Why do cockroaches die on their backs?

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
1

In this thread, Cecil gives three possible explanations.

The first and last are entirely plausible, but the second is either completely specious or so highly complicated that my tiny brain is unable to comprehend it. To wit:

(2) Roach desiccates, i.e., dries out, after the manner of Gloria Vanderbilt. This is what happens when you use Cecil’s Guaranteed Roach Assassination Technique, described elsewhere in this archive. The roach saunters carelessly through the lethal borax crystals, causing him to lose precious bodily fluids and eventually die. Since this process is gradual, it may happen that the roach simply conks out and dies on its belly.

Does this explain why roaches die on their backs? Or is Cecil just plugging his assassination technique?

And I’ve googled Gloria Vanderbilt, but I still don’t get the dessication bit. Did she get very wrinkly? Eh?

2

What concerned me was Cecil’s talk of releasing precious bodily fluids. I do not want to think about roaches getting all hot and bothered.

I think he was just detailing the reasons a roach would die out in the open.

3

Cecil was outlining the methods that roaches die and his guess as to how that leaves their bodies. He was including the example of roaches dying on their bellies to contrast with the methods where they die on their backs - falling or thrashing. His referent to his previous column was to provide a means by which said cockroaches would dry out, namely they have scratches or holes in their exoskeleton from the borax, which he described in that previous column.

4

I don’t know about The Sims 2 but in the original game, when a Simmie dies (usually by fire) they lie on their backs with their legs drawn up and their arms crossed at the chest. I think the designers had a perverse sense of humor.

5

I always figured that the way their legs cross over their bellies causes them to tip over onto their backs when they die

6

Why do cockroaches always die on their backs? First of all, they don’t always… However, most common insecticides basically cause the insects to die of a siezure, whereupon, they end up on their backs. I have seen literally thousands of dead roaches that still looked alive… on their legs in mid run. Methyl bromide, which is a poison gas (colorless, odorless, tasteless…dangerous stuff) does not cause siezures. They just die.

As far as how boric acid works, it is not a dessicant. Silica gel is. Boric acid is a stomach poison. Just how it works as a poison has never been explained to me and possibly, may not be quite clear. I’m sure the market for cockroach autopsies is pretty sparse. Boric acid is a fine powder and when the insects walk through it, it collects on the fine hairs on it’s legs, body and antennae. The insects are constantly cleaning these hairs and antennae, since these are how they sense things. Thus, they ingest the borax. Kinda like cats ingesting hair when they clean themselves. It’s just that the bugs can’t cough up a “borax” ball and go about their business, like cats and their hairballs. So…they die.

Just wait for the explanation of how Cholinesterase Inhibitors work.
B. Hazelwood
8 year veteran professional pest control technician

7

Cecil did not say that borax is a desiccant, although I admit the wording in that column is not as clearly stated as in another column. The column you need to read is this one.

Borax does not draw water out of the cockroach, only creates holes in the exoskeleton that allow the water to evaporate.

8

I think it’s because if they die on their belly’s their soul will be trapped forever and will wander the earth like “Caine in Kung Fu”