(May 24, 2013 at 1:48 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote: Cockroaches evolving to out smart traps.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22611143
Quote:A strain of cockroaches in Europe has evolved to outsmart the sugar traps used to eradicate them.
American scientists found that the mutant cockroaches had a "reorganised" sense of taste, making them perceive the glucose used to coat poisoned bait not as sweet but rather as bitter.
A North Carolina State University team tested the theory by giving cockroaches a choice of jam or peanut butter.
They then analysed the insects' taste receptors, similar to our taste buds.
Researchers from the same team first noticed 20 years ago that some pest controllers were failing to eradicate cockroaches from properties, because the insects were simply refusing to eat the bait.
Minor point of clarification, cockroaches don't "evolve to outsmart traps" the only cockroaches fucking are the ones who didn't die in a trap -for whatever reason-.
They didn't "refuse" to eat the bait, they simply weren't attracted to the bait - not anything to do with the fact that it was bait- and so they survived while those that were attracted to the bait (again having no fucking clue that it was bait) died off.
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