Remember that icky feeling you get when you see a cockroach? Odds are that you will have to bear with it more often than you expected as cockroaches are now developing cross resistance to multiple types of pesticides
Cockroaches have become harder to kill and could soon be “almost impossible” to control using pesticides alone, according to a study funded by the United States housing department.
Researchers from Purdue University in Indiana spent six months trying to eradicate German cockroaches (Blattella germanica L.), one of the most common species of household cockroach in the US, Australia and Europe, from three low-rise apartment buildings in Illinois and Indiana.
Subsequent laboratory tests showed that cockroaches were able to develop a “cross resistance” to multiple types of pesticide, meaning that those which survived the spraying would go on to survive other eradication attempts even if a different class of pesticide was used.
Over time, as more and more cockroaches become resistant to pesticides, we can expect these pests to become a very difficult problem to control. Read more about this horrific news over at The Guardian.
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Pesticides are one of the most expensive and least effective ways of controlling insects, while being more dangerous to humans than the insects are. Poisons are the method of choice for insect control by the feeble-minded who believe that rapidly killing is a solution for a species that can multiply 1000-fold within weeks.
The most effective control method is cleaning and removal of all water and easily digested organic material that isn't in sealed containers. Without those things, an insect colony will move or die within 2-3 life-cycles of the insect. They will vanish almost as fast as modern collegians without food, water and caffeine..
Pesticides are one of the most expensive and least effective ways of controlling insects, while being more dangerous to humans than the insects are.
If you must accelerate the process, there are safe inexpensive alternatives to poisons.
Boric acid crystal powder will kill cockroaches, ants and many other insects in a manner that they can't become immune to without growing 10 larger. For smaller insects and arachnids, diatomaceous earth does the same thing.Neither of these materials is poisonous to humans or mammals.