Da Ultimate Survivor

Today's trivia will be on the world's best survivor. An evolutionary champion.

Da amazing.

Da gross.

Da one whose charms attracts everything from worn-out slippers to rolled up newspapers.

Gather ur slippers and newspapers pple as we 'welcome' today's guest.

......

Da Cockroach!


What's so special about da gross creepy crawlie cockroach? Well, we already know that it has really amazing survivor skills that could actually allow it to survive extreme temperatures and nuclear warfare.

BUT

Did you know that it's so gd at surviving that even if you chop off its head in frustration, it can still live?

A cockroach could live for a long time, perhaps a month without its head.

You might ask how's that possible? Nobody should be able to survive without a head! Right?

Well, the only reason we need our head for basic survival is:

(1) We breath through our mouth or nose and the breathing rhythm is controlled in our brain. Cutting off our head would interfere with breathing although that could be maintained with a respirator.

(2) Cutting off our head could lead to blood loss and a drop in blood pressure which would result in death due to lack of blood transport of oxygen and nutrition to our tissues.

(3) Cutting off our head would prevent us from eating and we would die of starvation pretty quickly.

All of these reasons for dying are not present in cockroaches and many insects in general:

(1) Cockroaches breath through spiracles which are in each body segment and the blood does not carry oxygen to the tissues. The spiracles deliver air to each cell of the body through a set of tubes called tracheae. The brain does not control the breathing through the spiracles.

(2) The cockroach does not have blood pressure the way a mammal does and so cutting off the head does not lead to uncontrolled bleeding.

(3) The cockroach is a poikilotherm or cold blooded animal. They need much less food and a one day meal would be enough to last them a whole month as long as they were not extremely active. Without a head the cockroach would just sit around without doing anything much.

All this along with a cool temperature could allow the cockroach to last about a month without need for their head, as long as they did not get infected with a mold, bacterium or virus, which could kill them prematurely.

[ref]

OMG. So they wun even die after we cut off their heads?!

Then HOW CAN WE KILL THOSE PESKY LITTLE CREEPY CRAWLIES?

Tough luck folks. These things have been around since the age of the dinos. Smack all you want, spray all you can, there will still be more of those around. However, if you really wanna try, here's a lethal suggestion from Straight Dope!