A Cockroach's Worst Enemy

I'll put a Trigger Warning for insects eating insects

This has been a topic that really interests me for quite a bit, and I hope people who are similarly interested in such topics concerning inevitable forces of nature and crude animal behaviours read this :)
Note: this is a heavily shortened, paraphrased version of the process, but just to get the gist of it you can read it


We all know that cockroaches are like, really scary and weird and can survive nuclear blasts, but if there's one thing that a cockroach is scared of, it's the emerald cockroach wasp, or simply and prettily, the jewel wasp.

This wasp gets its name from its strange way of procreation; laying its eggs inside of a cockroach's body. To get to this point though, it must first sting the cockroach to immobilize it; the first sting is precisely targeted towards the roach's thoraxic ganglion, to paralyze it.

This is temporary, and only to let the wasp have better aim in its second sting. After its second sting is delivered, the cockroach's escape reflex nulls. Before the venom fully kicks in though, the cockroach starts grooming itself extensively, while the wasp finds a burrow to lead the cockroach into.

During this time the cockroach isn't dead yet, but rather it is like a zombie cockroach, where the roach itself can receive impulses and feel things but cannot act against anything.

When the wasp comes back, being very small compared to the cockroach, drags the roach into the burrow by pulling on the roach's antenna, and after putting the roach in the burrow, lays its eggs between the cockroach's legs. After it has done this, it leaves and seals off the burrow.

The eggs take ~3 days to hatch, and another 3-4 days for the larvae to consume the cockroach. After a time period of about a week, where the larvae have eaten the cockroach fully, organs and all, they begin to encase themselves in a cocoon.


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Bezztduxko_1810

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i fully believe they dezerved it , very interezting


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thank yeww, and tbh, yes they do bc wdym cockroaches r attracted to the smell of cockroach carcass SO U LITERALLY CANNOT KILL THEM???

by blossomfluffz_; ; Report