Confessions of an Undisguised Drama Queen

Friday, August 05, 2005

Questioning Nature

Have you, like me, ever wondered why some species even exist in our world?

The pests like rats, moths and flies?

We all know that every organism has a role to play in the ecosystem, to keep nature in balance, but even these pests?

Even them.

I had a Plant Ecology lecture today and I learnt something new: rats, moths and flies are actually essential in ensuring the propagation of plant life - they help to pollinate certain species of flora. So that's why God made them.

But wait.

What about cockroaches?

The filthy, disgusting, immortal (in our Singaporean context: lao bu si) creature that haunts the living daylights of men and women alike?? The culprit behind many asthmatic cases (betcha didn't know that), tranmission of disease-causing pathogens, and just simply causing panic attacks when they invade our territory, worse when on wings.

I am clueless.

The cockroach is probably the longest surviving organism on our planet with an amazing adaptability that enables it to live through harsh environmental conditions. Even the ones that apparently wiped out the entire dinosaur population.

(Up till now, the only usefulness of the cockcroach I can possibly think of is the actual account of whether dinosaurs really existed; of course which will only be possible the day we invent some ultrasonic device that is able to communicate with these brown things. Crap.)

From the way I see it, we'd better watch these creatures closely because for all we know, they may be the ones to take over and colonise the planet in the decades to come. Some female cockroaches mate once and are pregnant for the rest of their lives. How efficient.

Even the terrorists will have no fight against them. These roaches can withstand up to 20,000 times more radiation than humans can. So using a nuclear bomb would be futile.

If it were up to me, we should all come together and launch a Cockroach Control S.W.A.T team as soon as possible.

[Time of Confession] 2:08 PM
6 Wisecracks for Me

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6 Comments:

Anonymous said...: J: ooo... learnt more new stuff about the roaches... but seems like they're evolving in a direction that makes them more useless to ecology. and goodness, if there's really a reptile that feeds on cockroaches, can i keep one?; 12:33 PM
Nardev said...: hey i have a theory.
Roaches haf been around for 300 mil yrs as far as fossil records indicate.
As u said, there are no known natural predators for it (except themselves.. those cannibalistic pests!). So their purpose of existence? Well since they scavenge, secrete the most smelliest chemicals in response to fear, i prefer to tink all comtemporary organisms with it haf co-evolved together. The dinos and whatever weird looking creatures before it would definitely be as irritated as u and me, seeing roaches gnaw off the remains of their dear relatives who died due to disease and stuff or also when they secrete their smelly stuff. And i'm sure you are aware that roaches in the prehistoric times were the sizes of small cats!!!!
Hence these guys would haf to think of how to keep these guys off and destroy them, evolving to use their mental faculty with more rigor, and on the opposite roaches evolved to become smaller and more resistant and hard to kill (just as they are today!)
Fast forward to today... we arguably the most evolved of races still face the same prob. And we are still evolving ways to keep these guys out. For example if there are no roaches, u guys will be pretty much happy knowing ur average baygon aerosol pretty much keeps ur life pest free. And thats the end of it.. no more need to think of how to get rid of pests and slack time ensues negating the need to work ur neurons and getting rid of insects. Roaches are known to develop resistance to insecticides relatively quickly, thanx to their 300myr of evolutionary advantage. So there u go, sorry for the long winded crap, but overall, this implies that roaches are actually making u smarter albeit at a very micro co-evolutionary level. So the next time u grab that shoe to stamp a roach, u mite wanna thank it for ur A grades first. A FYP project in the making?? well just rem to pay me the royalties for IP and i'm fine hehe; 2:59 PM
Anonymous said...: J: FWAH. see i knew i had brainy friends =P; 7:32 PM
Anonymous said...: Nardev was here too?? This is stunning. How can there be such a long discussion into cockroach terminology!! Their evolution versus mankind's intelligence? Imagine the day when we get overrun by these creatures...; 4:12 AM
Madcap J said...: anonymous, you are...?
see, i know exactly what topic touches the hearts of the people. haha; 12:18 AM
Anonymous said...: Oh, almost forgot to check back on my comment here. I stay in a top corner of Hall 9 too. Similar to the position of your room, but in Blk 48. Just surfing ard, and your blog is real hilarious, and dramatic. =); 1:51 AM