Nitrogen acquisition and assimilation is a primary concern of insects feeding on diets largely composed of plant material. Reclaiming nitrogen from waste products provides a rich reserve for this limited resource, provided that recycling mechanisms are in place. Cockroaches, unlike most terrestrial insects, excrete waste nitrogen within their fat bodies as uric acids, postulated to be a supplem...

Cockroaches have been regarded as possible vectors of human enteropathogens. Their presence and crawl particularly in food handling establishments could be risky for human health. Therefore, this study was done to determine the vector potential of cockroach for medically important bacterial pathogens in restaurants and cafeterias. A cross-sectional study was conducted on cockroaches from restau...

Electric fields are pervasively present in the environment and occur both as a result of man-made activities and through natural occurrence. We have analysed the behaviour of cockroaches to static electric fields and determined the physiological mechanisms that underlie their behavioural responses. The behaviour of animals in response to electric fields was tested using a Y-choice chamber with ...

BACKGROUND Cockroaches are found as the most common urban pests of tropical countries, prompting economic and serious health risk problem for humans by carrying microbes and allergens, acting as vector for various pathogens of diseases. The present study was conducted from April 2013 to March 2014 in various human dwelling localities of urban area of district Lahore, Pakistan. METHODS Cockroa...

Communication and learning from each other are part of the success of animal societies. Social insects invest considerable effort into signalling to their nestmates the locations of the most profitable resources in their environment. Growing evidence also indicates that insects glean such information through cues inadvertently provided by their conspecifics. Here, we investigate social informat...

Aggregation is widespread in invertebrate societies and can appear in response to environmental heterogeneities or by attraction between individuals. We performed experiments with cockroach, Blattella germanica, larvae in a homogeneous environment to investigate the influence of interactions between individuals on aggregations. Different densities were tested. A first phase led to radial disper...

Uric acid stored in the fat body of cockroaches is a nitrogen reservoir mobilized in times of scarcity. The discovery of urease in Blattabacterium cuenoti, the primary endosymbiont of cockroaches, suggests that the endosymbiont may participate in cockroach nitrogen economy. However, bacterial urease may only be one piece in the entire nitrogen recycling process from insect uric acid. Thus, in a...

Myers, Aaron J. M.S., Purdue University, May 2015. Identification, description, and activity of proteins in the tergal glands of the German cockroach, Blattella germanica (L.). Major Professors: Gary Bennett and Mike Scharf. German cockroaches are important urban pests that have been linked to asthma and serious allergic reactions in sensitized individuals. In this research project I, (i) ident...

BACKGROUND The efficacy of essential oil of Chenopodium ambrosioides flowering aerial parts and its three main active ingredients was evaluated against Blattella germanica male adults. METHODS Composition of essential oil was determined by GC-MS. Topical application bioassay was used to evaluate contact toxicity of essential oil and three main components. Fumigant toxicity of essential oil an...

Anyone growing up in a city, especially in tenements, has encountered cockroaches. From childhood I remember my mother clobbering them with a shoe or a newspaper. Looking back, I marvel at how mothers in slums managed to keep apartments free of them. Even in modem high rises, these inseets are indefatigable--often outwitting regulas extermination squads. However, what I encountered as a child w...