MythBusters Showdown: Flour beetles vs Cockroaches

The myth that cockroaches will be able to outlive all organisms on Earth seem to have originated with the development of the atom bomb. Cockroaches were reported to have survived the blasts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki which lead to the popular theory that cockroaches will come to inherit the Earth in the event that all humans are eradicated after a nuclear warfare.

Cockroaches are certainly more resistant to radiation than humans and nearly all non-insect animals. Roaches have a simple genome with fewer genes that might develop mutation due to radiation. Their cells also divide much slower than human cells (only each time it molts) which allows them more time to fix genetic defects. As a result, cockroaches can withstand radiation levels up to 15 times the lethal dose to humans.

But are cockroaches the toughest, baddest creatures out there? Or might the underrated and often overlooked flour beetles challenge them for post-Apocalyptic dominance?

The team at MythBusters aimed to test who will be the ultimate survivors in a radiation showdown between cockroaches, flour beetles, and fruit flies. So who finally took the crown for King of the (post-human) World??

You guessed it…Flour Beetles!

30 days after exposure to 10,000 rad, cockroaches had a 30% survival rate while flour beetles showed a 94% survival rate. Even more incredible, at 100,000 rad, 10% of flour beetles still lived while all the cockroaches died. That’s 100,000 times the lethal dose of radiation to humans!

Here is the video:

 

References:

Schweid, R. 1999. The Cockroach Papers: A Compendium of History and Lore. Basic Books, Inc.

Bracker, M. 1962. Atomic War Held Threat to Nature. New York Times, pp. 46.

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