Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hi brain Stuff. I'm Lauren vogel Bomb, and this this is a classic episode from our archives. I like insects as a general rule, but I have to admit that even I've had my moments where I've wished that particularly annoying ones like mosquitoes or cockroaches would just quietly vanish from this planet. But what would really happen if there were suddenly no cockroaches? Hi brain Stuff, Lauren vogel Bomb. Here, what if there
were no cockroaches? The question sounds like it's straight out of the marketing materials from Paradise. Cockroaches spread bacteria like salmonella, they leave droppings behind everywhere they walk, and they can exacerbate allergies and asthma. All our good reasons to squash them all, but not so fast. Only a few species of roaches out of an estimated five to ten thousand,
are commonly found infesting homes. Most cockroaches live in warm, tropical climates, happily minding their own business and staying out of humans business. Some are even beautiful, no really, and glow in the dark. But if you are still determined to play this game out, then would better take a look at what would happen if they all disappeared. Long
story short, it's not good. In tropical forests. Cockroaches feed on decaying wood and leaves, and all those droppings they leave behind, well, they're filled with organic debris and nutrients, including nitrogen, which are added back into the soil. Nitrogen is essential to the growth of trees, which are essential to forests and our own lives, since we use wood products to shelter both ourselves and the animals that we
do actually like. Oh and speaking of those animals that we like, especially small mammals, birds and reptiles, they feed on cockroaches, And since other animals feed on these small mammals and reptiles, disrupting even this one small skittering link in the food chain could have a widespread effect on
the world around us. So the next time you're attempted to smash a cockroach before it runs under your fridge, consider that it may be helping to refuel a local forest when it isn't hanging around your house or I mean, go ahead, but don't wish death on the whole lot of them worldwide. Don't worry though, they are in no risk of going extinct anytime soon. Cockroaches have been around since before the dinosaurs. Cockroach fossils show that they've been
around for at least three hundred million years. That's some serious staying power. They really are some of the hardiest creatures around, capable of withstanding radiation and huge doses far more than a human could handle, and going without food for up to a month. So if you do squash one scurrying across your floor, you're in no danger of
having doomed these resourceful bugs to extinction. Today's episode was originally produced by Tristan McNeil and it's based on the article what if there were no cockroaches on how stuffworks dot Com written by Karen Kirkpatrick. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio and partnership with how stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Plang. Four more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.