Can a cockroach live up to a week without its head?

Answer 1

Survival of a Headless CockroachA cockroach could live a relatively long time without its head, some sources citing a week, others as long as a month. In the cockroach, the nervous system and organs are not centralized. They eventually die of dehydration or starvation. Depending on the species, the survival period can be a lot more or a lot less.

*There are two effects to a surviving headless cockroach. One is that the body may move short distances and spread disease by contamination. The second is that the egg sac of a female cockroach would not immediately die, and could reach maturation.

One Prominent Species

The Death's Head cockroach can live for one week without its head. This species of cockroach has six brains throughout its body, therefore, it can still fully function after its head is removed. However, without a mouth, it can not gain the food and water it needs for a long and healthy life, and will eventually dehydrate and starve to death.

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How A Human Uses Its Head

(1) A human breathes through the mouth or nose and the breathing rhythm is controlled in the brain. Cutting off the head would interfere with breathing (although that could be maintained with a respirator).

(2) Cutting off the head would lead to blood loss and a drop in blood pressure, which would result in death due to lack of oxygen and nutrition to the body tissues.

(3) Cutting off the head would prevent eating and cause death by starvation or dehydration.

The above reasons do not apply to cockroaches and many insects in general.

Differences in the Cockroach

(1) Cockroaches breath through spiracles which are in each body segment and the blood does not have to carry oxygen to the tissues. The spiracles deliver air to each cell of the body through a set of tubes called tracheae. The brain does not control the breathing through the spiracles.

(2) The cockroach does not have blood pressure the way a mammal does and so cutting off the head does not lead to uncontrolled bleeding.

(3) The cockroach is a poikilotherm or cold-blooded animal. They need much less food and a one-day meal would be enough to last them a whole month as long as they were not extremely active. Without a head the cockroach would just sit around without doing very much.

With a low metabolism and cool temperature, the cockroach could last about a month without a need for its head, as long as they did not get infected with a mold, bacterium or virus, which could kill them prematurely.
A cockroache can live up to 10 days without its head. In fact it doesn't die of suffication but of dehydration.

a cockroach can live up to a week without it's head because it's brain is in its body.

Answer 2

Yes they can. I saw my wife accidentally step on a cockroach one morning in our garage on her way to work and she was wearing a pair of high heels. As she walked over him her small heel landed on his head and he stuck to her heel for a couple of steps before falling off. His squashed head must have stuck to her heel and the body separated from the head and as I walked over him I kicked his body out of the way over next to some boxes and he lay there on his back, headless wiggling his legs frantically trying to turn over. When I returned from work that evening I remembered the roach and looked for him on my way into the house. I was surprised to see him still laying on his back, legs still moving but without the energy I seen seen him earlier. I watched him for five or six days and he continued to move his legs but grew weaker. I finally mentioned it to my wife because I had become fascinated with what I had been watching. I wondered if was feeling pain or hungry, etc and mentioned this to my wife. Her response was "who cares, he is just a bug" and said she could care less if he had laid there suffering. The next morning as we were leaving for work, once again my wife in heels, when she spotted the cockroach, she stopped to examine him and found it humorous how his legs were still moving after that many days. Once she was finished looking at him she casually reached the pointed toe of her shoe out squashing him and then did a single twist and drug her shoe back smearing broken shell, legs, and white goo on the garage floor. As she walked off she told me sarcastically I wouldn't need to worry about him anymore.

Answer 3

Because after that they starve to death.

Cockroaches (and insects in general) don't really have a brain in the way that mammals do; they have "sub-brains" ... concentrations of ganglia ... distributed about their bodies. These are sufficient to keep the cockroach alive, though without the sense organs on their heads to locate food and the mouth to eat with, they will eventually die.

Answer 4

Some can. The nervous system can operate and the cockroach breathes through its abdomen. Without a head, however, it will eventually starve to death.

Answer 5

lol wat?

Answer 6

1 week

Answer 7

9 days.