How can cockroaches live without a head

Cockroaches are also very fast. They can run up to three miles per hour—about as fast as a person can walk. Even a one-day-old baby cockroach can run nearly as fast as its parents! Unfortunately for us humans, this also means that they can spread germs and bacteria throughout our homes very quickly. This can make us very sick and trigger asthma symptoms. Thought this was fun? Featured kids. Insect Decline: An Overview for Kids. Are Shrimp and Cockroaches Related?

Write A Comment Cancel Reply. Submit Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel. Rather the spiracles pipe air directly to tissues through a set of tubes called tracheae. Cockroaches are also poikilothermic, or cold-blooded. Consequently, they do not expend energy to heat themselves up and so can get by on much less food than humans need.

They can survive for weeks after just one meal, Kunkel says. A couple lasted for several weeks in a jar. And it is not just the body that can survive decapitation; the lonely head can keep on functioning, too, waving its antennae back and forth for several hours until it runs out of steam, Kunkel says. If given nutrients and refrigerated, a roach head can last even longer. Strausfeld of the University of Arizona, who specializes in arthropod learning, memory and brain evolution.

For instance, although cockroaches have a fantastic memory, he says, trying to teach them is futile when they have bits of their body missing. Cockroach decapitation may seem macabre, but scientists have conducted many experiments with headless roach bodies and bodiless roach heads to answer serious questions.

Loss of the noggin deprives roach bodies of hormones from glands in their heads that control maturation, a finding that is helping researchers investigate metamorphosis and reproduction in insects. And studies of bodiless roach heads elucidate how insect neurons work. Ultimately, though, the results provide one more testament to the cockroach's enviable endurance.

A headless roach may not be the smartest of its kind, but it can certainly survive.