Vegetable oil - poison for insects?

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Бурундук, 19.07.2017 21:11

Hello.

I found that cockroaches (red cockroach) and flies (houseflies) stop showing signs of life when they get into a container of oil.

If a drop of refined sunflower deodorized oil is applied to the cockroach's abdomen, it causes convulsions and immobilization.

There is an assumption that the oil does not allow air to enter the breathing apparatus. But if a cockroach is plentifully watered with oil, it will be immobilized in less than a minute, and Google says that it can live without breathing for up to 7 minutes.

Question: maybe there are experts here who can answer exactly how the oil acts on the cockroach under the conditions described above?

This post was edited by Chipmunk - 07/19/2017 21: 29

Comments

20.07.2017 16:35, Bear

Hello.

I found that cockroaches (red cockroach) and flies (houseflies) stop showing signs of life when they get into a container of oil.

If a drop of refined sunflower deodorized oil is applied to the cockroach's abdomen, it causes convulsions and immobilization.

There is an assumption that the oil does not allow air to enter the breathing apparatus. But if a cockroach is plentifully watered with oil, it will be immobilized in less than a minute, and Google says that it can live without breathing for up to 7 minutes.

Real science!

Chipmunk, have you ever tried smearing a cockroach with oil fragmentary (only the right paws, for example)?

I offer you an experiment:
you need to take a saucer, put a piece of paper there. Put a drop of oil on the leaf. Wait until it is absorbed into the leaf. Put a cockroach in there and cover it with a glass, for example. Observe whether the cockroach will avoid the oil stain.

Report your observations here.