Cockroaches Can Live For Weeks Without Their Heads

For their tenacity, cockroaches are well known and are often cited as the most likely survivors of catastrophes. In a bid to understand why cockroaches and many other insects can survive decapitation for some time, it also helps to understand why humans cannot. First off, decapitation in humans results in blood loss and a drop in blood pressure which hampers transport of oxygen and nutrition to vital tissues. The result is that you'll bleed to death.

Humans breathe through their mouth or nose and only the brain controls that critical function, so breathing would stop. Moreover, the human body cannot eat without the head, ensuring a swift death from starvation should it survive the other ill effects of head loss. Cockroaches do not have blood pressure the way humans do. They do not have a huge network of blood vessels like those of humans, or tiny capillaries that you need a lot of pressure to flow blood through. They have an open circulatory system, which there's much less pressure in.

When a cockroach's head is cut off, very often their necks would seal off just by clotting. There's no uncontrolled bleeding.

The strong hardy vermin breathe through spiracles- these are little holes in each body segment, and the cockroach brain does not control this breathing and blood does not carry oxygen throughout their body. Rather, the spiracles pipe air directly to tissues through a set of tubes called tracheae.

Cockroaches are also cold-blooded or poikilotherms, meaning they do not eat as much as humans do. An insect can survive for weeks on a meal they had in just one day. "As long as some predator doesn't eat them, they'll just stay quiet and sit around, unless they get infected by mold or bacteria or a virus. Then they're dead.

Entomologist claimed to have actually decapitated American cockroaches (Periplaneta americana) very carefully under microscopes, They sealed the wound with dental wax, to prevent them from drying out. A couple lasted for several weeks in a jar.

Insects have clumps of ganglia, nerve tissue agglomerations—distributed within each body segment capable of performing the basic nervous functions responsible for reflexes, so without the brain, the body of a cockroach can still function in terms of very simple reactions. They could stand, react to touch and move.

And it is not just the body that can survive decapitation; the lonely head can thrive, too, waving its antennae back and forth for several hours until it runs out of steam. If given nutrients and refrigerated, a roach head can last even longer.

Now that you know the survival strength of our kitchen and soak-away tank partner, maybe it's time to love it even more. For what it lacks in size, it makes up for in longevity.