Cockroaches are becoming immune to insecticides - have a great day

Cockroaches have apparently begun to develop a cross-resistance to powerful insecticides.

Scientists from Purdue exposed German cockroaches to different insecticides, and found that the cockroach populations not only developed a resistance to the insecticide they were exposed to, but also picked up resistances to other insecticides.

The super-immune insects can then pass their resistance on to their offspring, making it only a matter of time before a given population becomes, essentially, insecticide-proof.

"This is a previously unrealized challenge in cockroaches," says Michael Scharf of Purdue University, who led the study. "Cockroaches developing resistance to multiple classes of insecticides at once will make controlling these pests almost impossible with chemicals alone."

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