German cockroachWIKIMEDIA, UNITED STATES EPAGlucose is irresistible to most cockroaches and was a standard component of insecticide-laden baits. But these pesky home-invaders have outsmarted humans by evolving glucose-avoiding behavior. And, according to a study published online today (May 23) in Science, the underlying neural mechanism of this behavior is that the roaches find the taste of glucose bitter.
“We’ve known about this form of behavioral resistance for a long time, but there really hasn’t been an explanation as to exactly how this behavioral change occurred,” said Michael Rust, a professor of entomology at the University of California, Riverside, who was not involved in the study. “This is a nice elegant little study that shows there has been a remarkable change in how the bitter and sweet receptors are working in the mouthparts of the cockroach,” he said.
Insecticide-containing sugary baits were introduced in the mid-1980s as a means to eradicate cockroaches without the need for harmful insecticide sprays. But within a decade, problems arose, said Coby Schal, a professor of entomology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh and co-author of the new ...
