Hi ,
I can't imagine that there are too many people who like
cockroaches. But if you read this to the end, you might actually feel a little sorry for one! Remember, this is a bug-eat-bug world that we live in! It's part of nature groaning due to the curse!
There is a little green wasp that lives mainly in Africa and Asia called a jewel wasp. The female wasp has one major goal in life ~ to find a
cockroach! The wasp is usually much smaller than the roach, but the wasp knows exactly what to do when she finds one. She has to be careful, because the roach can actually kill her if she is not wary. But, she waits for the opportune time, and then suddenly stings the front portion of the cockroach. She makes a quick getaway and waits nearby. The sting does not harm the cockroach at all, but merely immobilizes its legs temporarily. Some researchers claim that this sting only immobilizes the
front legs. Anyway, the wasp needs this to happen for what she does next.
Once she is satisfied that the cockroach is adequately immobilized, she will approach it and very quickly climb underneath its head/thorax area and administer a sting from her abdomen directly into the cockroach's brain! Again, this does not kill the cockroach, or
even harm it at all! It merely alters the cockroach's escape senses. In other words, if this cockroach was sitting in a dark room, and you entered and turned on the light, it would not know to flee!
An amazing thing now happens. The first sting wears off so that the cockroach can walk again quite capably. However, the second sting has
altered its brain, so that it does not know it's in any kind of danger, so it won't try to escape. The wasp will then go to the front of the cockroach and pull it (above photo). The wasp is way too small to pull such a large animal, but the cockroach willingly follows the wasp! Its brain has been altered so it does this willingly!
The
wasp basically just leads the cockroach to a hole it has dug in the ground. The cockroach simply follows the wasp right in! Once they are in the hole the wasp will lay a solitary egg on the soft underside of the cockroach's abdomen. She will then cover the hole with bits and pieces of wood and dirt, and then leave. Several days later, a baby wasp will hatch from the egg, and start eating the cockroach from the inside! Once it has reached maturity, it breaks out of the shell of the cockroach, and
climbs out of the hole, starting the whole process again!
I suppose this is one way of controlling the cockroach population - a natural way! One displaying incredible design and instinct!
