British scientists have recently set themselves the goal of determining the usefulness level of common cockroaches. And they came to the conclusion that without these insects, life on our planet will very soon disappear completely.
Of course, British scientists somewhat exaggerated the importance of the Prussians in our lives. But nevertheless, as it turned out, these insects really play an important role in the ecology of the planet.
In particular, they eat decomposing organic matter, giving "at the output" nutrients for other, no less useful organisms, and themselves serve as food for many animals and birds, and in some countries - for people. And those cockroaches that are capable of causing real harm to humans make up less than 1% of their total number.
As we mentioned above, cockroaches are sometimes called "Prusaks". This name is consonant with Prussia, from where, as the people inhabiting the territory of the Russian Empire believed, cockroaches came to visit us. But the inhabitants of Prussia (and Germany), on the contrary, call cockroaches "hares". Equally, in the Balkans they are called "babarus", that is, "Russian beetle".
In fact, both in Europe and in Russia, cockroaches appeared almost simultaneously, and such a massive appearance was associated with wars. The hostilities, the uncontrolled sanitation movement of many people and goods from one end of the continent to the other, led to the resettlement of these insects, whose homeland is in fact South Asia.
For a very long time Germans and Russians "kicked off" cockroaches, accusing each other of their resettlement in their homeland. But back in the 18th century, the Swedish naturalist and academician, the author of works on the classification of animals, Karl Linnaeus, came to the conclusion that at first cockroaches still bred in Germany, and only then, during the Russian-Prussian wars, they migrated to Russia and took root there, despite to a cold climate.
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Nobody likes them
In fact, cockroaches are very fond of warmth, and therefore prefer warm places: kitchens, baths, bathrooms, bakeries. It is impossible to call them parasites in the literal sense, since they mainly feed on crumbs from your table: the remains of bread, vegetables and other products. True, sometimes their diet includes paper, book covers and even shoes, for which, in fact, cockroaches cause such hostility.
Perhaps the only place where these insects are valued, loved and cherished are countries where cockroach races are popular.
True, not domestic Prusaks participate in sprint races, but large (up to 7-10 centimeters in length) Madagascar hissing cockroaches.
But this show, frankly, is not for everybody.
Domestic cockroaches, to put it mildly, do not please the owners, rather they cause a lot of trouble. And therefore, the struggle of man with cockroaches, which has been going on for more than the first century, is becoming more and more irreconcilable. Who will win - homo sapiens or insects?
Fight for a place in the sun
At first, people were clearly losing. After all, if cockroaches were in the house, it was extremely difficult to get them out. Dichlorvos, poisonous baits and traps did not always help and not immediately. You had to have patience. In addition, you can suffer from pesticides yourself, and there is nothing to say about pets.
In fact, the worst enemy of cockroaches (besides the home slipper) is the cold. Already at a temperature of 5 °, cockroaches begin to feel extremely lousy, at -5 ° they die in half an hour, and at -7 ° in a minute. But it's not so easy to freeze the whole house down to -7 °. In this case, you yourself can freeze.
Another way to get rid of annoying insects is to deprive them of water. Cockroaches can easily do without bread and other crumbs, but lack of drinking kills them very quickly. But try to remove all the water from the house! After all, one drop is enough for these creatures, even wet earth in a flower pot, to restore their strength and again rush into battle for a place in the sun.
Mysterious disappearance
And now, when humanity was already ready to surrender to the mercy of the victors, the cockroaches suddenly … disappeared.
A few years ago, residents of cities and large villages discovered that red insects, which cheekily walked through kitchens and bathrooms at night, or even in broad daylight, suddenly fell out of sight.
Whatever versions scientists have put forward about the disappearance of these annoying human companions.
It was assumed that in cockroaches, feeding on the remains from our table, where more and more genetically modified foods appear, these substances caused changes in their genetics, and they all died out safely (which awaits us in this case).
Someone thinks that European-style repairs using chemicals and non-environmentally friendly materials adversely affected the Prusaks, and the installation of plastic pipes practically eliminated water leakage (and we remember that cockroaches have no life without water).
Some for some reason blame high-frequency mobile communications for everything. And some suggest that the violation of the ozone layer knocked down the biological rhythms of cockroaches, and they went unconscious to somewhere, just to get away from people.
Insects and UFOs
Ufologists also did their bit: they suggested that the cockroaches were scouts of space aliens. And so, having collected enough information about the people, they finally went home.
True, they had been collecting this information for a very long time. But how do we know what the aliens are really interested in?
In any case, the population of red cockroaches has dropped sharply. And so thoroughly that some scientists even propose to put them in the Red Book, although who has this ever helped?
Or maybe this is such a subtle hint? Perhaps the cockroaches are trying to tell us that, living in dwellings in which even the Prussians cannot exist normally, a person will finally ruin himself and soon go after the cockroaches. Is there still a place for us in the Red Book?..
Konstantin Fyodorov, "Secrets of the XX century" magazine January 2017
