Researchers at Cambridge University, England's 800-year-old bastion of dignified academia, have developed a substance that makes cockroaches slip and fall down.
Insects secret a sticky fluid that allows them to walk on almost anything. Three zoology researchers at Cambridge have developed a formula that soaks up the water in that secretion, leaving only an oil behind. They say it could represent a breakthrough in pest control, by preventing bugs from crawling into homes.
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“It can be entertaining,” Jan-Henning Dirks told The Observer in a phone interview Monday. “We had fun watching them in the lab. It is a little like slapstick.”
This video shows a cockroach easily walking up a little pole coated with Teflon. Then the roach tries to climb up a pole treated with the new substance, and the results might remind one of gym-class rope-climbing trauma.
Dirks developed the substance with Christofer Clemente and Walter Federle. He told me they are exploring commercial applications. The substance does not yet have a name.
OK. How's that going to help me when a cockroach flies in from the chimney? Does this incectislide have to be sprayed on all surfaces or just lamp poles. lol I, long ago, ceased to be amused by these vile critters. Tell me something good. BJ
My suggestion for a name is Insectislide lol!
ReplyDeleteDoes this also have an insecticide formula that kills the roach when it come in contact with the skippery substance?
ReplyDeleteInsectislide, ha ha, that's very good!
ReplyDeleteOK. How's that going to help me when a cockroach flies in from the chimney? Does this incectislide have to be sprayed on all surfaces or just lamp poles. lol I, long ago, ceased to be amused by these vile critters. Tell me something good.
ReplyDeleteBJ