pkern@utcs.UUCP (08/11/86)
From The Globe and Mail's Letters to the editor: (Toronto, Wedneday, July 30/86) "Low-tech solutions to roach problem" The article Roaches Hit Florida; War With Humans Far From Over (July 7) described how the new breeds of cockroaches are resistant to insecticides and other time-honored approaches to controlling them. There were reports several years ago in boating magazines that sailors were having success controlling them by merely leaving out an open container of diet soft drink. The roaches apparently love it and drink this to the exclusion of all other forms of food. They simply starve themselves to death. Another approach is that of mixing icing sugar with plaster of paris which, when ingested by the roach, mixes with the digestive juices to produce a petrified roach. Mixing baking powder with sugar causes a build-up of internal gases which the roach does not have the ability to expel. It literally explodes. Reputedly, rats also lack this capability to burp. I have no idea whether these low-tech solutions are effective, but you must give boaters recognition for ingenuity. Paul Hibbert, Nepean, Ont. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Does this mean that through evolution/adaptation rats and roaches will be able to burp and fart?