Roach Encroach

00:00:19
Dr. Kaylee Byers: Wow, that was our best take.

00:00:22
Sarah Lando: So, Kaylee, would you say you’re a good roommate?

00:00:25
Dr. Kaylee Byers: I’d say I’d rate myself probably different than the people who’ve lived with me would rate me, but I’d say I’m above average. I’m an above average roommate.

00:00:34
Sarah Lando: What’s your worst roommate quality?

00:00:36
Dr. Kaylee Byers: What would be my worst roommate quality? I am bad about just putting stuff on the kitchen table and leaving it there.

00:00:42
Sarah Lando: Oh, my God. I’m the same. I’m a hundred percent the same.

00:00:44
Dr. Kaylee Byers: Even though the kitchen table is not a place for mail or other things to live.

00:00:48
Sarah Lando: I don’t like clutter at all, but I create the clutter and I feel like the table is just asking for mail.

00:00:56
Dr. Kaylee Byers: It becomes Kaylee’s storage spot, not ideal.

00:00:59
Sarah Lando: That is also my, I would say, roommate bad quality. And honestly, I feel like if those are our worst, we’re doing pretty well in life.

00:01:06
Dr. Kaylee Byers: Well, again, that’s what I would rate my worst, but there’s probably others.

00:01:09
Sarah Lando: Yeah, same, same, same, same. Well, I want to tell you about someone or something that is maybe not the most ideal roommate, cockroaches. Even though we may not like them, we are actually the reason that they are thriving.

00:01:25
Dr. Kaylee Byers: Well, okay, why? Why is that? What is it that we do that makes them have a good time in our presence?

00:01:30
Sarah Lando: Okay. Well, I’m going to give you some background info on the roaches. Did you know that there are over 4,000 species of cockroaches?

00:01:37
Dr. Kaylee Byers: I did not.

00:01:38
Sarah Lando: I know. I didn’t either. So most species live outside, but there is one in particular that likes to shack up with us, and that is the German cockroach.

00:01:49
German Cockroach: (German) .

00:01:50
Sarah Lando: Their lives are entirely indoors.

00:01:53
German Cockroach: (German) .

00:01:53
Sarah Lando: They like inside. They’re indoor people, maybe more introverted, who knows?

00:01:59
German Cockroach: (German) .

00:01:59
Sarah Lando: And they originally came from Germany and they spread through humans.

00:02:04
Dr. Kaylee Byers: So they’re moving with us, we help them spread. And then, so there aren’t any natural populations outdoors. Where did they come from?

00:02:12
Sarah Lando: So where they came from is something that we just recently found out. In a genomic study, researchers dug into the genomics of this German cockroach and for the first time we have answers as to how this cockroach came to be. We found that it derived from the Asian cockroach roughly 2,000 years ago.

00:02:32
Dr. Kaylee Byers: Oh. That seems pretty fast, actually.

00:02:33
Sarah Lando: Really fast. And it was rapid evolution into its own species that is entirely dependent on the human environment. So in a way, the unnatural environments are its natural environment.

00:02:46
Dr. Kaylee Byers: Oh, sounds like my fave fave, the rat.

00:02:48
Speaker 5: And who could forget dear Rat Boy?

00:02:50
Speaker 6: Rat Boy? I resent that.

00:02:53
Sarah Lando: So the study shows that they are a monster of our own creation, the roommate we never wanted, but essentially created.

00:03:00
Dr. Kaylee Byers: Okay, that’s really interesting. So we’ve essentially, through our development of modern civilization developed this environment that is really good for these animals to survive in and they’ve sort of probably a co- evolution thing, adapted alongside us. I know cockroaches can give us the ick. How exactly or are they harmful?

00:03:23
Sarah Lando: Yeah. So in a few ways. One is that they spread diseases. So they don’t necessarily bite us. That would be a disaster nightmare. But they spread bacteria through scratching you with their legs. They can also contaminate our food and they can trigger asthma and allergies. More people are allergic to cockroaches than cats. Just a lot of people aren’t exposed to cockroaches, so they don’t even know that they’re allergic in the first place. And then the other thing is they are evolving resistance to nearly all pesticides really quickly. Large populations living in close quarters speeds up evolution and resistance.

00:03:59
Dr. Kaylee Byers: Right. So we have a large population of cockroaches. We go in, we use an insecticide. And even if a few of those happen to survive, maybe they’ve got some genetics that make them a little bit more resistant. Those are the ones that reproduce and then pass that on, which is how we could have that happen. So when we have these cockroach infestations, who tends to be most affected?

00:04:19
Sarah Lando: There’s a lot of social factors that determine who is most affected by the cockroaches. So the cockroaches are hardest to control in, unsurprisingly, high density population areas. So often think of low income housing with higher density, limited resources for management, like lack of proper waste management, more crowded spaces, et cetera. So it’s unfortunate, but it is a lot of high density, low income housing populations.

00:04:46
Dr. Kaylee Byers: Yeah, and this feels like tale as old as time. It’s very similar for rats. Rats are everywhere, but they tend to have the biggest impact in low income areas where not only you have issues like housing that make it easier for rats to get inside, but you have less investment maybe in sanitation or other ways for folks to be able to manage those animals themselves. So how do we manage this? How do we manage the German cockroach?

00:05:09
Sarah Lando: So it’s tricky, but luckily genomics can help. With studies like the one that we mentioned, we can start to learn more about the genomes of these cockroaches and why they’re so robust. It can help us develop more effective insecticides.

And you know, cockroaches aren’t all bad, despite the risks. There are some potential benefits such as they’re decomposers, good for the soil, they trap nitrogen from the atmosphere. They’re a food source, not for us, but for other animals. And it’s still something that we very much need to mitigate. And with new genomic research, we can work to get ahead of their resistance to pesticides and have a more, I would say, copacetic roommate situation.

00:05:50
Dr. Kaylee Byers: Yeah, we learn to live with them. I think about this with rats all the time. It’s not get rid of them, it’s how do we reduce the negative impacts of them the best we can? And you said they’re not a food source for us, but maybe. We definitely need to transition our animal agriculture in some way. Maybe munching down on the cockroach is a one way to do that.

00:06:07
Sarah Lando: That’s a really good point. First crickets and then cockroaches. Maybe not today, but maybe in the future with some really good flavouring.

00:06:14
Dr. Kaylee Byers: Yeah, we were definitely going to need to invest.

00:06:16
Sarah Lando: I’m still not ready.

00:06:16
Dr. Kaylee Byers: No, I’m not ready either. Well, in the present day, I want to thank you, Sarah for coming on the show. This was great.

00:06:23
Sarah Lando: Oh, you’re so welcome. It’s been so fun.

00:06:26
Dr. Kaylee Byers: Well, that’s a wrap, folks. Thanks for tuning in to another round of Gene Shorts. We hope these bite- sized genomic gems have left you squirming with curiosity. And if your brain’s still hungry for more science, we’ve got four seasons of nice genes to help you scratch that itch. Ta- ta for now.

00:06:44
German Cockroach: (German).