How Do Cockroaches Survive Without Oxygen?
WouterCockroaches don’t have a head or a mouth and can go for days without eating. They breathe through tiny holes called spiracles, which are located on each segment of their body. These spiracles are not controlled by the brain and pipe air directly to their bodies through tubes called tracheae. As a result, a cockroach can survive for months without eating or drinking.
Cockroaches don’t have a head, so they don’t have any blood pressure. This means if they lose their heads, there is no blood loss. Instead, their head will leave a mark on the cloth. Cockroaches also don’t need food to live, so you can cut their head off and they’ll stay alive for a month or more without food.
Cockroaches have a flexible and leathery exoskeleton, which allows them to run at high speeds, even when they’re completely devoid of oxygen. Researchers have also studied how cockroaches survive even when they’re smashed with more than 900 times their body weight. Cockroaches are mostly outdoors, crawling on fallen leaves and building colonies in tree hollows. They also sometimes find habitats inside buildings.
Cockroaches can survive without air for up to 40 minutes and thirty minutes under water. While some scientists believe that cockroaches hold their breaths to prevent water loss, this isn’t proven. Researchers are still trying to discover why cockroaches use the same tubes to breathe that carry water vapor.
