Not Even Cockroaches Would Survive Nuclear War: 'Urban Myth'

Experts have weighed in on the possible survival of cockroaches in the event of a nuclear war so disastrous that it killed off the rest of Earth's species.

This comes as a previously assumed to be extinct species of cockroach has been found, marking another example of the longevity and survivability of the hardy creatures.

The wingless wood-eating cockroach specimen was found on Lord Howe Island in Australia, last having been seen more than 80 years ago. They were thought to have become extinct due to the introduction of rats to the island.

There are about 4,600 species of cockroaches on Earth, many of which are known as pests in domestic and agricultural settings. Cockroaches have often been considered to be one of the sturdiest species of animal on Earth, with many films depicting them as one of the sole survivors of the apocalypse.

According to experts, this may only be partly true.

"All my reading of this seems to show that [cockroaches surviving a nuclear war] is an urban myth, with a bit of truth to it," Paul Eggleton, an entomology researcher at London's Natural History Museum, told Newsweek.

"Cockroaches are less affected by radioactivity than mammals but then so are most insects. Insects have slow cell cycles, and cells are prone to radiation damage when they are dividing. As insect cells divide less frequently than mammalian cells, they are less likely to be affected by a sudden blast of radiation as they are less likely to be caught dividing," Eggleton said.

"As for food, there would be a lot of dead vertebrates about, and cockroaches will feed on anything. They are robust and voracious. So, they may do well, but it's not because they are specially able to deal with radiation. If all the vertebrates died out, leaving just the insects, then the world would go on, biologically, much the same"

Therefore, a lot of insects may well survive a nuclear event, not just cockroaches.

"In general insects are somewhere in the middle in terms of sensitivity to ionizing radiation," Timothy Mousseau, an ecology expert from the University of South Carolina, told Newsweek.

"I suspect that the organisms that are shielded from the brunt of the radiation and reproduce quickly will do best in the face of such a cataclysmic event. As such, cockroaches and other organisms that are underground or protected in the same way will do best. Also it is likely that some places will be much less affected than others. Deep underground or at the bottom of oceans will be much less affected than terrestrial habitats."

So, whilst cockroaches may not be that special amongst insects in terms of their ability to survive a nuclear armageddon, they and their fellow insects may well outlast many other species on Earth in the face of human actions, including the one species that has managed to come back from the brink of extinction on Lord Howe Island.

"[The] recent report of re-discovering a highly endangered cockroach on Lord Howe Island reminds us that not all cockroaches are the same, and I think when people refer to cockroaches and apocalyptic circumstances they are mostly thinking about the common German or American cockroach," Mark Elgar, an ecology and evolution professor at the University of Melbourne, told Newsweek.

"There are, in fact, a very large number of species of cockroaches, many of which are quite beautiful, and their persistence in the wake of human activities is very variable."