# Ugh! Do cockroaches have ANY positive, useful purposes at all? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 11, 2021, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugh-do-cockroaches-have-any-positive-useful-purposes-at-all/955905 "2021-12-11T23:08:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugh-do-cockroaches-have-any-positive-useful-purposes-at-all/955905/42 "2021-12-13T20:30:02Z")
A reminder if we get too uppity the cockroaches will call in their close cousins, evolved along a more predatory theme–mantises. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugh-do-cockroaches-have-any-positive-useful-purposes-at-all/955905/43 "2021-12-13T20:36:04Z")
The person who found out must have been a brave one. Or perhaps she hated chicken. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugh-do-cockroaches-have-any-positive-useful-purposes-at-all/955905/44 "2021-12-13T21:03:21Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > In general the field strength an organism can tolerate is strongly inversely correlated to volume, for obvious reasons. > Cockroaches being so much smaller than us can tolerate much stronger fields, but they are beaten by many slimmer bugs. Insects in general are much more resistant to radiation than mammals, but what are the “obvious reasons”? Remember, if you fry a cockroach with, say, 100 Gy, it will have absorbed less energy in total than a human because it is smaller, but the energy per unit mass is the same. But the human is 100% a goner whereas the roach will probably be OK. We have to consider the roach’s anatomy and biology to explain it, but it’s not merely because it’s small. I don’t know the exact answer. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugh-do-cockroaches-have-any-positive-useful-purposes-at-all/955905/45 "2021-12-13T21:04:34Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > The person who found out must have been a brave one. Or a drunk one. Requisite photo of bug kebabs from the now defunct Beijing Night Market, where many drunken dares were fulfilled: [[Album] imgur.com ![](https://i.imgur.com/h6IwXnY.jpeg?fb "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/a/TLaP93L) ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugh-do-cockroaches-have-any-positive-useful-purposes-at-all/955905/46 "2021-12-13T21:23:49Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > AIUI, the resistance to radiation thing is a bit of a myth. The Wikipedia page on cockroaches (linked somewhere up-thread, IIRC) explains why cockroaches will survive a nuclear holocaust. Briefly: Only those that are molting at the time will be killed. Others may suffer longer-term damage but many will survive. > [@](#): > > The cockroach’s ability to withstand radiation has been explained through the cell cycle. Cells are most vulnerable to the effects of radiation while they are dividing. A cockroach’s cells divide only once each molting cycle (which is weekly, for the juvenile German cockroach[[65]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockroach#cite_note-JGKunk-65)). Since not all cockroaches would be molting at the same time, many would be unaffected by an acute burst of radiation, although lingering and more acute radiation would still be harmful.[[59]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockroach#cite_note-Umass-59) ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugh-do-cockroaches-have-any-positive-useful-purposes-at-all/955905/47 "2021-12-13T23:25:25Z")
> [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#): > > > [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > > > The person who found out must have been a brave one. > > Or a drunk one. Or a hungry one. And quite a lot of groups of people eat insects; sometimes as a delicacy. We’re mostly WEIRD in not doing so. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2021, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugh-do-cockroaches-have-any-positive-useful-purposes-at-all/955905/48 "2021-12-14T00:58:38Z")
I think it is a question of alternatives. Or drunk betting. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2021, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugh-do-cockroaches-have-any-positive-useful-purposes-at-all/955905/49 "2021-12-14T01:11:18Z")
Florida has its own special version of the cockroach: the palmetto bug. These things are my biggest phobia; not only are they very big but they are incredibly resilient. I’ve had ones come at me - Terminator 2 style - after I was sure I’d squashed ‘em with a shoe. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2021, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugh-do-cockroaches-have-any-positive-useful-purposes-at-all/955905/50 "2021-12-14T05:28:43Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > > [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#): > > > > > [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > > > > > The person who found out [that cockroaches taste like chicken?] must have been a brave one. > > > > Or a drunk one. > > Or a hungry one. I’ve often suspected the same about truffles. