)

You should never wish for the extinction of an entire species, especially insects as they always play an important role in the food chains of an ecosystem, typically being at the bottom of the food chain. Even if a creature is a "pest" to us humans, it still had reasons to evolve the way they have and a niche within the environment they evolved in. A lot of larger species prey on insects and while they may annoy you, even cockroaches have their place in the environment. Wiping them out would mean a decline in population for any species that prey on them. Cockroaches also feed on dying/dead organic and plant material and release nitrogen through their feces which helps fertilize soil and for plants to grow. 

Using toxins in species that are at the bottom of the food chain is a HORRIBLE IDEA. These toxins can get into the system of any animal that eats the poisoned animal and cause a chain effect of poisoning up through the food chain. The fungus idea is even worse because fungi and viruses are organisms that can mutate and hop from the intended species to a species that wasn't intended to be affected.



> Other way could be to introduce a species of lizard that feed mainly on cockroaches and get them to spread rapidly and replace them.


NO. Introducing new animal species to an area where they do not naturally exist is always a terrible, terrible idea that always brings unseen consequences that do more harm to an environment than good. As an Australian, you should understand this very well as Australia has had more problems with introduced invasive species than many other places in the world.



DeductiveReasoner said:


> Why kill off cockroaches when you could kill of mosquitoes?


Mosquitoes are at the bottom of the food chain both when they are aquatic larva and when they are in adulthood. As such, they are an important food source for a variety of animals within their ecosystems.


Yes, yes... cockroaches and mosquitoes aren't as cute as pandas or lemurs but that doesn't mean we need to kill them off


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## Arcypher (Nov 6, 2014)

As stated above, the extinction of cockroaches = less detritus clean-up. That would indirectly affect many plants, affecting many other species as well. It would become an awful snowball effect that more or less means a good amount of species becoming endangered or even extinct.


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## DeductiveReasoner (Feb 25, 2011)

Matvey said:


> Yes, yes... cockroaches and mosquitoes aren't as cute as pandas or lemurs but that doesn't mean we need to kill them off


Dude...it was a joke. If anything, I was defending cockroaches.

Surviving radiation is cool as balls.

This entire thread was a tongue-in-cheek hypothetical scenario, which people can't seem to understand.


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## Diogenes (Jun 30, 2011)

Wow man, slow down there, the Tutsi have already suffered enough.


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## Mbaruh (Aug 22, 2013)

You will LOVE reading Terraformars.


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## Hero of Freedom (Nov 23, 2014)

DeductiveReasoner said:


> Why kill off cockroaches when you could kill of mosquitoes?
> 
> Yeah they're a bit nasty and can survive radiation, but those fuckers don't bite my friends and ruin my outdoor parties.


Carry diseases and pathogens that can make you very sick. Responsible for Flu Spread/Epidemics.


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## Hero of Freedom (Nov 23, 2014)

DeductiveReasoner said:


> Dude...it was a joke. If anything, I was defending cockroaches.
> 
> Surviving radiation is cool as balls.
> 
> This entire thread was a tongue-in-cheek hypothetical scenario, which people can't seem to understand.


Eh I actually really meant it when I wrote it. There are no known animals that feed on cockroaches in urban and suburban areas in where I live. As far as I know. Pigeons and birds like Mynas are the most common life form in urban areas. Cockroaches really do carry pathogens on them, it would help if we got rid of them atleast in urban areas mainly. There were some emotional statements because I saw a huge one today in a classroom which I killed by dropping the metal leg of a chair that the teacher often sat at on it. I just left it there. Normally I freak out when I see them because they carry lots of diseases/pathogens. Especially if they manage to get to your food or touch you.

So I would like it if they were eradicated as a species. Shouldn't be too difficult if you find a way to use multiple factors in a way that can beat their population growth rates.

Besides, maybe something else like other insect species would replace their role in the environment.


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## WickerDeer (Aug 1, 2012)

I haven't had a problem with cockroaches since before I was in kindergarten, when we moved to a less tropical region. But can't you just try to control them by making sure to store your food in heavy duty containers, dispose of trash in ways the cockroaches can't feed on it? 

I looked up the WHO document on cockroaches, and it says they also eat cardboard and book bindings (as well as soles of shoes...lol), but I think you could try to store things like this in a way so that it makes it harder for them to get to. 

