8MOE: S1_E1: Cockroaches

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Welcome everyone to another episode of 8 minutes of Eww! The place where we use curiosity and science to turn fear into fascination and those "Ewwws" into" Ooohs". Oh, by the way, I'm Ms. Mallory, the Curious Conservationist and self-proclaimed grossologist. Let's get started.

Today we are going to talk about an insect that can hold its breath for 40 minutes, run at speeds around three miles an hour, survive up to 10 times the amount of radiation that a human can, and have been around as long as the dinosaurs. any guesses? It's cockroaches! Now I know it's easy to hate on these creepy crawlers.

They skidder and scurry, they're disgusting, disturbing and seemingly indestructible. And if you're thinking this episode might be too gross, just hang on, I only need 8 minutes. So there are well over 4,500 different species of cockroaches and they are found all over the world except Antartica. Good news is only about 1% of all the species are considered pests to humans.

The bad news: there are the ones that like to lurk in our homes and restaurants. Thankfully, the other 99% live peacefully outdoors munching on decaying leaf litter and benefitting humans, instead of annoying them. Did you know that if we were cockroaches, we could survive by only eating about once every month? And drinking just a few drops of water every 2 weeks.

I can barely go a few hours without getting hungry. And sure Some cockroaches are really gross, but the facts, even though gross are also really cool. For instance, how you ever heard the phrase, "don't go losing your head" when someone is trying to encourage you to keep your cool? Of course, they don't mean that you're literally going to lose your head;

that's not something we as humans have evolved to do. But a cockroach on the other hand can survive an entire week without a head, since they don't need a mouth to breathe. Like other insects, cockroaches don't have lungs. Instead they breathe through a network of tubes called tracheae. They pull in air through these holes called spericals that are located on their sides. In some species, like the Madagascar hissing cockroach, the creature can control the amount of air passing through the spiracles and produce a loud hissing sound to deter predators or attract a mate. Loudest hisser gets the girl. And get this, the way they breathe

isn't their only oddity. Their bff is a special bacteria that gets passed down from mama roach to baby roach. But I bet you won't be hearing a song about these guys. These beneficial bacteria live within special cells of the cockroach. In exchange for living a life of relative comfort inside the roach's fatty tissue, the bacterial bff manufactures all the good stuff

the roach needs to live. Speaking of mother roaches. There is a very special mother roach in Hawaii, known as the Pacific Beetle cockroach. While most insects lay eggs, this mama incubates her eggs inside her body and gives live birth. Even more amazing is a fact that this cockroach provides her wee ones with a nutritious milk- like substance much like mammal mothers do.

Scientists that are studying this roach milk, found out that is surprisingly similar to the cow milk that you put in your cereal. The milk created by the insect packs quite the protein punch and possesses three times the calories of buffalo milk, which is much higher than cow milk, and it's jam packed with tons of essential nutrients to grow big and strong.

The best part, it won't spoil or require refrigeration. Move over, Ms. Cow, hello, Ms. Cockroach. So even if you were convinced to have some cockroach milk with your cereal, would you be willing to have cockroaches for lunch? Many people in tropical locations enjoy eating insects by either deep frying them or roasting them on a stick . Cockroach kabobs, anyone?

While you may gag at the thought, many countries indulge in these nutrient- rich, 6-legged power snacks. Sure, it may sound gross, but rest assured knowing that they are considered to be rather healthy when prepared properly. Still not convinced bugs will be on your menu anytime soon? Well, chances are they already have been .The chance that you have already eaten a cockroach- or at least parts of them- in your lifetime are pretty high.

Not on purpose, of course. Studies suggest that the delicious chocolate bar, cheese, peanut butter, popcorn, or other snacks we all know and love may have traced portions of an insect inside them. Gross right? Or is it delicious? I just think of it like extra protein. The agency that regulates our food known as the FDA, or Food and Drug Administration, allows heads, legs, and other fragments of insects to be processed with our foods.

Maggot parts can be found in canned tomato and fruit products, mites in mushrooms, and insect heads in fig paste. You get the point. If you have ever eaten anything out of a package, You probably have consumed a bug in some way. If that freaks you out, then you may want to skip the chips and go for a piece of fruit

next time you wanna snack. Now if eating roaches may not be your thing, maybe getting rescued by a roachbot may be easier to swallow. One Harvard study looked at the cockroach's climbing capabilities and was inspired to build better search- and- rescue robots. By watching the roaches use their flexible exoskeleton and spiny legs to climb up walls, engineers hope to create search and rescue robots that can squeeze into tight locations and scurry across mounds of rubble much faster than a human rescue team could.

We're also learning a thing or two about balance from these daring, drain acrobats. Another group of scientists found that cockroaches balance themselves without using their brains, as if their legs had a mind of their own. As science learns more, we could make robots that don't walk so... well, robotically or tip over

if they get unbalanced. Or better yet, we could make prosthetics- or fake body parts- that could think on their own and work almost as if it was a person's real body part. Well, my aspiring grossologists, my 8 minutes are almost up. Did you learn something new about cockroaches? I hope you did. And although some are truly gross and pester humans, most are not

and help humans a lot. Not only are we learning from them, but they help us breakdown all of our waste and put nutrients back into the soil. They are also a really important part of the food web, providing nutritious meals for animals like lizards, birds, humans. Just kidding, I'll let you decide on that one.

Thanks again for joining me. And don't forget to subscribe and set those notifications. So you don't miss the next 8 minutes of Eww. Until next time, this is Ms. Mallory inviting you to step outside and adventure. Bye everyone.