Mutant Cockroaches Learn to Avoid Sugar to Outsmart Traps
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Roaches that have been hard to exterminate may be a variety that have decided sugar doesn’t taste quite so sweet as bait anymore, researchers found.
Most cockroach baits cover poison in a layer of glucose, a sugar. Some mutant German roaches, the most common species of pest found in houses, apartments, restaurants and hotels, now taste glucose as bitter, researchers said in a study released in the journal Science. This change in palate enables them to avoid traps.