It also says you can try to seal openings that they might get through (like drains and cracks). Also, "several essential oils such as mint, spearmint, and eucalyptus oil are known to repel cockroaches."

I think it could be pretty bad to drive cockroaches to extinction--they are pretty common and surely an important part of many ecosystems across the world.


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## Death Persuades (Feb 17, 2012)

You remind me of Hitler. All species are important. Deal with it.


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## EvilDrFrog (May 9, 2015)

Cockroaches are highly adaptable, and any attempt to drive every species and subspecies of cockroach to extinction is unlikely. But, if you think it is worth a shot, I suggest converting all the gaseous oxygen on the planet Earth to carbon dioxide. Cockroaches survive on O2 gas, so, if you quickly remove all the O2 gas, they may all die. This can be done by torching all the vegetation on the planet Earth, and maybe that can be done by mining all the uranium and plutonium and manufacturing as much hydrogen bombs as possible. Set as many fires as possible, burning all forests and valleys and all the oil and gas deposits, to simultaneously kill the plants and convert the oxygen to carbon dioxide. Then, drop the hydrogen bombs simultaneously everywhere plants exist on land (which is pretty much everywhere), to simultaneously burn the remainder of the plants and deprive sunlight from the plants (nuclear winter). As there will be very little gaseous oxygen left, the cockroaches may go extinct. If they don't, it would be because of sealed underground caves that have oxygen, but hopefully the oxygen will not last long. You may want to think about setting up a missile-launching port in space so you can nuke the Earth again anywhere plants show up again later. Another potential problem is that those little fuckers may mutate and survive by breathing water or carbon dioxide or something else, instead.


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## Bagheera (Oct 20, 2014)

This topic totally reminds me of a strange book I read: _Extinction Journals_ by Jeremy Robert Johnson.

Roaches are so gonna survive us ...


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## Gilfoyle (Jan 19, 2015)

Trust me, you don't want to drive any species to extinction, no matter how low a score they get on your "cute-meter". Biologists may predict and calculate what impact it will have and what one may do to initiate such a process, but the complexity of the global eco-system is beyond, and we're bound to miss something. I would recommend you educate yourself and get out of that bubble you live in where your own distaste for something justifies driving a species to extinction.


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## Hero of Freedom (Nov 23, 2014)

Caustic Banana said:


> Trust me, you don't want to drive any species to extinction, no matter how low a score they get on your "cute-meter". Biologists may predict and calculate what impact it will have and what one may do to initiate such a process, but the complexity of the global eco-system is beyond, and we're bound to miss something. I would recommend you educate yourself and get out of that bubble you live in where your own distaste for something justifies driving a species to extinction.


But roaches carry/spread many pathogens and diseases on them. Much like how mosquitoes carry malaria which was why they were trying to work out a way to drive mosquitoes to extinction in certain places.

What if one day the diseases and pathogens spread by roaches become more dangerous/deadly types?


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## Gilfoyle (Jan 19, 2015)

Dawn of the Light said:


> But roaches carry/spread many pathogens and diseases on them. Much like how mosquitoes carry malaria which was why they were trying to work out a way to drive mosquitoes to extinction in certain places.
> 
> What if one day the diseases and pathogens spread by roaches become more dangerous/deadly types?


Then one will deal with that. But driving any species to extinction is idiocy.


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## sockratees (Apr 7, 2015)

why would you want all of them destroyed when only a small percentage of them are pests? non-pest species can be quite beautiful


































also, have you seen the movie mimic?


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## EndsOfTheEarth (Mar 14, 2015)

You don't eradicate a species you eradicate your blind ignorance and sense of superiority instead. Cockroaches are part of the ecosystem. They are scavengers and recycle debris in the environment. Eradicate them and you'll have to deal with consequences of that which are likely far worse for health than the presence of them.


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## dragthewaters (Feb 9, 2013)

sockratees said:


> why would you want all of them destroyed when only a small percentage of them are pests? non-pest species can be quite beautiful


I...don't know how to feel about these cockroaches.

As for how to eradicate them, easy. Genetically engineer a bunch of cockroaches to have mutations in genes that make them very attractive to other cockroaches, but infertile. Release them into the population. Sit back and wait.


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