Terrifying New Study Warns Cockroaches Are Becoming Immune To Insecticides

Cockroaches are already capable of surviving a nuclear explosion, and a new study says that they are evolving to be even harder to kill. A group of scientists from Purdue University found that the most common species of roaches are being born with immunity to various insecticides, including ones they have never been exposed to.

The scientists tested three classes of insecticides, which kill the bugs in different ways. Over a six-month period, they found that within one or two generations, the roaches developed an immunity to the chemicals and they were unable to shrink their population. They were shocked at how quickly the pests were able to evolve.

"We would see resistance increase four- or six-fold in just one generation," study co-author Michael Scharf said. "We didn't have a clue that something like that could happen this fast."

Scharf warns that it might become impossible to curb cockroach populations, and we will need to find new ways to deal with infestations.

"Cockroaches developing resistance to multiple classes of insecticides at once will make controlling these pests almost impossible with chemicals alone," Scharf said.

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