# Why roaches die in sight? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 7, 2005, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-roaches-die-in-sight/302818 "2005-05-07T14:57:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Thinktank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Thinktank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thinktank)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2005, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-roaches-die-in-sight/302818/1 "2005-05-07T14:57:57Z")
Hi, Being in the South, in the summer months-love is in the air, even for roaches. We have exterminated the place already and the stuff seems to work great from the turn-out we have on the floor- my question is, why does it seem like they are great survivors, but the minute they get sick/are dying. The gravitate to the high traffic areas or even to the center of the floor where they would be stepped on? I rarely find any in our cabinets, dead at least. I’m beginning to think they have some kind of strange feng shui ability to find the exact center of a room to die at- at this point they roll over on their backs and wait for the mighty roach reaper. I want them dead, but I hate the idea of stepping on them, so I kick them to the side of the somewhere out of the way and wait 'til nature has run it’s course, but upon being displaced (on their backs or not), they begin their journey to the center of the floor again :smack: … ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2005, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-roaches-die-in-sight/302818/2 "2005-05-07T16:05:26Z")
I’ve often wondered that myself; you’d think they’d drag themselves to some dark close place to die, like most animals. Or maybe they do and your walls are full of ex-roaches, while the ones in the middle of the floor (or countertop, as is often the case) are just the particularly extra-stricken ones? I have on occasion found little young dead ones under dressers and such when moving furniture, but you’d think considering we have the bug guy come a lot (we get serious roach action here in the Midlands, oh, I’m sorry, serious _palmetto bug_ action, snerk) that there’d be a little drift of dead ones under places like that, or in the cabinets, or when we tore down a bunch of walls and redid our kitchen last year. No “cockroach graveyard” like people have reported about pigeons, say. ---
**Author:** ![BookReader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@BookReader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BookReader)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2005, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-roaches-die-in-sight/302818/3 "2005-05-07T16:50:03Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > \ (we get serious roach action here in the Midlands, oh, I’m sorry, serious _palmetto bug_ action, snerk) that there’d be a little drift of dead ones under places like that, or in the cabinets, or when we tore down a bunch of walls and redid our kitchen last year. No “cockroach graveyard” like people have reported about pigeons, say. _G_ Everybody’s got euphemisms for the big ones … in Hawaii we call 'em “B-52s”. Far as the cockroach graveyard goes, around here at least the ants find them delicious … if you leave one lying about the ants are on it even before it’s completely dead, and within 36 hours there’s nothing left bit a few bits of wing and perhaps a leg or two. It’s observations like this that make me believe I don’t have enough to keep my mind busy here … ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2005, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-roaches-die-in-sight/302818/4 "2005-05-07T17:33:54Z")
They go to the middle of the room to die for the same reason that Jesus died up on the cross, where everybody could see. Otherwise, what would be the point? ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2005, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-roaches-die-in-sight/302818/5 "2005-05-07T17:43:01Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > They go to the middle of the room to die for the same reason that Jesus died up on the cross, where everybody could see. Otherwise, what would be the point? This does not bode well… ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2005, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-roaches-die-in-sight/302818/6 "2005-05-07T18:18:50Z")
Thank god I haven’t had to deal with the little bastards myself, but any chance that your question could rephrased as “Why do I only see the roaches that die in locations I can see?” IOW, perhaps the majority of the roach population is dying somewhere you can’t see 'em (in the walls, under the house, etc) and thus the only ones that you know about are the ones who keel over while crossing the floor in search of something yummy, or whatever it is roaches scurry about looking for. ---
**Author:** ![DustyButt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc348/32.png) [@DustyButt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DustyButt)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2005, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-roaches-die-in-sight/302818/7 "2005-05-07T20:50:32Z")
Maybe it’s hoping you’ll see it’s plight and nurse it back to health. If you listen closely you can hear it yelling… “HEY! I’M DYIN’ OVER HERE!.. HEY!.. YOU HEAR ME!?.. I’M TALKIN’ TOO YA!” ---
**Author:** ![Thinktank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Thinktank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thinktank)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2005, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-roaches-die-in-sight/302818/8 "2005-05-08T02:44:43Z")
Ok how about this then Valgard; “Why do the roaches I \*see \*always return to the place I kicked them from as they are dying?” …I never said that ALL the roaches die out in plain sight, but the majority I find seem to want the kind of attention **rotordog** mentioned, not even bringing-up the fact that they die on their backs, which requires them to know they are too sick to go on and flip themselves over. Is there a bug psychologist in the house? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2005, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-roaches-die-in-sight/302818/9 "2005-05-08T04:50:01Z")
> [@Thinktank](#): > > Ok how about this then Valgard; “Why do the roaches I \*see \*always return to the place I kicked them from as they are dying?” …I never said that ALL the roaches die out in plain sight, but the majority I find seem to want the kind of attention **rotordog** mentioned, not even bringing-up the fact that they die on their backs, which requires them to know they are too sick to go on and flip themselves over. Is there a bug psychologist in the house? 😛 Tradition? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2005, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-roaches-die-in-sight/302818/10 "2005-05-08T14:08:20Z")
They don’t “know they’re too sick to go on and flip over”, they just get too sick to reflip themselves once they flail themselves over in their death throes, I think. Do roaches eat their own dead? That would explain why you only see the “fresh” corpses in the middle of the room; the ones in hidden places are devoured. ---
**Author:** ![Antivenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f17d59/32.png) [@Antivenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antivenin)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2005, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-roaches-die-in-sight/302818/11 "2005-05-08T14:21:35Z")
> [@rotordog](#): > > Maybe it’s hoping you’ll see it’s plight and nurse it back to health. > > If you listen closely you can hear it yelling… > > “HEY! I’M DYIN’ OVER HERE!.. HEY!.. YOU HEAR ME!?.. I’M TALKIN’ TOO YA!” 😃 My feline descendants from the plains of Africa (Flip, Twink and GG) hear them loud and clear. They are the ones that leave the critters (conquered foes) in the middle of the room as trophies for me to find. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2005, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-roaches-die-in-sight/302818/12 "2005-05-08T14:35:08Z")
IIRC, many insecticides affect the insect’s nervous system, causing them to lose motor control. Due to their physical design, flailing around wildly causes many of them to wind up on their backs, unable to right themselves, because of said inability to control their movements. I’m going to WAG that flailing around wildly also tends to push them out into open areas as they bump into objects and carom off them. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2005, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-roaches-die-in-sight/302818/13 "2005-05-08T14:36:11Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > They go to the middle of the room to die for the same reason that Jesus died up on the cross, where everybody could see. Otherwise, what would be the point? My word that is funny …I almost choked. Hat’s off to you.