New Study Shows Northern New Jersey Cockroaches Share Food Info
While they don’t have much of a gourmet reputation, cockroaches apparently check their own version of the ZAGAT guide before deciding where to dine! Researchers at the University of London in the United Kingdom found that cockroaches not only share food information with each other, they seem to enjoy the social aspects of dining together.
Previously, scientists believed that cockroaches foraged for food individually. However, as any northern New Jersey homeowner who has lived through a cockroach invasion will tell you, cockroaches often feed en masse, gathering in kitchens at night to swarm food stuffs. If you spy one roach scurrying for cover when you snap on the light, you can be assured scores of his brethren are lurking out of sight.
In testing cockroach behavior, London scientists found that cockroaches definitely communicated about the quality of different food sources. When offered a choice of foods, the entire group attacked the food item they considered the better choice, feeding until it was completely gone before sampling the other food options. Cockroaches also seemed to enjoy the social aspects of communal dining. The more roaches present on a piece of food, the longer each cockroach stayed to feed.
While scientists are still studying these phenomena, they believe cockroaches may communicate food choices via a foraging pheromone, possibly a chemical in their saliva or a hydrocarbon on their exoskeletons. Northern New Jersey pest control professionals use insect behavior to develop effective methods of keeping insects out of your northern New Jersey home.