To: rjfull@berkeley.edu
hi.
i have a proposal for a very cheap but very interesting experiment. i could probably do it myself, but i don't really have the knowledge to seriously control it. and i know that roaches are attracted to each other.
i've got a few roaches hanging around somewhere outside my apartment; they appear to be under the foundation. they don't seem to want to move in, they just scatter in from time to time; i kill a handful of seemingly lost ones every year. they're the oriental ones.
the thing is that there's no food source in here. now, i know they can eat just about anything with a carbon molecule in it - which is impressive. but, even so, about the only option they seem to have as a *plentiful* food source is each other. so, i'm curious.
i understand that it's known that they eat each other. what i'm curious about is just how long a roach colony could survive in controlled conditions with absolutely no source of food but themselves. they'd need water. and the right temperature to breed. but, besides that, nothing.
i suspect that they could survive long enough to breed, but, then, who eats what? do the nymphs eat the old adults and carry on to the next generation, or do the adults eat the nymphs and kill the colony? if the nymphs eat the adults, it may be proposed that a cockroach colony is a fully self-sustaining entity. i can't articulate a way that this breaks any kind of energy conservation laws, as it's also known that they eat their own excretions.
this is cheap. you just need an aquarium, some roaches and some time. a good project for a grad student; or even a high school project, really. but, the results could be very important in understanding how to control them.
j