Pest & Termite Control Blog

Cockroach Farm Uses AI Technology To Manage Billions Of Cockroaches

Recently, in the country of China, a vast amount of cockroach farms have been established. Every one of these many cockroach farms produces millions of cockroaches regularly. However, no cockroach farm in China can match the productivity demonstrated by a particular farm located in the town of Xichang, in the southwestern Sichuan province. The area where the cockroach breeding grounds are located spans the length and width of two football fields. Each year, within this large area, twenty eight thousand cockroaches are produced for every square foot of space. The farm produces approximately six billion cockroaches annually. At no point in history have so many cockroaches reproduced within such a confined area. The sheer scope of the cockroach farming operation has led to many scientific and technological advancements that have been praised by the Chinese Government. In response to these advancements, the government presented the owners with the prestigious National Science Award.

You may wonder why a nation would raise so many cockroaches within industrial farms, especially when there already exists plenty of cockroaches active within the wild, and not to mention within people’s homes. It should not be surprising that physicians in China practice a different approach toward medicine. The Country has a rich history of herbal or “natural” medical treatments, and this is where cockroaches fit in. Many citizens of China use cockroach-based products to alleviate certain health conditions, particularly skin conditions. Cockroaches are also used for making a “healing potion” that is popular among the people of China. Each cockroach raised in the enormous Xichang farm will eventually be used for making only medical remedies.

The most amazing aspect of the farm in Xichang is the fact that the farm’s operations are managed by a computer system that uses Artificial Intelligence. Before researchers developed the particular AI system used in the farm, nobody thought that a cockroach farm could pull off the high degree of manufacturing productivity that has been demonstrated in the Xichang farm. This seemingly impossible level of productivity was made possible by the AI system’s ability to regulate all aspects of climate as well as monitoring genetic mutations occurring within cockroach families.

Do you think that cockroaches are the most abundant insects on earth?

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The Cockroaches That Can Jump Long Distances

Cockroaches are already frightening and repellent creatures, so they certainly do not need any new features that make them any more horrific than they already are. However, there are around four thousand cockroach species in the world, and some species are very different from others. Most people are only familiar with American or German cockroaches since they are commonly found within people’s homes. However, there is one cockroach species that is able to jump at distances that equal fifty times their own body length. The idea of a jumping cockroach is enough to give some people nightmares, but luckily you won’t be finding this cockroach species under your sink.

Back in 2011 researchers discovered a new roach species that is now commonly referred to as a leaproach. This cockroach is rarely found scuttling across the ground like other cockroach species; instead the leaproach prefers to hop continuously. This cockroach has adapted to its environment by growing powerful hind legs with spring-loaded knees. This cockroach must jump in order to see where it is going within areas that contain tall sedge grass. Other cockroaches that share the same environment with leaproaches have not adapted the ability to jump. According to zoologist Mike Picker of the University of Cape Town, leaproaches possess unique bodies that “evolved around a leaping form of locomotion”. In fact, the leaproach is the only roach species that does not scuttle about on the ground.

The leaproaches’ body is similar to a grasshopper’s body, but the leaproach can jump more than twice as far as grasshoppers and locusts. According to experts, the leaproach could have evolved a jump-capable body that resembles a flea’s body, but the leaproach evolved alongside grasshoppers. This is why a leaproaches’ body is similar to a grasshopper’s body. The leaproaches’ jumping abilities could only be mechanically understood by watching slow-motion footage of this insect’s jumps. After several views, researchers developed an understanding concerning the bodily mechanics involved with their jumping.

Have you ever been startled by a grasshopper that jumped onto your body unexpectedly?

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The Student Who Willingly Shares A Room With Tens-Of-Thousands Of Cockroaches

Although cockroaches are undoubtedly disgusting insects, some people love disgusting things, so naturally some people would love cockroaches, right? This seems to be the thinking behind pet cockroaches, and cockroach farms. Believe it or not, some people have always been attracted to the idea of raising their very own cockroaches, and more and more people are giving it a try. Recently the Bronx Zoo in New York City sold-off a large portion of their live madagascar hissing cockroach collection to consumers looking to buy gifts. The cockroaches were being marketed as ideal valentines day gifts, and surprisingly, they sold like hot cakes. Cockroaches are becoming so popular as pets that some enterprising individuals are profiting on this new trend by raising and selling them. For those people who are not disturbed by creepy crawlies, and are a bit late on rent, turning your home into a cockroach farm is a great way to make ends meet. A young university student from Dearborn, Michigan named Kyle Kandilian set up a roach farm within his parents home several months ago. Now Kandilian has up to two hundred thousand cockroaches with him in his bedroom.

Kandilian has pretty cool parents, as his mother allows the cockroach population within her home to persist just as long as her son always remembers to keep his door shut. Kandilian, who is only twenty years old, raises cockroaches in order to sell them to people as pets or as feed for pet snakes. Kandilian has raised up to one hundred and thirty different cockroach varieties, and the profits he is making are helping him pay for his education in environmental science. The cost for a single roach depends on the species chosen. For example, some roach species, such as Macropanesthia rhinoceros, can live for up to fifteen years. Due to their long lives, these rhino-roaches can cost between one hundred and fifty and two hundred dollars each, which is more expensive than most other roach species that are available in Kandilian’s room. Kandilian’s interest in insects and entomology has prompted several universities into offering him a scholarship.

If you were Kandilian would you be afraid of cockroaches entering a bodily orifice (mouth, ear) while sleeping?

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