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2021, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugh-do-cockroaches-have-any-positive-useful-purposes-at-all/955905/51 "2021-12-14T09:35:37Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > Insects in general are much more resistant to radiation than mammals, but what are the “obvious reasons”? Remember, if you fry a cockroach with, say, 100 Gy, it will have absorbed less energy in total than a human because it is smaller, but the energy per unit mass is the same. Yeah, you’re right. I was aware about insects’ higher resistance, and how many smaller insects than cockroaches are more resistant, and how water bears are better still, and “common sensed” the reason. So I should be clear that that part was just a WAG. I can WAG why the WAG might be true though: (Disclaimer: There are bound to be apostrophe errors here, it’s a surprisingly awkward paragraph to write.) If the chance of a given mutation producing a cancerous cell is the same between one of my cells’ and a cockroach’s (and why wouldn’t it be, we’re not so different at that level?), and a thousand times more of my cells were mutated by a radiation field than the roach’s because I have a thousand times the volume (I’m just trying to keep the numbers simple), then I will have a thousand times higher likelihood of developing cancer. Sometimes the absolute number matters. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugh-do-cockroaches-have-any-positive-useful-purposes-at-all/955905/52 "2021-12-16T01:18:23Z")
So, do you also cook food for yourself (or for anybody else) in that microwave oven? (See the OP) ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugh-do-cockroaches-have-any-positive-useful-purposes-at-all/955905/53 "2021-12-16T14:52:56Z")
> [@Beelzebubbly](#): > > … killing them in the microwave. Ah, that gorgeous popping sound … For sale: used microwave, needs cleaning, moderate crust on the walls. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugh-do-cockroaches-have-any-positive-useful-purposes-at-all/955905/54 "2021-12-16T23:49:07Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > . . . and how water bears are better still . . . Water bears (tardigrades) are utterly indestructable. I don’t think they are even a carbon-based life form. They are an unobtanium-based life form. ---
**Author:** ![Bubbp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b38774/32.png) [@Bubbp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bubbp)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2021, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugh-do-cockroaches-have-any-positive-useful-purposes-at-all/955905/55 "2021-12-17T14:02:07Z")
I always assumed that a cockroaches role is to ensure that at least _something_ is considered worse than being a pollitician. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2021, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugh-do-cockroaches-have-any-positive-useful-purposes-at-all/955905/56 "2021-12-28T04:07:37Z")
Then the cockroaches had better up their game. (Though I certainly hope they don’t really.) ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2021, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugh-do-cockroaches-have-any-positive-useful-purposes-at-all/955905/57 "2021-12-28T06:49:38Z")
> **[Scientists Think Cockroach Milk Could Be The Next Superfood, And We Wish We...](https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-think-we-should-start-drinking-cockroach-milk-superfood)** > > An international team of scientists sequenced a protein crystal located in the midgut of cockroaches in 2016. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2021, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugh-do-cockroaches-have-any-positive-useful-purposes-at-all/955905/58 "2021-12-28T06:57:21Z")
So cockroaches are mammals now! When cockroach milk is commercially produced for the starving masses and readily available in the Dairy (?) section of your supermarket, I wonder what the product will be called? ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2021, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugh-do-cockroaches-have-any-positive-useful-purposes-at-all/955905/59 "2021-12-28T19:11:09Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > When cockroach milk is commercially produced for the starving masses and readily available in the Dairy (?) section of your supermarket, I wonder what the product will be called? . C-Milc of course! Produced from cockroaches that have been exclusively fed on the bodies of other cockroaches for that double-cockroached goodness! ---
**Author:** ![Beelzebubbly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Beelzebubbly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beelzebubbly)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2021, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugh-do-cockroaches-have-any-positive-useful-purposes-at-all/955905/60 "2021-12-29T23:29:36Z")
I just had an image of a giant cockroach with huge tits. I’ll go cry myself to sleep now. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2021, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugh-do-cockroaches-have-any-positive-useful-purposes-at-all/955905/61 "2021-12-29T23:35:29Z")
The **German cockroach** ( _Blattella germanica_ ) is a introduced pest. If someone wiped it out in the American continents, that would be a Good Thing. But there are many native cockroaches that fill an important nice in the environment. They also do not tend to infest homes, although indeed the giant flying ones can give someone bit of a start. We had those in San Jose, and when they got inside the cats would eat them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugh-do-cockroaches-have-any-positive-useful-purposes-at-all/955905.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ugh-do-cockroaches-have-any-positive-useful-purposes-at-all/955905.md?page=4)